Chicken fun

The chicken is basically the hipster kid of the animal world: mostly harmless to others, it’s primarily concerned with its own narrow interests, and it’s generally looked down upon by other, supposedly more evolved species.

50 years of fibres

Fifty years ago last month, a 32-year-old Chinese-born research engineer named Charles Kao published a milestone paper that set off the entire field of fiber-optic communications and eventually earned him a share of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics

Wash on command

On the bleeding edge of the Internet of Things, washing machines and other appliances are embedding voice interfaces connected over cloud services to some of the world’s most sophisticated data analytics.

Space oddities?

The Space History sale at Bonhams New York July 20 made $1,315,063. The sale quickly soared with the first lot, a full-scale lab model of the Sputnik 1 satellite, achieving more than ten times its estimate.

Rise of the OLED

Organic light-emitting diodes are becoming a major market for advanced materials suppliers. Long researched in labs worldwide, OLED displays are becoming a market reality, especially in mobile phones.

Bone hard

The mechanical properties of the intermetallic compound β-Ti3Au suggest that this material is well suited for medical applications where Ti is already used, with some examples including replacement parts and components (both permanent and temporary), dental prosthetics, and implants.

Attracting electrons

Electrons have potential for mutual attraction. Nanotube system overcomes natural repulsion in possible step toward advanced superconductors.

Where's the dark matter?

The world’s most sensitive dark matter detector has just completed its 20 month search for the "missing mass" of the universe. It found none.

New imec partnership in Florida

imec, the Leuven based nanoelectronics research centre  has opened a new facility in Osceola, Florida devoted to photonics and high-speed electronics IC design.

We all need a road map

The 2015 International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors has been published.

It's a gas!

The Tanzanian East African Rift Valley could soon become a much needed new major source of helium gas.

Osmotic power

EPFL researchers have devised a system that generates electricity from osmosis. It consists of a salt water containing compartment separated from another containing fresh water by a thin membrane of molybdenum disulphide. The membrane has a hole, or nanopore, through which ions pass into the fresh water until the two fluids’ salt concentrations are equal. As the ions pass through the nanopore, their electrons are transferred to an electrode generating a current. According to their calculations, a one metre square membrane with 30% of its surface covered by nanopores should be able to produce 1MW of electricity.

Science fixes?

Are most papers generated for the advancement of careers rather than advancement of human knowledge? Should research funding be allocated by lottery? Do we reward splashy results over rigorous methodology? Not random ramblings but ideas from a thought provoking article based on the responses of 270 (predominantly) biomedical and social scientists in the USA. It aims to identify perceived problems facing science and offers fixes for each. A small, limited survey but it certainly raises questions and probably has lessons and ideas for a much wider community.

Thought for the month - August 2016

“We are more often frightened than hurt; and we suffer more from imagination than from reality.” Lucius Anneaus Seneca, Roman philosopher and statesman (c 4 BC – AD 65).

M&M launch of Pathfinder Software Platform

“Researchers and scientists in microscopy labs are challenged to obtain consistent, reliable and rapid answers when analyzing the most complex chemical and elemental samples,” said Kevin Fairfax, business director, surface analysis and microanalysis, for Thermo Fisher Scientific. “Pathfinder software is designed to deliver actionable results. It takes advantage of advanced computing power and features an intuitive design that supplements an electron microscope image by rapidly identifying the chemical phases in the sample. Pathfinder represents an industry shift toward push-button operation that eliminates the need for subjective user interpretation.”