They’re usually called apostates; those people who switch from one belief to its opposite. In this case, an advocate who opposed genetically modified foods switched sides as a January 17, 2019 news item on ScienceDaily explains, What happens when a strong advocate for one side of a controversial issue in science publicly announces that he or she now believes the opposite? Does the message affect the views of those who witness it — and if…

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Just when I thought I’d seen all the carbon nanotube abbreviations; I find two new ones in my first news bit about adhesion. Later, I’m including a second news bit that has to do with the upcoming American Chemical Society (ACS) Meeting in San Diego, California. Sticky carbon nanotubes (CNTs) Scientists have developed an adhesive that retains its stickiness in extreme temperatures according to a July 10, 2019 news item on Nanowerk (Note: A link…

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I had not realized that blood vessels are considered organs (Live and learn.) The big news about blood vessel organoids was announced in a January 16, 2019 news item on ScienceDaily, Scientists have managed to grow perfect human blood vessels as organoids in a petri dish for the first timeThe breakthrough engineering technology, outlined in a new study published today [January 16, 2019] in Nature, dramatically advances research of vascular diseases like diabetes, identifying a…

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It’s been a while since I’ve had a story abut cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) and this one comes from Switzerland’s Empa (Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology) in a January 15, 2019 news item on Nanowerk (Note: A link has been removed), Cellulose obtained from wood has amazing material properties. Empa researchers are now equipping the biodegradable material with additional functionalities to produce implants for cartilage diseases using 3D printing (ACS Nano, “Dynamics of…

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Caption: Parts of BlocKit Credit: Irni Khairuddin I’m always on the lookout for something that helps make blockchain and cryptocurrency more understandable. (For the uninitiated or anyone like me who needed to refresh their memories, I have links to good essays on the topic further down in this posting.) A July 10, 2019 news item on ScienceDaily announces a new approach to understanding blockchain technology, A kit made from everyday objects is bringing the blockchain…

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CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) technology is often touted as being ‘precise’, which as far as I can tell, is not exactly the case (see my Nov. 28, 2018 posting about the CRISPR babies [scroll down about 30% of the way for the first hint that CRISPR isn’t]). So, it’s a bit odd to see the word ‘precise’ used as part of a new CRISPR-based technology’s name (from a January 8, 2019 news…

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Have you ever wondered about the possible effects and impact of desalinating large amounts of ocean water? It seems that some United Nations University (UNU) researchers have asked and are beginning to answer that question. The following table illustrates the rise in desalination plants and processes, Today 15,906 operational desalination plants are found in 177 countries. Almost half of the global desalination capacity is located in the Middle East and North Africa region (48 percent),…

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While it’s true enough in English where you don’t spell the word team with the letter ‘I’, that’s not the case in French where the word is ‘equipe’. it makes me wonder how many other languages in the world have an ‘I’ in team. Moving on. This English language saying is true enough in its way but there is no team unless you have a group of ‘I’s’ and the trick is getting them to…

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I don’t understand why anyone would publicize science work featuring soundscapes without including an audio file. However, no one from Princeton University (US) phoned and asked for my advice :). On the plus side, my whale story does have a sample audio file. However, I’m not sure if I can figure out how to embed it here. Princeton and monitoring forests In addition to a professor from Princeton University, there’s the founder of an environmental…

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Caption: Schematic representation of the movement of the flower-like particle as it makes its way through a cellular trap to deliver therapeutic genes. Credit: WSU [Washington State University] It looks more like a swimming pool with pool toys to me but I imagine that nobody wants to say that they’re sending ‘pool toys’ through your bloodstream. Nanoflowers or flower-shaped nanoparticles sounds nicer. From a January 10, 2019 news item on Nanowerk, Washington State University [WSU]…

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