Participative nanofiction comes

The research centres CIC nanoGUNE and Donostia International Phyisics Center (DIPC) have launched nanoKOMIK for second year in order to create a participatory nanofiction comic that will popularize the advances that are being done in the field of nanoscience and nanotechnology.

The challenge 2017 is to create a graphic story about a female or male comic superhero with “nanopowers”, that is, sophisticated skills or powers acquired through nanoscience and nanotechnology. This year there are two categories: one for ages 14-18 and another for anyone aged over 18. In addition to the many prizes to be won, the winner of the adult category shall have the opportunity to create the collective nanofiction comic based on the ideas put forward by young people.

The possibilities that nanoscience offers to imagination are infinite and nature has known how to take advantage of it to create sophisticated nanotechnology. The gecko, for example, climbs through vertical walls and hangs from the ceiling defying gravity thanks to his nanostructured feet. In the same way, the characteristic color change in camaleons is due to the nanocrystal network present in the skin cells of these reptiles. In the website www.nanokomik.com the participants will have available information on this nanopowers and much more to adapt and transform them in their comic.

However, more interesting, without any doubt, is that participants create new and original nanopowers. Short videos developed by DIPC and CIC nanoGUNE researchers will serve as inspiration with that purpose while explaining some fascinating properties that emerge from matter in the nanoscale. To end with and make us into comic cartoonists, we will have a video comic tutorial available that will clarify all our doubts.

During the months of the challenge, comic and science workshops have been organized in high schools of the Basque Country, Barcelona and a special seminar in the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU). An itinerant exhibition of the collective comic Dayanne and Murillo. The power of nanoscience, resultant of the first edition, will additionally travel to several cities in our geography.

This project was funded by the Spanish Foundation