Michael Strano Talks Nanotechnology at Morning Assembly
Sean Ricard / The Exonian
By JAYDEN OH and ANNIE ZHU
On Friday, Feb. 21, Professor Michael Strano, a Carbon P. Dubbs Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, gave a captivating presentation about his recent studies in the Assembly Hall. In his presentation, Strano shared his research in nanotechnology and its application on plants, medicine, and thermodynamics.
During the assembly, Strano introduced his recent initiatives. He devised methods to collect data, not only accurately but faster than the farmers. Although farmers have a much better understanding of plants, he realized that human visual observation of under-fertilization or drought often comes too late to prevent yield loss. He claimed, “The tools we’re developing are fast enough to give farmers information to prevent crop loss. As I showed you today, within minutes, you can observe the plant responding to very subtle changes in its immediate environment. And the idea is to give that information to farmers long before there’s crop yield loss.”
These new tools add to the growing use of advanced technology in farming. “Farmers have substantially increased yield by just using GPS (Global Positioning Systems) and just fertilizing or placing seeds in the location where the yield was higher last year, as an example. So technology is having a significant impact in creating more food for humans around the world,” Strano explained
Strano’s speech was inspiring to students, many of whom found the information fascinating. Prep Catherine Chen comments, “I thought it was really interesting. I didn’t really know much about nanotechnology and chemical engineering, but the professor broke it down in a very clear way and the applications of nanotechnology he talked about were very interesting.”
Lower Alex Ren added, “I think the discussion of plants and chlorophylls and how the solution came from a very unexpected place was very insightful. It’s also interesting to see how this real science works, how it works at the professional level.”
Strano stated that his journey started from his interest in chemistry. He suggests that if you are interested in chemistry and mathematics, combined, consider chemical engineering as a field of study. He stated, “The field of chemistry provides insights that can be applied to different conceptual problems of interest. Mathematics is also a critically important skill set for solving problems.” He emphasized the versatile use of STEM subjects in his department, and that there is a difference between pure and applied mathematics. He stated, “Applied mathematics is the branch most applicable to engineering. There’s the case of my colleague at MIT, whose work in the Mathematics department became very applied, looking at real world problems. So he moved to our chemical engineering department where he works on electrochemical batteries.”
Strano’s research in nanotechnology and the development of theories underpinning new ideas, as presented in the assembly, include the use of mathematics, physics, biology, and computer science. He explained the advantages of the combination of math and pure science, which underpin engineering. The example of his colleague, who was in the math department at MIT, is illustrative. He claimed, “As his work became applied – solving problems in the real world, he felt at home moving to our Chemical Engineering department.”
Strano stated that quantum computing, as one of his areas of research, will have a transformative impact on the computer industry. While the industry has yet to commercialize the use of quantum computers at scale because the ideal quantum qubit has not yet been found, (note: a quantum qubit is whatever entity people decide to use to store information in a quantum computer – it could be light, it could be a Sr atom, etc. We have not found the best one yet), “there are still going to be algorithms that run better on a traditional computer, even after quantum computers are developed.” He claimed, “Quantum computers are gonna be specialized for running certain algorithms, but important ones such as those related to cryptography.”
Further, he expressed interest in the impacts of quantum computing. He said, “The big excitement is cryptography. With a quantum computer, you could potentially hack passwords based on prime factorization. This is what has spurred a lot of interest. He added that there is promise in quantum computing but the field has not yet settled on a qubit, or information storage element. There are possible choices but they do not scale industrially yet.
A major challenge for Strano and his team was convincing other scientists that his results, while originally thought to be impossible, were correct. As a chemical engineer, discovering nanoparticles moving within plants across membranes in a way not thought possible was shocking for other scientists. Strano said, “I’ll be honest, originally there was skepticism from the plant biology community about these findings. I’m a chemical engineer, so the initial attitude was, ‘What do I know, right?’ However, this was motivating for us — to prove the veracity of our conclusions. It spurs competition to be correct. In science, you need to prove people wrong.
He added, “Science does have, built-in, an antagonistic and competitive component. All we can do in science is prove things wrong. There is no way to prove something absolutely true. So this does make a bit of healthy contention, but it does ultimately lead to new understanding.”
Strano also encouraged students to exercise their creativity, ending his talk with a hands-on activity — the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking. “I wish I was able to actually conduct the small exercise on creativity but time did not allow it. I think the exercise shows most students that they are more creative than they had originally thought, and that groups are more creative than working alone. I hope this part of my talk was well received,” Strano states.
Upper Chloe Bosma added, “There was a part where he was interactive with the audience, which I found was good and engaging.”
Strano also mentioned his initiatives of bringing high school students to his lab, providing them with research opportunities. He said, “It’s for a niche population of high school students. But it’s been growing and I have found that pretty gratifying.”
Overall, Strano’s speech gave a concise yet intriguing insight into his work as a researcher, mentioning projects from light-emitting plants to storing heat using carbon nanotubes. Through sharing his experience in research, Strano has inspired students at Exeter to continue their curiosity, as well as to never give up on their goals, no matter how difficult.
