Imagine a submarine. Now shrink that down to one-tenth the size of a human hair. It's not science fiction. Scientists recently made these tiny "microsubmarines" a reality. According to the American Chemical Society journal ACS Nano, scientists have created the first ever self-propelled "microsubmarines" able to pick up and transport droplets of oil from contaminated waters. These tiny machines could play an important role in cleaning up oil spills, like the 2010 Deepwater Horizon incident in the Gulf of Mexico.

It's the 25th anniversary of National Chemistry Week (NCW)! To celebrate, we've got two new videos to kick off this year's NCW right.

In the first video, we visited the Maryland Nanocenter at the University of Maryland (UMD) to check out the latest research in nanotechnology -- this year's theme for NCW. Three UMD researchers explain how their work in the nano-scale could lead to better fuel cells, solar cells, cancer treatments and super strong materials made from carbon nanotubes. It's a first hand look at the exciting applications of nanotechnology available today, and those that are just around the corner.



Our second video highlights 25 years of NCW -- check it out to hear about participant's favorite NCW moments and its 25 year legacy of getting people exciting about chemistry.