May 22, 2013 - Creepy Flowers

These bouquets are created by growing crystals in solutions of different acid gradients.
As for size... this sample happens to have been grown on the Lincoln Memorial on the back of a penny.

Noorduin found that as the crystals self-assembled, he could control their shape, size and direction of growth by altering the temperature, the amount of carbon dioxide allowed into the reaction and the acidity of the water.

There are several interesting variations.

science.nbcnews.com

That is cooool.

What is art today will be engineering in the future.

I'm thinking surfaces for heat exchange, catalysts, abrasives ...

Yeah, no kidding!

If control of considerably smaller geometries can be managed optics and terahertz structures could be fabricated.

That is really crazy awesome!

Spectacular! Engineering on this scale is blowing up big time. I introduced a materials physics post-doc to a nano tech undergrad last night at the salle... we had a hell of a time getting the fencing started.