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Science Talk

Go Inside M.I.T.'s 50,000 Square Foot Clean Room

Science Talk

Scientific American

Science

4.2639 Ratings

🗓️ 28 March 2025

⏱️ 19 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The cutting edge of research is very small—and very clean. In this episode, host Rachel Feltman joins Vladimir Bulović, director of MIT.nano, on a tour of this facility’s nanoscale capabilities. Its tightly controlled clean room hosts research across several fields, from microelectronics to medical nanotechnology. You can see Bulović’s tour of the lab at: https://youtu.be/ucGFcLjX30Q  E-mail us at [email protected] if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover! Discover something new every day: subscribe to Scientific American and sign up for Today in Science, our daily newsletter.  Science Quickly is produced by Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper, Naeem Amarsy and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was hosted by Rachel Feltman. Our show is edited by Jeff DelViscio with fact-checking by Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck. The theme music was composed by Dominic Smith. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Understanding the human body is a team effort. That's where the Yachtel group comes in.

0:05.8

Researchers at Yachtolt have been delving into the secrets of probiotics for 90 years.

0:11.0

Yachtold also partners with nature portfolio to advance gut microbiome science through the global grants for gut health, an investigator-led research program.

0:20.1

To learn more about Yachtolt, visit yacolp.co.j

0:23.9

That's Y-A-K-U-L-T dot-C-O-J-P. When it comes to a guide for your gut, count on Yacol.

0:32.1

Hey, it's Rachel, and I am here in a bunny suit at MIT Nano with Professor Vladimir Bolivich, who is going to show us around.

0:40.4

Well, it's a pleasure to have you here. Thanks for coming.

0:42.9

Goal of this space is to enable anyone to build anything they wish.

0:46.9

Hey, it's still Rachel, but now I'm here at the Scientific American Recording Studio.

0:51.8

As you just heard, today's episode is a little different from our standard

0:55.2

format. We went all the way to Cambridge, Massachusetts to explore MIT's cutting-edge nanotechnology lab.

1:01.6

You'll notice that our sound quality is a little lower than our usual standards, but that's just

1:06.0

because we were surrounded by actual scientists doing actual science, along with all of their exhaust fans and

1:12.3

fume hoods, of course. If you want to see all the cool stuff we're talking about during today's

1:16.3

episode, including, of course, me and a full bunny suit, you can check out a video version over on

1:21.2

our YouTube channel. You'll find a link to that in our show notes. Okay, let's dive back into

1:26.4

our Surrounded by Big Science Machines immersion pod.

1:31.0

You were joking earlier that if you have allergies, this is the place to be.

1:33.8

And I'm very allergic to dust mites, and I have noticed that I am breathing easier than normal.

1:39.5

Well, I'm glad you say that, because you're then a true proof of our numerical counting,

1:47.5

because we do control for the dust particle count continually.

1:55.1

We do speed up and slow down our purifying fans in order to make sure we are at a class 100 or better. And what that means is that in a cubic foot of air, there are 100 particles bigger than half a micron.

...

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