Imagine being a mechanic whose job is to fix a machine so small you can’t even see it.

This job is real, and Nanodays 2006 drew about 100 visitors, mostly high school students and their teachers, to Centennial Campus on Monday evening to convince them it’s an exciting job worth doing.

Nanotechnology, the science and technology of building devices from single atoms and molecules, is an emerging field with potential applications in communication, medicine, materials science, physics and chemistry.

Nanodays, the first event of its kind in North Carolina, featured open labs, physics demonstrations and talks by professors. The event was the brainchild of Gail Jones, professor of math, science and technology education in the College of Education. NanoScale Education Research Group sponsored the event, and it includes sister events at UNC-Chapel Hill and Appalachian State University.

“The goal of Nanodays is to educate the public, especially students and teachers, about exciting new developments in nanotechnology,” Jones said. “We want to get the kids into the lab to see new technologies and to meet face to face with students, post docs and professors.”

Melanie Smith, a biology teacher at Enloe High School, had exactly that goal in mind when she told her students they could attend Nanodays for extra credit.

“We have a lot of students interested in exploring different fields of science,” she said. “Nanodays was a good opportunity for them to see some actual labs and some real science that’s different from what they do in our classrooms.”

Among the technologies demonstrated in open labs were microscopes that visualize viruses, cells or synthetic surfaces at the atomic scale, and a method called chemical vapor deposition, in which a thin film of diamond or other substance is deposited on a surface.

Tom Pearl, a professor of physics whose lab demonstrated atomic-scale microscopy, said the event was an opportunity to reach the public and challenge conventional perceptions of science.

“Boundaries between biology, chemistry and physics are not rigid,” he said. “Students often think of these as distinct, mutually exclusive subjects, but they’re not.”

Nanodays was also a recruitment tool, intended to interest the future workforce that will make nanotechnology a reality.

“In many countries, science and engineering are much more popular than they are here,” Jacqueline Krim, professor of physics, said. “Nanodays is an excellent example of encouraging students who are considering going into these fields to look at what kind of research possibilities are out there.”

According to Jacob Garguilo, a doctoral student in physics who led open lab tours and demonstrated the diamond film deposition, this is exactly what happened.

“Several of the high school students asked about working in our lab over the summer,” he said. “It definitely sparked some interest there.”

Veda Bharath, a doctoral student in materials science, also led lab tours and said about half the high school students in his groups asked about undergraduate research opportunities.

After lab tours, students gathered at the Centennial Campus Friday Institute for research lectures by physics professors Jacqueline Krim and Robert Nemanich and hands-on activities — like testing fabrics coated with stain-resistant nanofilms or operating a model atomic force microscope.

Keith Warren of Science House, the outreach program of the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, wowed students with physics demonstrations, shocking himself with a van de Graaff generator, shrinking balloons in liquid nitrogen at -200 degrees Celsius, and shattering racquetballs at the same temperature.

Krista Vrabel and Kim Sudkamp, sophomores in Smith’s biology class at Enloe High School, laid on Warren’s bed of nails, which, thanks to the laws of physics, left them unscathed.

“This is so much fun!” Vrabel said, bouncing with enthusiasm.

The girls will get extra credit for attending Nanodays, but they swear they would have come anyway.

Heather Hafer brought her advanced placement chemistry students from Clayton High School to Nanodays to expose them to careers in science.

Her student, Jessica Dean, said the diamond film demonstration was her favorite, but the shattered racquetball impressed as well.

“We’re here because we’re the science geeks,” she said. “And we’re going to go back to school tomorrow with our little pieces of racquetball and be like, ‘Look what we did!'”