Carbon nanotube optics and the quantum

A US-France-Germany collaboration has led to some intriguing work with carbon nanotubes. From a June 18, 2018 news item on ScienceDaily, Researchers at Los Alamos and partners in France and Germany are exploring the enhanced potential of carbon nanotubes as single-photon emitters for quantum information processing. Their analysis of progress in the field is published in this week’s edition of the journal Nature Materials. “We are particularly interested in advances in nanotube integration into photonic…

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Metcalf Institute Science Immersion Fellowship 2019 for journalists: applications open

I received this January 4, 2018 announcement from the Metcalf Institute at the University of Rhode Island (URI; US) in my email this morning. In other words, this is fresh off the email, Get Science Tools to Break StoriesAbout Global Change & Water Resources Apply for Metcalf Institute’s Career-Changing Science Immersion Fellowshiptuition, room and board, and travel support included Global Change Impacts and WaterAccording to the United Nations, water is the “primary medium through which…

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Talking about brains in Vancouver, Canada

I have two items, one featuring past events and one featuring an upcoming January 2019 event. Brain Talks The Brain Talks series folks featuring a bunch of Dept. of Psychiatry types and their ilk at the School of Medicine at the University of British Columbia sent me a December 21, 2018 announcement (via email) about videos featuring past talks, Haven’t been able to make one of the last severals BrainTalks? Luckily, we’ve been filming! HAVE…

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Moths with sound absorption stealth technology

The cabbage tree emperor moth (Thomas Neil) [downloaded from https://www.cbc.ca/radio/quirks/nov-17-2018-greenland-asteroid-impact-short-people-in-the-rain-forest-reef-islands-and-sea-level-and-more-1.4906857/how-moths-evolved-a-kind-of-stealth-jet-technology-to-sneak-past-bats-1.4906866] I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more gorgeous moth and it seems a perfect way to enter 2019, from a November 16, 2018 news item on CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation), A species of silk moth has evolved special sound absorbing scales on its wings to absorb the sonar pulses from hunting bats. This is analogous to the special coatings on stealth aircraft that allow them…

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FrogHeart and the year ending/beginning—2018 into 2019

I’m not sure I’m ready to take another look at my Friday, December 28, 2018 posting; at this point, I’m feeling embarrassed at being so cranky that I forgot to note how much I have appreciated WordPress software over the years. It should also be noted that the updated ‘linki’ function in WordPress 5.0 is easier to use. Unfortunately, that’s all I can find to praise but my fingers are crossed in hope that the…

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WordPress 5.0—Worse Christmas gift ever!

Without checking to see the reaction to this latest version, I updated this blog to the latest version of WordPress (WP). After using WP for over ten years and never having had a big problem, there was a surprise in store for me. There have been glitches in the past but for the most part, I have written, edited, and published my pieces with relative ease. This is no longer true. First, I’m going to…

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Sound-absorbing nanofoam

In these increasingly noisy days (there’s construction going on around me), news of a cheaper, easier way to dull the noise is very attractive. From a June 25, 2018 Far Eastern Federal University (Russia) press release on EurekAlert, The breakthrough material reduces a noise level by 100% more efficient comparing to standard analogs, cutting the level of noise transmission by 20-22 dB. The new foam reacts to sound waves not only of high but also…

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Joyeux Noël! Science raps for Christmas 2018!

I received a December 17, 2018 email from Baba Brinkman, a Canadian rapper who lives in New York City these days and who has often graced this blog. He has an offer for those of us lucky enough to be in New York City from December 27, 2018 to mid-February 2019 , If you’re looking for a last minute present for someone you know in New York, get them the gift of thought-provoking entertainment with…

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Neurons and graphene carpets

I don’t entirely grasp the carpet analogy. Actually, I have no why they used a carpet analogy but here’s the June 12, 2018 ScienceDaily news item about the research, A work led by SISSA [Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati] and published on Nature Nanotechnology reports for the first time experimentally the phenomenon of ion ‘trapping’ by graphene carpets and its effect on the communication between neurons. The researchers have observed an increase in the…

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Tech Art Fair (Ontario, Canada) call for submissions

I received an email (Dec. 19, 2018) from the ArtSci Salon folks in Toronto (Canada) about this call for submissions. It’s a bit late but there’s still time (Jan. 14, 2019) to make the deadline, From a December 19, 2018 ArtSci Salon announcement, OPEN CALL Tech Art Fair February 16 – 18, 2019 at the Ontario Science Centre Juried Competition: Call for Applications to Participate in the Tech Art Fair Are you a tech-focused artist…

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