Would You Like a Bouquet of Nanoflowers?

Roland Piquepaille writes "Today, you'll see the most beautiful scientific pictures of the year. The winner of a photographic contest recently organized by the Department of Engineering of the University of Cambridge is Ghim Wei Ho, a PhD student in nanotechnology, for absolutely fabulous pictures of what she calls 'nanoflowers' or 'nanotrees.' In"Physicists reveal first 'nanoflowers'," the Institute of Physics says these nanostructures of silicon carbide are grown from droplets of gallium on a silicon surface. Not only these images are stunning, they also show cutting-edge nanotechnology research. And these nanoflowers will be used in new exciting applications, such as water repellant coatings or new types of solar cells. Several fantastic pictures are available in this photo gallery, which also contains other references to the research project which led to these stunning images."