Detecting off-target effects of CRISPR gene-editing

September 20, 2019 Maryse de la Giroday Science in Society, Technology and Engineering

In amidst all the hyperbole about CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats), the gene editing technology, you will sometimes find a mild cautionary note. It seems that CRISPR is not as precise as you might think. Some months ago there was a story about research into detecting possible unanticipated (off target) effects from using CRISPR, from an April 19, 2019 news item on ScienceDaily, Since the CRISPR genome editing technology was invented in 2012,…

Colo(u)r-changing building surfaces thanks to gold nanoparticles

September 19, 2019 Maryse de la Giroday Science in Society, Technology and Engineering

Gold, at the nanoscale, has different properties than it has at the macroscale and research at the University of Cambridge has found a new way to exploit gold’s unique properties at the nanoscale according to a May 13, 2019 news item item on ScienceDaily, The smallest pixels yet created — a million times smaller than those in smartphones, made by trapping particles of light under tiny rocks of gold — could be used for new…

Electronics begone! Enter: the light-based brainlike computing chip

September 18, 2019 Maryse de la Giroday Science in Society, Technology and Engineering

At this point, it’s possible I’m wrong but I think this is the first ‘memristor’ type device (also called a neuromorphic chip) based on light rather than electronics that I’ve featured here on this blog. In other words, it’s not, technically speaking, a memristor but it does have the same properties so it is a neuromorphic chip. Caption: The optical microchips that the researchers are working on developing are about the size of a one-cent…

Congratulations Nic

September 18, 2019 Dan Gillis Communication, Education and Outreach, Science in Society, Technology and Engineering

Congratulations to Nic Durish, MSc Computer Science student, who was recently announced as the recipient of the 2018/2019 School of Computer Science Teaching Assistant Award. Nic was nominated for his continued contributions to teaching, learning, and leadership in the School. I have had the pleasure of working with Nic for many years now – bothContinue reading "Congratulations Nic"

Bad battery, good synapse from Stanford University

September 17, 2019 Maryse de la Giroday Science in Society, Technology and Engineering

A May 4, 2019 news item on ScienceDaily announces the latest advance made by Stanford University and Sandia National Laboratories in the field of neuromorphic (brainlike) computing, The brain’s capacity for simultaneously learning and memorizing large amounts of information while requiring little energy has inspired an entire field to pursue brain-like — or neuromorphic — computers. Researchers at Stanford University and Sandia National Laboratories previously developed one portion of such a computer: a device that…

Active Learning Examples

September 16, 2019 Ajax Scientific Ltd. Communication, Education and Outreach, Policy and Politics, Science in Society

Active learning can take many forms. We are sure you are using some of these already but here we have compiled a longer list of active learning examples to hopefully help you expand your toolkit. If you need information on what is active learning, why it works so well, some strategies for applying active learning […] The post Active Learning Examples appeared first on Ajax Scientifc Ltd.

Automated science writing?

September 16, 2019 Maryse de la Giroday Science in Society, Technology and Engineering

It seems that automated science writing is not ready—yet. Still, an April 18, 2019 news item on ScienceDaily suggests that progress is being made, The work of a science writer, including this one, includes reading journal papers filled with specialized technical terminology, and figuring out how to explain their contents in language that readers without a scientific background can understand.Now, a team of scientists at MIT [Massachusetts Institute of Technology] and elsewhere has developed a…

The inertia of science

September 15, 2019 Staffan Lindgren Biology and Life Sciences, Environmental and Earth Sciences, Science in Society

Some of the greatest scientific advances have been made by maverick scientists; people who go off on tangents despite widely accepted existing paradigms. A paradigm is essentially an accepted framework that directs research to advance by an accumulation of solutions to problems. According to Thomas Kuhn, normal science operates within this framework. From time to time, a revolution may occur, which shifts the paradigm to create a more or less different framework. In other words,…

Dessert or computer screen?

September 13, 2019 Maryse de la Giroday Science in Society, Technology and Engineering

Scientists at Japan’s University of Osaka have a technique for creating higher resolution computer and smart phone screens from the main ingredient for a dessert, nata de coco. From the nata de coco Wikipedia entry (Note: Links have been removed), Nata de coco (also marketed as “coconut gel”) is a chewy, translucent, jelly-like food produced by the fermentation of coconut water,[1] which gels through the production of microbial cellulose by ‘Komagataeibacter xylinus’. Originating in the…

Brainlike computing with spintronic devices

September 12, 2019 Maryse de la Giroday Science in Society, Technology and Engineering

Adding to the body of ‘memristor’ research I have here, there’s an April 17, 2019 news item on Nanowerk announcing the development of ‘memristor’ hardware by Japanese researchers (Note: A link has been removed), A research group from Tohoku University has developed spintronics devices which are promising for future energy-efficient and adoptive computing systems, as they behave like neurons and synapses in the human brain (Advanced Materials, “Artificial Neuron and Synapse Realized in an Antiferromagnet/Ferromagnet…

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