As more than one observer has noted, this April 19, 2021 budget is the first in two years. Predictably, there has been some distress over the copious amounts of money being spent to stimulate/restart the economy whether it needs it or not. Some have described this as a pre-election budget. Overall, there seems to be more satisfaction than criticism. Maybe a little prescient? After mentioning some of the government’s issues with money (Phoenix Payroll System…

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First off, there’s Canada’s annual Science Odyssey (see my April 26, 2021 posting for more about the government initiative or you can go directly to the Science Odyssey website for a listing of the events). Since posting about Science Odyssey, I have received a number of emails announcing event and not all of them are part of the Odyssey experience. From the looks of things, May 2021 is going to be a very busy month.…

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I received two email notices recently, one from Dr. Andrew Maynard (Arizona State University; ASU) and one from Baba Brinkman (Canadian rapper of science and other topics now based in New York). Mission: Interplanetary I found a “Mission: Interplanetary— a podcast on the future of humans as a spacefaring species!” webpage (Link: https://collegeofglobalfutures.asu.edu/blog/2021/03/23/mission-interplanetary-redefining-how-we-talk-about-humans-in-space/) on the Arizona State University College of Global Futures website, Back in January 2019 I got an email from my good friend…

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“Building Forward Better” (sigh) is the concept for the upcoming 2021 Canadian Science Policy Conference. (I wish the theme didn’t seem derivative of “Build Back Better,” President Joe Biden’s agenda.) The deadline as it stands now is May 21, 2021 for the panel proposals and, I believe, the short talk proposals. As usual, the conference is being held in Ottawa, which is convenient when most government science policy wonks are in Ottawa, of course, the…

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Sabotage was not my first thought on reading about artificial emotional intelligence so this February 11, 2021 Incheon National University press release (also on EurekAlert) is educational in an unexpected way (Note: A link has been removed), With the advent of 5G communication technology and its integration with AI, we are looking at the dawn of a new era in which people, machines, objects, and devices are connected like never before. This smart era will…

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Lucinda McKnight, lecturer at Deakin University, Australia, has a February 9, 2021 essay about literacy in the coming age of artificial intelligence (AI) for The Conversation (Note 1: You can also find this essay as a February 10, 2021 news item on phys.org; Note 2: Links have been removed), Students across Australia have started the new school year using pencils, pens and keyboards to learn to write.In workplaces, machines are also learning to write, so…

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This coming Saturday, May 1, 2021 is the start of Canada’s annual Science Odyssey (the rebranded Canada Science and Technology Week). These days the exercise is funded through the Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada’s (NSERC) science promotion (PromoScience) programme. Let’s move on to the important things: Science Odyssey runs from May 1 – 16, 2021. You can find the events listed here on the Science Odyssey website. where you will find them listed…

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There seems to be an explosion (metaphorically and only by Canadian standards) of interest in public perceptions/engagement/awareness of artificial intelligence (see my March 29, 2021 posting “Canada launches its AI dialogues” and these dialogues run until April 30, 2021 plus there’s this April 6, 2021 posting “UNESCO’s Call for Proposals to highlight blind spots in AI Development open ’til May 2, 2021” which was launched in cooperation with Mila-Québec Artificial Intelligence Institute). Now there’s this,…

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This is a newish type of gel for which a new manufacturing has been developed jointly by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Delaware as described in a February 11, 2021 news item on phys.org (Note: A link has been removed), Oil and water may not mix, but adding the right nanoparticles to the recipe can convert these two immiscible fluids into an exotic gel with uses ranging…

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If ‘chisel’ made you think of sculpting, you are correct. The researchers are alluding to the process of sculpting in their research. Researchers were able to replicate — with sub-15 nm resolution — bone tissue structure in a biocompatible material using thermal scanning probe lithography. This method opens up unprecedented possibilities for pioneering new stem cell studies and biomedical applications. Courtesy: New York University Tandon School of Engineering From a February 9, 2021 news item…

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