Nanotechnology, from lab tools to real-world systems.
Stories from the NNI follows people working with nanotechnology research, education, support, and commercialization. Its conversations move from quantum dots and 2D materials to classrooms, clean rooms, sunlight-driven fuel, public programs, and the long work of turning nanoscale ideas into useful systems.
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Stories from the NNI is a documentary-style science interview series about nanotechnology in practice. It follows the field from lab bench to marketplace, from classroom demonstration to climate strategy, and from public coordination to the daily constraints of fabrication. The show is technical, but it rarely feels sealed off. Guests explain what they make, why nanoscale control matters, and what has to happen before a promising material becomes a real product. One episode turns quantum dots into a platform for greenhouse materials, solar modules, security inks, cosmetics, art, design, and energy-efficient windows. Another looks at tunable high-refractive-index nanocrystal formulations for next-generation electronics, including extended reality devices, OLED displays, micro LED displays, and sensors. Commercialization is treated as its own hard science. Conversations cover matching funds, government competitions, joint intellectual property, investor confidence, lab-to-market programs, and the support systems that help companies survive the jump from research to manufacturing. Education episodes widen the frame. Teachers and communicators talk about curiosity, failure, scientific reasoning, and a student who sees science as a way to change a family’s future. Climate episodes are urgent without turning theatrical. Nanotechnology appears through windows, vaccines, rapid tests, batteries, carbon capture, and sunlight-driven fuel, all tied to the larger challenge of building cleaner systems for many energy users. The show also spends time behind the scenes. National Nanotechnology Coordination Office staff discuss clean rooms, NNCI centers, student training, regional ecosystems, manufacturing connections, and the history of the National Nanotechnology Initiative. Research episodes bring listeners into specialized territory, including 2D materials, heterostructures, e-beam lithography, plasma etching, metal deposition, colloidal crystals, and entropy-driven self-assembly. The conversations acknowledge limits. Tool access can shape the research itself, and graduate-level physics and engineering can carry real emotional strain. That honesty gives the show weight. Its style is orderly and public-minded, with hosts guiding guests through definitions, applications, barriers, and next steps. Stories from the NNI suits listeners who want to understand how nanoscale research becomes infrastructure, industry, policy, and education. It is not a personality showcase. It is a field guide to a scientific ecosystem still near the beginning of what it may become.
Made for: For science-curious listeners, educators, researchers, policy watchers, and founders who want concrete context on nanotechnology beyond headlines. It works best for people comfortable with technical language and institutional detail.
What sets it apart: The show connects nanoscale science to the machinery around it: clean rooms, public programs, commercialization pathways, student training, and climate goals. Similar science podcasts often stop at discovery; this one follows the support systems that make discovery usable.
This podcast series features voices from the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI). Researchers and innovators discuss their work at the nanoscale, the challenges they’ve faced, and how they’ve connected with the NNI. If you want to learn more about nanotechnology, visit www.nano.gov or email us at [email protected] and check back here for more stories.To celebrate the NNI, special anniversary episodes of the Stories from the NNI podcast series will share the perspectives of experts from academia, government, and industry on key research and development advances in nanotechnology and how the NNI has changed the nanotechnology landscape. These experts will share their thoughts on emerging…
Quantum dots want a job in solar panels; you get the science and the funding math.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A practical review of how quantum dots move from materials research into solar, security, and other products.
Quantum dots are presented here less as a one-off breakthrough than as a flexible commercial platform. Hunter McDaniel, CEO of Ubiquity, ties the material's promise to greenhouse applications, solar modules, and anti-counterfeit inks, giving the episode a broad but still…
A grounded review of how federal funding, private capital, and nanocrystal research can converge on commercialization.
Commercial nanotechnology is treated here as a working system rather than a distant promise. Mike Kiley of the National Nanotechnology Coordination Office keeps the focus on federal support for moving nanotechnology R&D toward market, while a nanocrystal company CEO connects…
Nanotechnology feels most alive when the episode frames it as something students might build for someone they love.
Nanotechnology comes down to human scale through educators who connect tiny devices to classrooms, cleanrooms, cell phones, and the futures students imagine for themselves.
The hidden structure behind useful things.
Particle accelerators, compost piles and Queen's guitarist, all explained.
Steven Novella and a rotating panel dissect weekly science news and debunk pseudoscience claims.
Mike Kiley of the National Nanotechnology Coordination Office speaks with Hunter McDaniel, CEO of Ubiquity in Los Alamos, about Goal 2 of the National Nanotechnology Initiative’s 2021 Strategic Plan: commercialization of nanotechnology research and development.
Stories from the NNI centers on Mike Kiley’s conversation with Craig Bandes, CEO of Pixelogent in Baltimore, about Goal 2 of the 2021 National Nanotechnology Initiative Strategic Plan and commercialization of nanotechnology R&D.
Stories from the NNI is hosted by Quinn Spadola, Deputy Director of the National Nanotechnology Coordination Office, and brings together Marshall Escamilla, Matthew Jackson, and Matt Plyle around nanotechnology education.
Lisa Friedersdorf leads NNCO staff members Jeff Holdridge, Patrice Pages, Rima Bjorklund, Mike Giley, Maria Fernanda Campa, Matt, Juhl Beaman, and Andrew Pomeroy through a discussion of nanotechnology’s societal impact.
Sharon Glotzer traces her nanotechnology work from NIST simulations in the late 1990s to University of Michigan research beginning in 2001.
Michael Filler describes VLS growth, where a molten-metal droplet turns vapor-phase atoms into semiconductor nanowires.
An interview with a professor discussing his journey into nanotechnology and hands-on materials science labs.
An interview with Adam Rondinoni about his journey into nanoscience and his work at the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies.
An interview with a professor discussing her background in engineering and her work in nanotechnology for communication systems.