Make the strain

Space Pequod

Really random

AI therefore I am?

Robotic challenge

EU electronics focus

Big US R&D spending increase

The US government will spend $176.8bn on R&D in the current financial year, an increase of 12.8% over last year. Funding for basic and applied research gains an extra 10.7% , its largest annual increase since 2009.

Astrophysical gap

A study based on the authorship of scientific papers has examined the STEMM gender gap. It suggests, for example, that it will take about 131 years to close the gender gap in male dominated astrophysics.

Strain enhancement

A group at Warwick University are examining strain induced bulk photovoltaic effects as a route to enhanced efficiencies in solar cells.

Age matters

A recent study shows that the highest success rates in entrepreneurship come from people aged in their forties. The theory being that key entrepreneurial resources, such as human capital, financial capital, and social capital, accumulate with age. Mechanisms by which young people are proposed to have advantages, such as energy or originality, may still be operating, but if so they seem to be overwhelmed by other forces.

Rare mud

Mud, mud glorious mud are words from a song popular in my childhood. It may now be a Karaoke hit with a group of Japanese researchers. Deep sea mud near Minami-Tori-shima an atoll 800 miles off the coast of Japan appears to be a massive store of rare earth metals. The most promising 100 sq. km area is estimated to hold  1.2 million tons of rare-earth oxides which accounts for 62, 47, 32, and 56 years of annual global demand for Y, Eu, Tb, and Dy, respectively. The entire research area might be able to supply Y, Eu, Tb, and Dy for 780, 620, 420, and 730 years, respectively.

Password Day

Today (3rd May, 2018) is ... Password Day. Get tips to fortify your password habits on the official World Password Day website.

Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States and a polymath, considered that time is money and that wasting time was a great prodigality. Elon Musk may, or may not, ultimately deserve some mention in the history text books, only time will tell, but his email to employees last month has caused comment. Walking out of meetings once you cannot add value and side stepping the ‘chain of command’ being two suggested productivity enhancers. I think that he is on to something with the general theme, but if it starts to look like a good Dilbert cartoon then it is probably best to have a rethink.