We are thrilled to announce the week 3 and 4 selected nominees of the Thank a Chemical Technical Professional (CTP) campaign! 🏆 Your dedication and hard work have truly paid off. Stay tuned for our next set of selected nominees! #CTPWinners #TechnicalEducation https://brnw.ch/21wSI22 (fb)

This device may look like a microscopic wheel, but it’s actually a tiny spinning machine called a microrotor. And this one is powered entirely by light! To create these microrotors recently described in Nano Letters, scientists placed thin silicon surfaces covered in tiny ridges called metagratings at the end of silicon dioxide bars in a hub and spoke shape. When a beam of light is aimed at the microrotor, the metagratings deflect the light waves at an angle. The recoil from the deflected light is enough energy to cause the entire microrotor to spin. When tested in a liquid environment, the light-powered microrotor captured in this video rotated hundreds of polystyrene beads. The 7-micron diameter beads used in the study are about the same size as red blood cells and yeast cells, demonstrating these powerful microscopic spinning robots have potential applications in microbiology and microfluidics. Read the full paper here: https://brnw.ch/21wSHLK Research video from Mikael Käll (fb)