Stress and wafer curvature tool installed

k-Space Associates, announced that Leti, an institute of CEA and leading innovator in nanotechnology research and technology, has installed a kSA MOS ThermalScan system for the  measurement of film stress and wafer curvature.

Towards reproducibility

More than 70% of researchers have tried and failed to reproduce another scientist’s experiments with selective reporting and pressure to publish being considered the biggest drivers of lack of reproducibility (http://www.nature.com/news/1-500-scientists-lift-the-lid-on-reproducibility-1.19970 ). A better understanding of statistics and improved mentoring were identified as areas for improvement. Recent comments have focussed on the role of computers and software in the lack of transparency (https://theconversation.com/how-computers-broke-science-and-what-we-can-do-to-fix-it-49938 ). Open research, registered reports, data sharing and rewarding confirmatory work are tangible actions that should increase reproducibility (https://theconversation.com/the-science-reproducibility-crisis-and-what-can-be-done-about-it-74198). Last month one academic suggested (https://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/2017/mar/13/fraudulent-research-academic-misconduct-solutions) having an anti-corruption squad.

Losing its shine?

Dark matter is an established postulate. It needs to exist in order to explain the motions of galaxy clusters. Undetected to date, its existence has been somewhat the preferred option to modifying General Relativity’s version of dynamics. However are we seeing the start of a dark matter mood shift? Older universes seem less reliant than expected on dark matter and galaxy rings are showing anomalous behaviour. Will Einstein have to join with the dark side? Or will the force be with him?

Mind over smartphone - or vice versa?

Our habits and the way we think have always been changed by technology. The printing press, agricultural machinery, the motor car and the television have all contributed to behavioural and attitudinal changes. Is the ubiquitous smartphone something more insidious? Is our reliance on this easy to access tool outsourcing our memory functions and leading to cognitive decline? Are spatial and navigational strategies at threat from the use of GPS? Indeed are musculoskeletal changes resulting due to hours spent hunched over these devices? An interesting article looked at many of these issues and whilst it notes that we may never know just how our digital toys shape our brains, our brains are responding and adapting to it. The bigger challenge may come not from what exactly the technology does to us and our lives but what by default it displaces. Less time spent on activities such as parenting, socializing and exercise may have greater consequences for society.

The historian Niall Ferguson once opined: the law of unintended consequences is the only real law of history.

Towards printable solar cells

New perovskite solar cells have achieved an efficiency of 20.1 per cent and can be manufactured at low temperatures, which reduces the cost and expands the number of possible applications.

Big spenders

Worldwide R&D expenditures and other science and technology indicators by ranked country.

Humans fold

An artificial-intelligence program known as Libratus has beaten the world's absolute best human poker players in a 20-day No-Limit Texas Hold'em tournament.

Energy saver

Material can turn sunlight, heat and movement into electricity ... all at once.

Aid or accusation?

The problem of fake data may go far deeper than scientists admit. Now a team of researchers has a controversial plan to root out the perpetrators

Graphene is good for ...?

£120m down, UK.gov finds it's still a long way from commercial potential. Wonder material, not wonder market

Beans mean graphene

A breakthrough by CSIRO-led scientists has made the world’s strongest material more commercially viable, thanks to the humble soybean.