Comparing it to a ‘camera’, even with the quotes, is a bit of a stretch for my taste but I can’t come up with a better comparison. Here’s a video so you can judge for yourself, Caption: This video repeats three times the graphene camera images of a single beat of an embryonic chicken heart. The images, separated by 5 milliseconds, were measured by a laser bouncing off a graphene sheet lying beneath the heart.…

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The flower beetle Torynorrhina flammea. [downloaded from https://www.nanowerk.com/nanotechnology-news2/newsid=58269.php] That is one gorgeous beetle and a June 17, 2021 news item on Nanowerk reveals that it features in a structural colour story (i.e, how structures rather than pigments create colour), The unique mechanical and optical properties found in the exoskeleton of a humble Asian beetle has the potential to offer a fascinating new insight into how to develop new, effective bio-inspired technologies.Pioneering new research by a…

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Researchers at the University of Birmingham (UK) announced the development of a library of nanomaterial properties according to a June 8, 2021 news item on Nanowerk (Note: Links have been removed), Researchers have developed a ‘library of properties’ to help identify the environmental impact of nanomaterials faster and more cost effectively.Whilst nanomaterials have benefited a wide range of industries and revolutionized everyday life, there are concerns over potential adverse effects—including toxic effects following accumulation in…

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A June 8, 2021 news item on phys.org announces some intriguing research (Note: Links have been removed), Globally, the Earth system has thousands of terragrams (Tg) (1 Tg = 1012g) of mineral nanoparticles moving around the planet each year. These mineral nanoparticles are ubiquitously distributed throughout the atmosphere, oceans, waters, soils, in and/or on most living organisms, and even within proteins such as ferritin. In natural environments, mineral nanozymes can be produced by two pathways:…

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It’s the ‘est’ of it all. The coolest, the whitest, the blackest … Scientists and artists are both pursuing the ‘est’. (More about the pursuit later in this posting.) In this case, scientists have developed the coolest, whitest paint yet. From an April 16, 2021 news item on Nanowerk, In an effort to curb global warming, Purdue University engineers have created the whitest paint yet. Coating buildings with this paint may one day cool them…

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Caption: Each of the blocks in this quilt were designed using an algorithm-based tool developed by Stanford researchers. Credit: Mackenzie Leake I love the colours. This research into quilting and artificial intelligence (AI) was presented at SIGGRAPH 2021 in August. (SIGGRAPH is, also known as, ACM SIGGRAPH or ‘Association for Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques’.) A June 3, 2021 news item on ScienceDaily announced the presentation, Stanford University computer…

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It’s six years (May 4, 2015 posting) since I last featured the Science & You conference here. Science & You 2021 (hosted by l’Université de Lorraine) will be held in Robert Schuman Conference Center in Metz (France), 16 – 19 November 2021. Before launching into any details about this year’s program, here’s a little information from the Science & You About (Who we are) page, For the University of Lorraine, the ambition behind Science & You…

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Throughout the project, Beethoven’s genius loomed. Circe Denyer This is an artificial intelligence (AI) story set to music. Professor Ahmed Elgammal (Director of the Art & AI Lab at Rutgers University located in New Jersey, US) has a September 24, 2021 essay posted on The Conversation (and, then, in the Smithsonian Magazine online) describing the AI project and upcoming album release and performance (Note: A link has been removed), When Ludwig van Beethoven died in…

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Years ago I came across a newspaper article where the writer had interviewed some Chiefs. I can’t remember what occasioned the article but the quotes about land rights could have been taken from one of today’s newspapers. The article was written in 1925. In hearing the stories of what Indigenous Peoples in Canada have had to endure such as the loss of their land and rights, horrific living conditions on the reserves, the Residential schools,…

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Here’s an opportunity from the Perimeter Institute, received via a September 23, 2021, Perimeter Institute offers a dynamic, multi-disciplinary environment with maximum research freedom and opportunity to collaborate. We welcome all candidates to apply by November 8, 2021 but applications will be considered until all positions are filled. There’s more about the opportunity from the posting on Academic Jobs Online, Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, ResearchFellowship ID: PI-Research-2022PDF [#19639] [Note: Link removed]Fellowship Title: 2022 Postdoctoral…

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