Nanobama

"Each face is made of approximately 150 million tiny carbon nanotubes; that's about how many Americans voted on November 4."

Carbon nanotube/silicon sculptures by MIT mechanical engineer Anastasios John Hart. More at nanobama and nanobliss.

In late 2005, Hart started experimenting with sculpting carbon nanotubes, one-atom-thick sheets of graphite (called graphene) rolled up into a seamless cylinder with a diameter of 1 nanometer.

Because carbon nanotubes grow on a silicon substrate, he says, he began to sculpt them by altering the shape or thickness of the substrate.

Hart also has learned to modify the growth rate, which he says "causes the nanotubes to collectively bend, split, ripple, or to grow in unexpected shapes." Once they achieve the shape he wants, he captures the image by optically photographing or scanning it with an electron microscope. Recently, he has started adding color to some of the images using Photoshop.

Although Hart is passionate about his art, he is not about to trade in his lab coat for a beret. "I'm still very much a scientist," he says. "But I now see how artistic endeavors can enhance the presentation and visualization of science, and how laboratory techniques such as fabrication and selfassembly can be a new art form. I think nanotube art is just the beginning." - Stanley Warren in PC Magazine

Via Boing Boing Gadgets.