50 hours a week

Science says you shouldn't work more than this number of hours a week

Sketch and shop

Computer sketches set to make online shopping much easier

Green therapy

Dose of nature is just what the doctor ordered

Flower power

KIT scientists increase the efficiency of solar cells by replicating the structure of petals

Six of the best

SEMI and Solid State Technology Announce the 2016 “Best of West” Award Finalists

Eat like a Martian?

Four crops grown in simulated Martian soil are safe to eat. Dutch scientists are testing more crops to see if they can grow safely on Mars.

Be a Martian

Mars needs YOU! In the future, Mars will need all kinds of explorers, farmers, surveyors, teachers . . . but most of all YOU!

Weights are measured

As part of the project to redefine the kilogram the NIST-4 watt balance has completed new measurements of Planck’s constant. The value of h being 6.62606983 x 10–34 kg.m2/s with an uncertainty of plus or minus 22 on the last two digits.

Beam me up Houston

Researchers at the University of Houston have used surface-enhanced near-infrared absorption spectroscopy for chemical and refractive index sensing.

China retains lead

China has kept its number one ranking in the latest TOP500 list of the world’s top supercomputers. The new system is built entirely using processors designed and made in China it can perform at 93 petaflops/s with a peak power consumption of 15.37 MW.

Nano-watermark

Ever bought a fake Rolex or counterfeit Chopard? Probably not, but recent work by EPFL based start-up Nanoga may reduce the chances even further. The team has developed a deposition and photolithographic technique to put a nanoscopic watermark onto glass. The nano-watermark being visible under ultraviolet light. Initially developed for high-end sapphire crystal watches, the company has patented a system of photonic watermarks for glass, ceramic and metal.

Art non nouveau

Most organisations have a depressing hidden storeroom, the repository for the unloved and unwanted, the graveyard for no longer used equipment. We are grateful for Neil Davey (Thermo Fisher Scientific) for alerting us to Northwestern University’s brilliant solution; redefine old apparatus as artwork. Gate B11 at Chicago O’Hare airport has an interesting exhibit. The VG VG FIM100 atom-probe field-ion microscope was originally installed by our own Carl Richardson many years ago. I await seeing the diamond encrusted Escalab MkII on show at Heathrow.

We live in interesting times

Perhaps when musing on intra-European ideological differences it is fitting to reflect on the words of an American - Franklin D. Roosevelt once said: Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.