The Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology is pleased to present a Seminar Series talk by current UWaterloo graduate student Nathaniel Smith and McMaster University teaching Professor Matthew Jordan.
This seminar is being delivered via WebEx. If you do not already have the WebEx app or browser installed, you will be prompted to do so to join the meeting.
To pre-register and receive a calendar invitation
If you would like a calendar invitation to this workshop, please email win-office@uwaterloo.ca with your RSVP.
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Big Science At Small Scale: How The Manhattan Project Influenced Today's Nano Landscape
Abstract
Twenty-first
century
science is
a
state-funded
enterprise
involving
massive
instruments,
industrial-scale
laboratories,
hundred-author
papers,
and
international
collaboration.
But
Big
Science
is
a
recent
phenomenon,
originating
in
the
military-industrial
labs
of
World
War
II.
Our
talk
will
focus
on
the
Manhattan
Project,
where
the
brightest
scientific
minds
from
around
the
world,
fleeting
persecution
in
fascist
Europe,
landed
in
America
to
build
an
epoch-making
weapon.
We
will
raise
questions
that
are
still
of
primary
importance
today:
at
what
point
did
pure
scientific
research
become
a
tool
for
military
use?
Did
scientists
have
a
voice
in
how
their
knowledge
would
be
used,
for
good
or
for
ill?
What
is
the
ethical
responsibility
of
a
scientist?
Our
talk
will
answer
these
questions
in
the
context
of
the
Manhattan
Project,
and
draw
parallels
to
current
work
in
nanotechnology.
About
us
Matthew
Jordan
and
Nathaniel
Smith
are
both
graduates
of
interdisciplinary
science
programs
who
believe
that
science
is
an
incredible
public
good.
Nathaniel
researches
the
synthesis
of
carbon
nanodots
and
aluminum
oxide
nanocrystals
at
Waterloo’s
Department
of
Chemistry
with
Pavle
Radovanovic.
He
is
equally
interested
in
energy
systems,
interfacial
chemistry,
and
scientific
education.
Matthew
is
a
university
instructor
and
Rhodes
Scholar.
He
has
degrees
in
mathematical
physics,
psychology,
and
the
history
of
science,
and
is
currently
teaching
courses
on
the
AI
and
the
history
of
science
at
McMaster
University.
With
the
conviction
that
history
is
an
integral
part
of
any
scientific
education,
Matthew
and
Nathaniel
are
currently
producing
a
podcast
on
the
history
of
Big
Science,
starting
with
the
history
of
nuclear
weapons.