Scientist Taking One Small Step To The Universe
Newcastle Herald
Saturday April 1, 2006
HAMILTON's Kane O'Donnell is using nanotechnology to help build the world's first atom microscope.
Mr O'Donnell, 23, is doing the work for his PhD with Newcastle University's physics department.The department is collaborating with Cambridge University in England.Asked if the atom microscope would shine light on mysteries of the universe, he said: "That's the idea".Mr O'Donnell hopes the project will enable the human race to observe things "a couple of orders of magnitude smaller than with the electron microscope"."If you're doing nanotechnology, like trying to make the next generation of computers or understand how viruses attach to cells, even electron microscopes are not powerful enough," he said."The next generation is the atom microscope."He chose to do the project because it involves "a new technology that could open up an entire new field".The atom microscope was "critical to the future of nanotechnology", which involves matter sized from one to 100 nanometres.While Cambridge is creating most of the instrument, Newcastle is building a key part of it."We're working on a detector to fully utilise the potential of a helium microscope," he said."We need a detector that works similarly to the back of a human eye, which has a two-dimensional surface that detects light." Mr O'Donnell came to Newcastle University to study law, but after taking some physics classes he decided science was more interesting.YOUNG ACHIEVERSThis is the first in a special National Youth Week series profiling high-achieving young people from the Hunter Region.
© 2006 Newcastle Herald