As inauguration approaches, Obama portrait reproduced in the
strangest places.

Smaller than a grain of salt, Obama portraits reveal magic of
nanotechnology.

WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES (JANUARY 17, 2009) (REUTERS)
It's an image that stamped itself into America's imagination as the
US election campaign was reaching it's zenith and, on Saturday (January 17)
Shepard Fairey's now famous portrait took its place in Washington National
Portrait Gallery.

But the gallery is just one place where you can see the image. It's on
tee-shirts, coffee mugs and now, immortalised by nanotechnology.
Each of these three dimensional images is less than half a milimetre
across. Each is comprised of about 150 million carbon nanotubes - about
1/50,000th the width of a human hair - stacked vertically to form the Obama
likeness.

It was John Hart's idea to celebrate the Obama victory in a microscopic
form. Hart is an assistant professor at the University of Michigan's
Department of Mechanical Engineering. His work with nanotechnology usually
focusses on the application of carbon nanotubes to electronics, high
performance materials and energy devices.

But with the success of Barack Obama's election campaign he says, he
saw an opportunity to promote his science on a level that lay people could
understand and appreciate.
" Well first of all I thought it sounded cool. And second I think
a demonstration like making a nanobama which is, to be honest, pretty basic
for us to make in the lab considering the types of things we're making out of
nanotechnology, is a cool way to connect what we do in the lab and work very
hard on, to a topic of popular interest and, of course, Obama's pretty popular
these days." he told Reuters.

Artist Shepard Fairey says he's amazed and flattered. He's seen his
Obama portrait reproduced all over the United States.
"You know, it's amazing,' he said. "it just shows the power
of imagery, whether it's microscopic or a huge field in Pennsylvania someone
painted, I'll take it."

Nanotechnology is the science of manipulating the structure of
matter on a molecular level. The technology allows scientists to build working
machines to a scale measured in nanometres, the equivalent of one billionth of
a metre. Scientists say the use of nanotubes to build such tiny machines holds
great promise for the development of alternative energy sources, curing now
incurable diseases and creating lighter, stronger materials for building
bridges and other structures.

To make the nanobamas, Hart and his researchers converted the now
famous portrait to a line drawing before shrinking it and printing it on a
glass plate. They then shone an ultraviolet light through the plate onto a
silicon wafer in order to duplicate the pattern.
The pattern was used as base on which to grow the carbon nanotubes at
extremely high temperature. The result - Obama portraits half a millimetre
wide - were then photographed through an electron microscope.

The results, say John Hart, are proof positive of the potential of this
nascent technology.
"If I can make a fibre out of very good quality nano-tubes I could
have a material much stronger and stiffer than steel, perhaps the best fibre
ever made which would change a lot of, would make a lot of new materials
possible for every day life", he says.

John Hart has devoted his career to nanotechnology research and he
hopes his work will have a positive impact on society at large. In the
meantime both he and Shepard Fairey say they're happy to spread the word any
way they can.