Great Pyramid of Giza and Sphinx [downloaded from http://news.ifmo.ru/en/science/photonics/news/7731/]Russian and German scientists have taken a closer look at the Great Pyramid as they investigate better ways of designing sensors and solar cells. From a July 30, 2018 news item on Nanowerk, An international research group applied methods of theoretical physics to investigate the electromagnetic response of the Great Pyramid to radio waves. Scientists predicted that under resonance conditions the pyramid can concentrate electromagnetic energy in…

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A new technique for better understanding how silver nanoparticles might affect the environment was announced in a July 30, 2018 news item on ScienceDaily, Chemists at Ruhr-Universität Bochum have developed a new method of observing the chemical reactions of individual silver nanoparticles, which only measure a thousandth of the thickness of a human hair, in real time. The particles are used in medicine, food and sports items because they have an antibacterial and anti-inflammatory effect.…

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One of my earliest posts featuring memristors (May 9, 2008) focused on their potential for energy savings but since then most of my postings feature research into their application in the field of neuromorphic (brainlike) computing. (For a description and abbreviated history of the memristor go to this page on my Nanotech Mysteries Wiki.) In a sense this July 30, 2018 news item on Nanowerk is a return to the beginning, A new way of…

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Following on my May 11, 2018 posting about the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and the 2018 AI for Good Global Summit in mid- May, there’s an announcement. My other bit of AI news concerns animal testing. Leveraging the power of AI for health A July 24, 2018 ITU press release (a shorter version was received via email) announces a joint initiative focused on improving health, Two United Nations specialized agencies are joining forces to expand…

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I always appreciate a reference to James Clerk Maxwell’s demon thought experiment (you can find out about it in the Maxwell’s demon Wikipedia entry). This time it comes from physicist  Kater Murch in a July 23, 2018 Washington University in st. Louis (WUSTL) news release (published July 25, 2018 on EurekAlert) written by Brandie Jefferson (offering a good explanation of the thought experiment and more), Thermodynamics is one of the most human of scientific enterprises,…

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Konstantin (Kostya) Novoselov (Nobel Prize in Physics 2010) strikes out artistically, again. The last time was in 2018 (see my August 13, 2018 posting about Novoselov’s project with artist Mary Griffiths). This time around, Novoselov and artist, Kate Daudy, will be creating an art piece during a demonstration at the Mobile World Congress 19 (MWC 19) in Barcelona, Spain. From a February 21, 2019 news item on Azonano, …Novoselov is most popular for his revolutionary…

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I can’t believe that October 24, 2011 was the last time the Dance Your Ph.D. competition was featured here. Time flies, eh? Here’s the 2018 contest winner’s submission, Superconductivity: The Musical!, (Note: This video is over 11 mins. long), A February 17, 2019 CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) news item introduces the video’s writer, producer,s musician, and scientist, Swing dancing. Songwriting. And theoretical condensed matter physics.It’s a unique person who can master all three, but a University…

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This artistic feud has its roots in a nanotechnology-enabled coating material known as Vantablack. Surrey Nanosystems in the UK sent me an announcement which I featured here in a March 14, 2016 posting. About one month later (in an April 16, 2016 posting regarding risks and an artistic controversy), I recounted the story of the controversy, which resulted from the company’s exclusive deal with artist, Sir Anish Kapoor (scroll down the post about 60% of…

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This research is from Purdue University (Indiana, US) and the University of Virginia (US) increases and improves the interactivity between objects in what’s called the Internet of Things (IoT). Caption: Electronic stickers can turn ordinary toy blocks into high-tech sensors within the ‘internet of things.’ Credit: Purdue University image/Chi Hwan Lee From a July 16, 2018 news item on ScienceDaily, Billions of objects ranging from smartphones and watches to buildings, machine parts and medical devices…

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The title, which I’ve borrowed from the news release, is the only Wizard of Oz reference that I can find but it works so well, you don’t really need anything more. Moving onto the news, a July 23, 2018 news item on phys.org announces new work on developing an artificial synapse (Note: A link has been removed), Digital computation has rendered nearly all forms of analog computation obsolete since as far back as the 1950s.…

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