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In a large number of diverse phenomena one encounters the response of nano-particles to electromagnetic fields; for example, the winter fog or smog etc., are the response of nano-sized particles in the atmosphere towards scattering and absorption of light. In this lecture, we will first discuss the scattering and absorption of light by spherical particles and then dipolar response of spheres.

The ground state structural and electronic properties of germanene (the germanium analogue of graphene) are investigated using first-principles calculations. On structure optimization, the graphene-like honeycomb structure of germanene turns out as buckled (buckling parameter $\Delta = 0.635$ \AA) in contrast with graphene's planar structure (buckling parameter $\Delta = 0.0$ \AA). In spite of this, germanene has similar electronic structure as that of graphene. While corroborating the reported results, we newly predict the in-plane contraction of hexagonal Ge with (thermal) stretching along the "c" axis, akin to a phenomenon observed in graphite., Comment: Presented in Solid State Physics, Proceedings of the 55th DAE Solid State Physics Symposium 2010, 26-30 December 2010, Manipal, India; Editors: Alka B. Garg, R. Mittal and R. Mukhopadhyay, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, India; AIP Conference Proceedings 1349, 823-824 (2011). Few typographic errors in the published version corrected; 2pagges, 1 figure