Members of the public asked to help tend Feynman’s Flowers

Researchers at the London Centre for Nanotechnology (LCN) are asking members of the public to help unlock the secrets of magnetism at the molecular scale by taking part in a citizen science project entitled 'Feynman's Flowers', which officially launches today. The project's website invites volunteers from across the world to analyse microscope images of individual molecules, which have characteristic flower shapes. Anyone can take part, and only a few clicks of the computer mouse are required to collect valuable information. The Feynman's Flowers project will allow volunteers to measure the position of a molecule in relation to a metal surface to help scientists understand how this can affect the molecule's properties. Data that volunteers produce will contribute to a research project run by the group of Cyrus Hirjibehedin at the LCN, in collaboration with Tsinghua University in Beijing and the Citizen Cyberscience Centre. Currently, the research project is focused on exploring the behaviour of phthalocyanine molecules. In the past, these were used as dyes for fabrics, but scientists now realise that they also have interesting electronic and magnetic properties that make them potentially usefully for creating nanoscale devices that can manipulate or store information.