“As good as gold” was a behavioural goal when I was a child. It turns out, the same can be said of gold in electronic devices according to the headline for a March 26, 2020 news item on Nanowerk (Note: Links have been removed), As electronics shrink to nanoscale, will they still be good as gold?Deep inside computer chips, tiny wires made of gold and other conductive metals carry the electricity used to process data.…

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Gold stars for everyone who recognized the loose paraphrasing of the title, Love in the Time of Cholera, for Gabrial Garcia Marquez’s 1985 novel. I wrote my headline and first paragraph yesterday and found this in my email box this morning, from a March 25, 2020 University of British Columbia news release, which compares times, diseases, and scares of the past with today’s COVID-19 (Perhaps politicians and others could read this piece and stop using…

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Mentioned here twice (in a November 29, 2019 posting about the call for proposals and in a March 4, 2020 posting about the preliminary programme), the 2020 International Symposium on Electronic Arts has been postponed, from a March 23, 2020 announcement received via email, POSTPONEMENT NOTICE – ISEA2020 New Dates: October 13 to 18, 2020 Montreal, March 23, 2020 — With the COVID-19 pandemic, the world is facing an extraordinary situation. Following the measures announced…

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It’s not ready for the COVID-19 pandemic but if I understand it properly, wearing this clothing will be a little like wearing a thermometer and that could be very useful. A March 4, 2020 news item on Nanowerk announces the research (Note: A link has been removed), Researchers have reported a new material, pliable enough to be woven into fabric but imbued with sensing capabilities that can serve as an early warning system for injury…

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There’s a lot of information being pumped out about COVID-19 and not all of it is as helpful as it might be. In fact, the sheer volume can seem overwhelming despite one’s best efforts to be calm. Here are a few things I’ve used to help relieve some fo the pressure as numbers in Canada keep rising. Inspiration from the Italians I was thrilled to find Emily Rumball’s March 18 ,2020 article titled, “Italians making…

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It turns out that silver and titanium nanomaterials (e.g. silver nanoparticles washed out of athletic clothing) in wastewater may have ‘negative’ and ‘positive’ effects on freshwater and marine life depending on the species. A November 18, 2019 news item on Nanowerk provides an introduction to the research (Note: Links have been removed), You may not always think about it when you do your laundry or flush the toilet; but whatever you eat, wear or apply…

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The scientists started out with an idea for creating a bone-like material)and ended up with something completely different. A March 16, 2020 news item on ScienceDaily announces news about a new material that could be used to replace human tissue, Researchers from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, have created a new, rubber-like material with a unique set of properties, which could act as a replacement for human tissue in medical procedures. The material has the…

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Courtesy: University of Waterloo This waffled, greyish thing may not look like much but scientists are hopeful that it can be useful as a health sensor in athletic shoes and elsewhere. A March 6, 2020 news item on Nanowerk describes the work in more detail (Note: Links have been removed), Researchers have utilized 3D printing and nanotechnology to create a durable, flexible sensor for wearable devices to monitor everything from vital signs to athletic performance…

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Curcumin is a constituent of turmeric (used in cooking and as a remedy in Ayurvedic medicine). It’s been a while since I’ve stumbled across a curcumin story (scientists have been trying to find a way to exploit its therapeutic qualities for years). The latest news comes from Australia, which is a little unexpected as most of the ‘curcumin research stories’ previously on this blog have come from India. A March 5, 2020 news item on…

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This is a big step forward but it’s not for the faint at heart. Scientists have successfully 3D printed human skin with blood vessels and grafted them onto mice. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Yale University researchers worked together on this tissue engineering project. This video features Renseellaer’s Pankaj Kraande discussing the research, Here’s a November 1, 2019 Rensselaer Polytechnic news release (also received via email and it’s on EurekAlert) describing the work in detail, Researchers…

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