The 2024 Canadian federal budget: some thoughts on science & technology, military, and cybersecurity spending

The 2024 Canadian federal budget – Fairness for Every Generation (or if you want to see the front page, Budget 2024 – Fairness for Every Generation and then go to Go View the Budget for the table of contents) was announced in April 2024. So, I’m very late with this posting. There weren’t too many...

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Do it yourself Toy Workshop at the Canada Science and Technology Museum on Nov. 30, 2024 in Ottawa, Canada

Ingenium (portfolio name for Canada Science and Technology Museum, Canada Agriculture and Food Museum, and Canada Aviation and Space Museum) sent out a November 28, 2024 announcement about it holiday season events (received via email), This winter break, put the “Wonder” in Winter Wonderland! This winter break, create unforgettable family memories at our three museums,...

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Prosthesis of the future, the first in the world with magnetic control

The headline for a September 12, 2024 Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies (Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna) press release (also on EurekAlert but published September 11, 2024) says it all but first, here’s an image showing off the prosthesis, Caption: C055800371.png: Experimental tests on robotic prosthesis: clothespin. Credit: © 2024 Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna Here’s the press release,...

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Your garden as a ‘living artwork’ for insects

Pollinator Pathmaker Eden Project Edition. Photo Royston Hunt. Courtesy Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg Ltd I suppose you could call this a kind of citizen science as well as an art project. A September 11, 2024 news item on phys.org describes a new scientific art project designed for insects, Gardens can become “living artworks” to help prevent...

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Tactile technology for VR (virtual reality) and AR (augmented reality) users

Tactile technology is also known as haptic technology and you’ll find there are more names for this technology in a September 9, 2024 Institute for Basic Science (IBS) press release (also on EurekAlert) about some of the latest research from Korea, A virtual haptic implementation technology that allows all users to experience the same tactile...

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How memristors retain information without a power source? A mystery solved

A September 10, 2024 news item on ScienceDaily provides a technical explanation of how memristors, without a power source, can retain information, Phase separation, when molecules part like oil and water, works alongside oxygen diffusion to help memristors — electrical components that store information using electrical resistance — retain information even after the power is...

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Nanoscale silver unveils intrinsic self-healing abilities

A September 7, 2024 news item on phys.org offers some intriguing information about nanoscale silver and its self-healing abilities, Note: A link has been removed, As an innovative concept in materials science and engineering, the inspiration for self-healing materials comes from living organisms that have the innate ability to self-heal. Along this line, the search...

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Recording brain activity with flexible tentacle electrodes

A September 4, 2024 news item on ScienceDaily announced some research in Switzerland that improves on electrodes used in brain implants, e.g., like Elon Musk’s company, Neuralink, Neurostimulators, also known as brain pacemakers, send electrical impulses to specific areas of the brain via special electrodes. It is estimated that some 200,000 people worldwide are now...

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