The most recent post here but not the most recent research about preserving stone monuments and buildings is a December 23, 2019 piece titled: Good for your bones and good for art conservation: calcium. Spanish researchers (who seem particularly active in this research niche) are investigating a more refined approach to preserving stone monuments with calcium according to a May 8, 2020 news item on Nanowerk, The fluorescence emitted by tiny zinc oxide quantum dots…

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Caption: Naomi Fitter and Jon the Robot. Credit: Johanna Carson, OSU College of Engineering Robot comedian is not my first thought on seeing that image; ventriloquist’s dummy is what came to mind. However, it’s not the first time I’ve been wrong about something. A May 19, 2020 news item on ScienceDaily reveals the truth about Jon, a comedian in robot form, Standup comedian Jon the Robot likes to tell his audiences that he does lots…

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More and more, this resembles a public relations campaign. First, CRISPR (clustered regularly interspersed short palindromic repeats) gene editing is going to be helpful with COVID-19 and now it can help us to deal with conservation issues. (See my May 26, 2020 posting about the latest CRISPR doings as of May 7, 2020; included is a brief description of the patent dispute between Broad Institute and UC Berkeley and musings about a public relations campaign.)…

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Clustered regularly interspersed short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) gene editing has been largely confined to laboratory use or tested in agricultural trials. I believe that is true worldwide excepting the CRISPR twin scandal. (There are numerous postings about the CRISPR twins here including a Nov. 28, 2018 post, a May 17, 2019 post, and a June 20, 2019 post. Update: It was reported (3rd. para.) in December 2019 that He had been sentenced to three years…

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A May 15, 2020 news item on Nanowerk provides context for an announcement of a research breakthrough on quantum entanglement, Quantum entanglement is a process by which microscopic objects like electrons or atoms lose their individuality to become better coordinated with each other. Entanglement is at the heart of quantum technologies that promise large advances in computing, communications and sensing, for example detecting gravitational waves.Entangled states are famously fragile: in most cases even a tiny…

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A May 15, 2020 news item on Nanowerk provides context for an announcement of a research breakthrough on quantum entanglement, Quantum entanglement is a process by which microscopic objects like electrons or atoms lose their individuality to become better coordinated with each other. Entanglement is at the heart of quantum technologies that promise large advances in computing, communications and sensing, for example detecting gravitational waves.Entangled states are famously fragile: in most cases even a tiny…

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A simulation of a quantum material’s properties reveals its ability to learn numbers, a test of artificial intelligence. (Purdue University image/Shakti Wadekar) A May 7, 2020 Purdue University news release (also on EurekAlert) describes a new approach for energy-efficient hardware in support of artificial intelligence (AI) systems, To just solve a puzzle or play a game, artificial intelligence can require software running on thousands of computers. That could be the energy that three nuclear plants…

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I went down a rabbit hole while trying to figure out the difference between ‘organic’ memristors and standard memristors. I have put the results of my investigation at the end of this post. First, there’s the news. An April 21, 2020 news item on ScienceDaily explains why researchers are so focused on memristors and brainlike computing, The advent of artificial intelligence, machine learning and the internet of things is expected to change modern electronics and…

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Researchers have shown that plasmonics can enhance the fluorescent markers used to signal positive samples in certain types of tests for diseases. A polymer brush coating keeps unwanted biomolecules away while a capture antibody (red) catches biomarkers of disease (clear). A detection antibody (blue) then latches on to the biomarker and emits light from an attached fluorophore (sphere). All of this is sandwiched by a thin layer of gold and a silver nanocube that is…

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My reference point for date and time is almost always Pacific Time (PT). Depending on which time zone you live in, the day and date I’ve listed here may be incorrect. For anyone who has difficulty figuring out which day and time the event will take place where they live, a search for ‘time zone converter’ on one of the search engines should prove helpful. May 20, 2020 at 7:30 pm (UK time): Complicité’s The…

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