IBM is one of the largest firms in the world in terms of both market capitalization and number of employees. It has held the record for most patents generated by a company for twenty consecutive years. A lot of time and effort was required to bring this company to the point is is today, but don’t let that fool you. Even the hard-working employees at IBM need to take some time off work and have a little fun. On Tuesday, IBM released a video on their YouTube channel called “A Boy and His Atom”. It’s a short, stop-motion movie created by a small team of nanophysicists as a part of a side project. It isn’t…

Hydrophobic and oleophobic coating may sound like something boring that you’d find in a college chemistry textbook, but it also helps bring into existence the coolest product demonstration we’ve seen in a while. As long as you can get passed the annoying “90s modern” music, you’ll be amazed at the visuals of how this stuff interacts with liquids. The concept is simple: coat absorbent materials with Ultra-Ever Dry and start dipping it into wet places. That’s where the fun starts. The science behind it goes down to a molecular level and uses nanotechnology, which we won’t get into here. The video…

One of the biggest risks with drugs such as antibiotics that chemically attack bacteria and other harmful organisms is that a tolerance or immunity can be developed over time. There are also side-effects that can debilitate patients treated chemically. IBM hopes to have solved both issues through nanotechnology by developing “ninja polymers” that attack deadly bacteria such as Staphylococcus physically rather than chemically. When in the bloodstream or in contact with water, these polymers self-assemble into microscopic structures that target bacteria based upon their electrostatic…