1898 drone

Excerpts of the patent granted to Tesla on Nov. 8, 1898 were posted online last month by technologist Matthew Schroyer.

Fringe fun

Donor card joke named funniest at Edinburgh Fringe

Packaged food

Edible food packaging made from milk proteins (video)

Shrinking proton

Proton radius mystery deepens as deuterium measurement comes up short

Less droop?

New method for making green LEDs enhances their efficiency and brightness

Lunar permission

Private company wins US clearance to fly to the moon

Green turns blue

Two Become One: How to Turn Green Light Blue

Dense electron pairs

Using MBE to grown copper oxide cuprates, with lanthanum and strontium, analysis by a BNL team has shown that the high temperature superconductivity behaviour of these materials is determined by the density of electron pairs.

Top 100 awards

The finalists for the annual R&D 100 Awards have been announced. The Awards aim to identify and celebrate the top technology products of the year.

Optically-switchable, all-dielectric metamaterials

Researchers have harnessed non-volatile, amorphous-crystalline transitions in the chalcogenide phase-change medium germanium antimony telluride to realize optically-switchable, all-dielectric metamaterials.

Reel alert

Worrying news last month for the bagpipe fraternity. A lack of hygiene and poor cleaning of an instrument probably led to a fatal case of bagpipe lung or hypersensitivity pneumonitis. Mould and fungi accumulated within the instrument were considered to be the cause. For those few readers who do not regularly play bagpipe reels please enjoy this link.

Will the force be with us?

Is there a fifth force to go along with gravity, electromagnetism and the strong and weak nuclear forces? Experimental work in Hungary in 2015 looking for dark photons has recently been revisited by theorists at UC Irvine. Their analysis favours an interpretation based not on particles or dark photons but on the presence of a fifth fundamental force. I trust that alternative conclusions based on the lawnmower conjecture have been considered and eliminated.

New names

The proposed names for elements 113, 115, 117 and 118 are nihonium, moscovium, tennessine and oganesson respectively, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (Iupac) has announced. ‘It’s an exciting day for the world,’ says Lynn Soby, Iupac’s executive director.

Thought for the month - September 2016

“Success comprises in itself the seeds of its own decline and sport is not spared by this law.” Pierre, baron de Coubertin (1863 – 1937).

Thought for the month

“Success comprises in itself the seeds of its own decline and sport is not spared by this law.” Pierre, baron de Coubertin (1863 – 1937).