By Source (WP:NFCC#4), Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=65303730 I was surprised to see a reference to the cartoon character, Popeye, in the headline (although it’s not carried forward into the text) for this October 5, 2020 news item on ScienceDaily about research into making fuel cells more efficient, Spinach: Good for Popeye and the planet“Eat your spinach,” is a common refrain from many people’s childhoods. Spinach, the hearty, green vegetable chock full of nutrients, doesn’t just provide…

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I’m fascinated by this image, Caption: Skoltech researchers have investigated the procedure for catalyst delivery used in the most common method of carbon nanotube production, chemical vapor deposition (CVD), offering what they call a “simple and elegant” way to boost productivity and pave the way for cheaper and more accessible nanotube-based technology. Credit: Pavel Odinev/Skoltech If I understand it correctly, getting the catalyst particles into a tighter, more uniform formation is what could lead to…

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The Wilson Center (also known as the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars) in Washington, DC is hosting a live webcast tomorrow on Dec. 3, 2020 and a call for applications for an internship (deadline; Dec. 18, 2020) and all of it concerns artificial intelligence (AI). Assessing the AI Agenda: a Dec. 3, 2020 event This looks like there could be some very interesting discussion about policy and AI, which could be applicable to other…

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There’s a lot of action, albeit quiet and understated, in the Canadian gene therapy ‘discussion’. One major boost to the discussion was the Nov. 3, 2020 release of a report by the Canadian Council of Academies (CCA), “From Research to Reality; The Expert Panel on the Approval and Use of Somatic Gene Therapies in Canada.” Dec. 2 – 3, 2020 Breaking Through Another boost is the the free and virtual, upcoming 2020 Gairdner Ontario International…

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Here’s a video about “Imagine Van Gogh,” coming soon to Vancouver, they hope, but which opened first in Montréal in December 2019 where almost 200,000 visited the exhibit before it moved to Winnipeg in March 2020 (Note: There is an advertisement before the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s (CBC) segment begins), The Dec. 7, 2019 CBC news item (where video was embedded), provides more details about the exhibit experience (Note: A link has been removed), …Brushstrokes appear…

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It seems that this new technique for creating wearable electronics will be more like getting a permanent tattoo where the circuits are applied directly to your skin as opposed to being like a temporary tattoo where the circuits are printed onto a substrate and then applied to then, worn on your skin. Caption: On-body sensors, such as electrodes and temperature sensors, were directly printed and sintered on the skin surface. Credit: Adapted from ACS Applied…

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Synergistic action can be difficult to study especially when you’re looking at nanoparticles which could be naturally occurring and/or engineered. I believe this study is focused on engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) and I think it’s the first one I’ve seen that examines synergistic action of any kind. So, bravo to the scientists for tackling a very ambitious project. An October 1, 2020 news item on phys.org describes this work from Denmark, Nanoparticles are used in a…

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I think I can safely say that Carson J. Bruns, a Professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, is an electronic tattoo enthusiast. His Sept. 24, 2020 essay on electronic tattoos for The Conversation (also found on Fast Company) outlines a very rosy view of a future where health monitoring is constant and visible on your skin (Note: Links have been removed), In the sci-fi novel “The Diamond Age” by Neal Stephenson, body art has…

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This research may have the answer as to why a supposedly peaceful volcano will suddenly explode violently. From a September 24, 2020 University of Bayreuth press release (also on EurekAlert), Tiny crystals, ten thousand times thinner than a human hair, can cause explosive volcanic eruptions. This surprising connection has recently been discovered by a German-British research team led by Dr. Danilo Di Genova from the Bavarian Research Institute of Experimental Geochemistry & Geophysics (BGI) at…

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A Sept. 23, 2020 news item on Nanowerk describes both skyrmions and the latest in potentially practical ‘skyrmion research’ , Nanoscale vortices known as skyrmions can be created in many magnetic materials. For the first time, researchers at PSI [Paul Scherrer Institute] have managed to create and identify antiferromagnetic skyrmions with a unique property: critical elements inside them are arranged in opposing directions. Scientists have succeeded in visualising this phenomenon using neutron scattering. Their discovery…

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