October 2, 2026
By Emmanuel Sampson

On October 2, 2026, the Nano & Biomaterials Lab participated in William & Mary’s annual Sci-Fri celebration. Sci-Fri is the university’s open night of science, where community members are invited to explore research through demonstrations, lab visits, and interactive activities.

The lab showcased its diatoms, bioreactors, and spiders, offering visitors a closer look at the organisms and equipment behind its work. Diatoms are single-celled algae that produce intricate, glass like shells, while spiders spin silk with remarkable strength and stretchability. Both inspire the lab’s efforts to develop environmentally friendly materials with advanced structures and properties. At Sci-Fri, visitors were able to see this in person. In the basement of the Integrated Science Center, both our bioreactors and spiders were fully displayed for visitors either to stand in the deep neon glow of the bioreactor or, for the braver visitors, to hold a venomless spider by hand.

On the upper floor of the Integrated Science Center, the lab brought the microscopic world to a larger scale with a game built around 3D-printed diatoms. Participants constructed towers from the models, turning the shapes of these tiny organisms into a building challenge. By attempting to build towers out of a collective of mixed diatom species, visitors witnessed the engineering challenge of developing materials without uniformity. Thus, the lab focuses heavily on the growth of monocultures for creating our advanced diatom-based materials.