The CBC’s The Nature of Things recently explored nanotechnology and all its potential in saving the planet.

Nanotechnology is a universe where scientists explore matter on a scale 80,000 times smaller than a human hair. It’s a gigantic global laboratory where scientists converge from all disciplines, and dedicate themselves to observing and manipulating the smallest particles in the natural world.

Professor Ted Sargent (ECE) sees a future where nano-particles applied to solar cells transform the way we capture energy. “The imaginative possibilities that emerge when you make low-cost, flexible and high-efficiency solar cells, are really limitless,” explained Professor  Sargent, a Canada Research Chair in Nanotechnology.

In June 2011, Professor Sargent and his research team discovered a new solar cell that may pave the way to inexpensive coatings that efficiently convert the sun’s rays to electricity.

Watch the episode online , or see it on CBC News Network on November 10.