An architectural design has been approved for the new building to house the Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology at Rice University.
Nanotechnology is the science of creating materials and machines at the atomic level.
Architect Antoine Predock, of Albuquerque, N.M., designed the building with four sections of varying heights, positioned in a downward spiral shape. Richard E. Smalley, Gene and Norman Hackerman Professor of Chemistry and co-discoverer of buckeyballs, is the director of the center.