It’s nice to find this research after my August 21, 2018 posting where I highlighted (scroll down to ‘Final comments’) the issues around databases and skin cancer data which is usually derived from fair-skinned people while people with darker hues tend not to be included. This is partly due to the fact that fair-skinned people have a higher risk and also partly due to myths about how more melanin in your skin somehow protects you…

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Sans forgetica is a new, scientifically and aesthetically designed font to help students remember what they read. An October 4, 2018 news article by Mark Wycislik-Wilson for Beta News announces the new font, Researchers from Australia’s RMIT University have created a font which they say could help you to retain more data. Sans Forgetica is the result of work involving typographic design specialists and psychologists, and it has been designed specifically to make it easier…

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This is story actually started in 2018 with an August 1, 2018 Harvard University news release (h/t Aug. 1, 2018 news item on phys.org) by Leslie Brownell announcing molecular and synthetic biology educational kits that been tested in the classroom. (In 2019, a new kit was released but more about that later.) As biologists have probed deeper into the molecular and genetic underpinnings of life, K-12 schools have struggled to provide a curriculum that reflects…

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Today (May 7, 2019), I’m writing up a Canadian science hodge podge of a post. From a sheep shearing festival in May to summer camps for kids: Ingenium’s Canadian science museums Ingenium, for those who don’t know, is the corporate ‘parent’ for the Canada Science and Technology Museum, the Canada Aviation and Space Museum, and the Canada Agriculture and Food Museum. Confusingly, the ‘parent’ was once called the Canada Science and Technology Museums Corporation (CSTMC).…

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I think this form of ‘cannibalism’ could also be described as a form of ‘self-assembly’. That said, here is an August 31, 2018 news item on ScienceDaily announcing ‘cannibalistic’ materials, Scientists at the [US] Department of Energy’s [DOE] Oak Ridge National Laboratory [ORNL] induced a two-dimensional material to cannibalize itself for atomic “building blocks” from which stable structures formed. The findings, reported in Nature Communications, provide insights that may improve design of 2D materials for…

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A May 2,2019 news item on Nanowerk describes some graphene-based artwork being created at Rice University (Texas, US), Note: A link has been removed, When you read about electrifying art, “electrifying” isn’t usually a verb. But an artist working with a Rice University lab is in fact making artwork that can deliver a jolt.The Rice lab of chemist James Tour introduced laser-induced graphene (LIG) to the world in 2014, and now the researchers are making…

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Turning yourself into a robot is a little easier than I would have thought, William Weir’s September 19, 2018 Yale University news release (also on EurekAlert) covers some of the same ground and fills in a few details, When you think of robotics, you likely think of something rigid, heavy, and built for a specific purpose. New “Robotic Skins” technology developed by Yale researchers flips that notion on its head, allowing users to animate the…

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It seems May 2019 is destined to be a big month where science events in Canada are concerned. I have three national science science promotion programmes, Science Odyssey, Science Rendezvous, and Pint of Science Festival Canada (part of an international effort); two local (Vancouver, Canada) events, an art/sci café from Curiosity Collider and a SciCats science communication workshop; a national/local event at Ingenium’s Canada Science and Technology Museum in Ottawa, and an international social media…

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Shades of Eadweard Muybridge (English photographer who pioneered photographic motion studies)! A September 19, 2018 news item on ScienceDaily describes the latest efforts to ‘capture motion’, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady has often credited his success to spending countless hours studying his opponent’s movements on film. This understanding of movement is necessary for all living species, whether it’s figuring out what angle to throw a ball at, or perceiving the motion of predators and prey. But…

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Caption: From left are Saewon Kang, Professor Hyunhyub Ko, and Seungse Cho in the School of Energy and Chemical Engineering at UNIST. Credit: UNIST What are these scientists so happy about? A September 18, 2018 news item on ScienceDaily reveals all, An international team of researchers, affiliated with UNIST [Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology] has presented an innovative wearable technology that will turn your skin into a loudspeaker. An August 6, 2018 UNIST…

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