King Henry the Concussed?

Backfire Effect

Gravitational waves for dummies

Incentivising Chinese academics

Wipe your feet

On shaky ground?

Chemicals & nachos

It's Pi Day!

Here are 3.14 facts about pi

Carrier characterisation

To provide quantitative, repeatable MOCVD carrier characterization, k-Space Associates Inc. have developed the kSA Emissometer. This ex situ tool scans the entire carrier and measures the diffuse reflectance, specular reflectance and emissivity at each point, providing a visual and quantitative map of the entire carrier. To better understand the power of the kSA Emissometer and the correlation between ex situ carrier emissivity and in situ carrier temperature click here.

In Brief

The EU’s Photonics Public Private Partnership has launched three manufacturing pilot lines to help small businesses take photonics technologies from lab to market. They will focus on health applications, flexible organic light-emitting diodes and sensors for the detection of chemicals in gas and liquids Professor Colin Whitehouse has been appointed as Chair of the Cardiff based Compound Semiconductor Centre. 2D tin monoxide layers deposited on sapphire substrates by pulsed laser deposition have shown p-type conduction. More than 18,300 people applied to join NASA’s 2017 astronaut class. The 18-month process will end with the selection of 8-14 individuals going on for the opportunity to become astronaut candidates.

The sound of Mochizuki

Brilliant, ground-breaking, incorrect or incomprehensible? The 2012 proposed solution of the ABC Conjecture by Shinichi Mochizuki is still leaving the mathematics community flummoxed. For some bizarre reasons the complexity of his arguments seem incapable (or unwillingly) of being broken down into simpler digestible elements and those few people who claim to understand are strangely unable to explain it to anyone else. So how do you solve a problem like Inter-universal Teichmuller Theory?

Upcoming microanalysis webinar

The next webinar in Thermo Scientific's series, Advanced Materials Science Research, is on March 15: "Toward the quantitative analysis of super light elements" Register here to attend or to receive the deck afterwards.

Feeling harassed?

Open debate, transparency and scientific scrutiny are considered good things but can it descend into harassment? A recent paper in Nature has looked at areas that can help to differentiate healthy debate, problematic research practices and campaigns that masquerade as scientific inquiry. The authors claim that measures that aim to improve science such as shared data, post-publication peer review and public engagement on social media, can sometimes be turned against scientists.

This week at Pittcon 2016, Thermo Scientific is launching some exciting new XPS surface analysis products. Please contact us for further details.

Looking far into the cosmos has yielded much information

China’s Five hundred metre Aperture Spherical Telescope is approaching completion and will be used for several observations including studies on pulsars as well as searching for extra-terrestrial intelligence. Peering closer to home however seems to be creating some problems. A recent study on the increase in myopia, particularly in Asian countries, has commented on the impact lifestyle changes such high-pressure educational systems and the excessive use of near electronic devices. Stare at the heavens and not at the screen? Also, I note that 2016 is the year of the monkey, the Chinese might not need to look so very far for their first extra-terrestrial.