Home > News > The Science of Small
December 8th, 2007
Abstract:
Every Weekday Morning C. Jeffrey Brinker gets up at half past five and makes cappuccinos for himself and his wife. The windows of the mountainside home they designed afford 80-mile views of Albuquerque and the pink-orange desert beyond. Equally expansive is the amount of thought that goes into each cappuccino. Brinker, 57, is one of the world's leading materials scientists at the nanometer scale, a nanometer being about the width of the human DNA helix. A cup of coffee, for him, is an engineering experiment. At least with coffee, you can see what's going on. In nanotechnology, you can't.
Brinker explains as he brews that if the espresso beans are ground too coarsely, they'll make flavorless espresso. Too fine, the coffee will taste burnt. To make the milk froth, Brinker rests the head of the steam nozzle at the surface of the milk for a few seconds, explaining that he's squeezing air into small bubbles in a type of Venturi effect. Smaller bubbles make for a stable, uniform layer of foam. "That's why I hate Starbucks. Those guys hit a button and all this stuff just happens. They don't even understand what goes into it," he says.
Source:
forbes.com
Bookmark:
| Related News Press |
Govt.-Legislation/Regulation/Funding/Policy
New discovery aims to improve the design of microelectronic devices September 13th, 2024
Physicists unlock the secret of elusive quantum negative entanglement entropy using simple classical hardware August 16th, 2024
Single atoms show their true color July 5th, 2024
Nanomedicine
Exosomes: A potential biomarker and therapeutic target in diabetic cardiomyopathy November 8th, 2024
Unveiling the power of hot carriers in plasmonic nanostructures August 16th, 2024
Materials/Metamaterials/Magnetoresistance
Nanoscale CL thermometry with lanthanide-doped heavy-metal oxide in TEM March 8th, 2024
Focused ion beam technology: A single tool for a wide range of applications January 12th, 2024
Announcements
Nanotechnology: Flexible biosensors with modular design November 8th, 2024
Exosomes: A potential biomarker and therapeutic target in diabetic cardiomyopathy November 8th, 2024
Turning up the signal November 8th, 2024
Nanofibrous metal oxide semiconductor for sensory face November 8th, 2024
Homeland Security
The picture of health: Virginia Tech researchers enhance bioimaging and sensing with quantum photonics June 30th, 2023
Sensors developed at URI can identify threats at the molecular level: More sensitive than a dog's nose and the sensors don't get tired May 21st, 2021
Highly sensitive dopamine detector uses 2D materials August 7th, 2020
 |
||
 |
||
| The latest news from around the world, FREE | ||
 |
||
|
|
||
| Premium Products | ||
 |
||
|
Only the news you want to read!
Learn More |
||
 |
||
|
Full-service, expert consulting
Learn More |
||
|
|
||