A Sept. 4, 2020 news item on phys.org showcases some intriguing research from the European Space Agency (ESA), “Eat your vitamins” might be replaced with “ingest your ceramic nano-particles” in the future as space research is giving more weight to the idea that nanoscopic particles could help protect cells from common causes of damage.… A Sept, 4, 2020 ESA press release, which originated the news item, fills in some of the details and raises a…

Continue reading

If you’re hoping for a Rumpelstiltskin reference (there is more about the fairy tale at the end of this posting) and despite the press release’s headline, you won’t find it in this August 10, 2020 news item on Nanowerk, When nanocellulose is combined with various types of metal nanoparticles, materials are formed with many new and exciting properties. They may be antibacterial, change colour under pressure, or convert light to heat.“To put it simply, we…

Continue reading

I think the title for this post says it all. Faculty positions From an Oct. 13, 2020 Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics (PI) announcement (received via email), Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics is inviting applications for tenure-track Faculty positions in Quantum Matter and Quantum Information Science. For more information please visit our website.We would be very grateful if you would circulate this information to outstanding early career candidates who may be interested in this opportunity.Perimeter…

Continue reading

For anyone who doesn’t know who Ada Lovelace was (from my Oct. 13, 2015 posting, ‘Ada Lovelace “… manipulative, aggressive, a drug addict …” and a genius but was she likable?‘) …Ada Lovelace was the daughter of the poet Lord Byron and mathematician Annabella Milbanke.…Her [Ada Lovelace’s] foresight was so extraordinary that it would take another hundred years and Alan Turing to recognise the significance of her work. But it was an achievement that was…

Continue reading

Caption: Forward burrowers use pointed snouts and powerful forelimbs bolstered by strong pectoral muscles to scrabble into the earth. They’re often orb-shaped to improve their ability to hold water. Credit: Rachel Keeffe It’s always enjoyable to see the scientific community indulge in a little fun and I’m using that as an excuse for including a frog story here. From an August 31, 2020 Florida Museum of Natural History news release (also on EurekAlert but published…

Continue reading

Depending on how you feel about bodily fluids, sex, orgasms, and beauty care products being discussed as part of an event that is both workshop and performance, you may feel you’ve read enough now. What follows is not especially graphic but it’s not for everybody. First, here’s more about the Oct. 29, 2020 event followed by a call for participants (it’s open until Oct. 15, 2020). ArtSci Salon’s Beauty Kit – eco-erogenous para-pharmaceutics; a workshop/performance…

Continue reading

It’s possible there’s a more dramatic development in the field of contemporary gene-editing but it’s indisputable that CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) -cas9 (CRISPR-associated 9 [protein]) ranks very highly indeed. The technique, first discovered (or developed) in 2012, has brought recognition in the form of the 2020 Nobel Prize for Chemistry to CRISPR’s two discoverers, Emanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna. An October 7, 2020 news item on phys.org announces the news, The Nobel…

Continue reading

An August 6, 2020 RMIT University (Australia) press release (also on EurekAlert but published August 5, 2020) by Gosia Kaszubska announces a coating that makes windows ‘smart’, A simple method for making clear coatings that can block heat and conduct electricity could radically cut the cost of energy-saving smart windows and heat-repelling glass [electrochromic windows?].The spray-on coatings developed by researchers at RMIT are ultra-thin, cost-effective and rival the performance of current industry standards for transparent…

Continue reading

First, there was a dress that reflected your emotions. Now, apparently, there’s a dress that reflects your thoughts. Frankly, I don’t understand why anyone would want clothing that performed either function. However, I’m sure there’s an extrovert out there who’s equally puzzled abut my take on this matter. Emotion-reading dress Before getting to this latest piece of wearable technology, the mind-reading dress, you might find this emotional sensing dress not only interesting but eerily similar,…

Continue reading

I love structural colo(u) and the first such story here was this February 7, 2013 posting, which is where you’ll find the image below, AGELESS BRILLIANCE: Although the pigment-derived leaf color of this decades-old specimen of the African perennial Pollia condensata has faded, the fruit still maintains its intense metallic-blue iridescence.COURTESY OF P.J. RUDALL [downloaded from http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/34200/title/Color-from-Structure/] Those berries are stunning especially when you realize they are part of a long-dead Pollia plant. Scientist, Rox…

Continue reading