9 Federally Funded Scientific Breakthroughs That Changed Everything (NY Times)

nine objects arranged in a grid: (L–R top) eye, metered-dose syringe, keyboard; (L–R middle) hand, crystal, moon; (L–R bottom) fly, satellite, hand. Illustrations by Ruru Kuo.
Illustrations of Nine Federally Funded Scientific Breakthroughs That Changed Everything by Ruru Kuo.
May 16, 2025
a spinning purple crystal. Illustration by Ruru Kuo

"If you’re reading this on a screen, you may be looking at quantum dots, billions of them."

Illustration by Ruru Kuo.

ISN supported research was recently highlighted in the New York Times in an article on "9 Federally Funded Scientific Breakthroughs That Changed Everything," by Alan Burdick and Emily Anthes with illustrations by Ruru Kuo.

Says the article, "First baked in 1980, quantum dots have been refined and made mass-producible with funding from NIST, the U.S. Army Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies and other agencies. In 2023, three scientists, including an M.I.T. chemist supported by Army grants, won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery and development of quantum dots." The MIT chemist in question, Prof. Moungi Bawendi, has been an ISN PI since the founding of the ISN in 2002.