New Laser Release

Guest: John Rogers, Urbana-Champaign engineering professor at the University of Illinois  Crafters will immediately get this conundrum: you’re working with something tiny – a piece of glitter or confetti – and you want to get it in just the right spot on your masterpiece, but you can’t seem to shake it off your finger. That’s because the speck of glitter has more surface area than it has weight, so gravity isn’t much help in breaking up the surface adhesion between your finger and the glitter.  Imagine you’re an engineer trying to build a circuit for a sensor that will fit on a piece of confetti. It’s a real challenge to get the stuff that makes up the circuit to stick to the tiny circuit board.  Researchers supported by the National Science Foundation have found a possible solution-- Lasers.