Happy Birthday to our dear mad scientist

Happy happy birthday Samuel dear,
Hopefully you'll have success this year,
If I had a wish then it would be,
That Ta and Mo will work for thee!

No, really, that was a fascinating explanation. I was really interested to learn about why you need two metals. Question--all of my research was paid with a NSF grant--I mean, the gas for the field work, the sample prep (what I didn't do myself, which was almost everything...), the use of the machines...so, how are you paying for the Au, Ta, Pt, Mo, etc? Does that come out of your personal budget? Or do you have a research stipend?

And what is the ultimate goal of your research? Is it making the nanowires complete a circuit? Or is that an intermediate step? Nanotechnology is so cutting-edge right now, it's so cool that my mad-scientist brother is involved.

Regardless, I love you so much and I hope that you have a marvelous birthday!