"Icy Slopes"

"Icy Slopes," by April D. Jewell and Heather L. Tierney, chemistry department, Tufts University.

This image was obtained with a scanning tunneling microscope and reveals that dibutylselenide molecules arrange themselves within specific areas of a gold surface. Molecular assembly offers a simple approach to molecular and mesoscale 2-D patterning. This straightforward technique is currently being studied for its many applications in fabricating nanoscale devices. [This research was supported by National Science Foundation grant CHE 08-44343.]

This image was entered for judging in the Photography category of the 2009 International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge (SciVis) competition, sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the journal Science. The competition is held each year to celebrate the grand tradition of science visualization and to encourage its continued growth. The spirit of the competition is to communicate science, engineering and technology for education and journalistic purposes. To learn more about the competition and view all the winning entries, see the NSF SciVis Special Report (Date of Image: August 2009)

Credit: April D. Jewell and Heather L. Tierney, Chemistry Department, Tufts University