Pint Of Science!

March 15, 2019 Dan Gillis Communication, Education and Outreach, Science in Society, Technology and Engineering

As previously mentioned, Pint of Science is coming to Guelph. Specifically, Pint of Science Guelph will take place during the eves of May 20, 21, and 22 at six different venues (five downtown, plus Wellington Brewery). The list of confirmed speakers is almost complete. To date, we have identified an incredible line up of facultyContinue reading "Pint Of Science!"

The Improve Life Challenge

March 14, 2019 Dan Gillis Communication, Education and Outreach, Science in Society, Technology and Engineering

Calling all passionate nerds of any ilk – all artists, all scientists, all public health specialists, all agricultural students, all business students, and more – if you have a desire to improve life, we are looking for you! The 2019 Improve Life Challenge (ILC) is quickly approaching, and it’s going to be incredible. Last year,Continue reading "The Improve Life Challenge"

Structural colo(u)r from transparent 3D printed nanostructures

March 14, 2019 Maryse de la Giroday Science in Society, Technology and Engineering

Caption: Light hits the 3-D printed nanostructures from below. After it is transmitted through, the viewer sees only green light — the remaining colors are redirected. Credit: Thomas Auzinger [downloaded from http://visualcomputing.ist.ac.at/publications/2018/StructCol/]An August 17, 2018 news item on ScienceDaily announces the work illustrated by the image above, Most of the objects we see are colored by pigments, but using pigments has disadvantages: such colors can fade, industrial pigments are often toxic, and certain color effects…

Nanoparticles in combination could be more toxic

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

It seems that one set of nanoparticles, e.g., silver nanoparticles, in combination with another material, e.g., cadmium ions, are more dangerous than either one separately according to an August 17, 2018 University of Southern Denmark press release by Birgitte Svennevig (also on EurekAlert but dated August 20, 2018), Researchers warn that a combination of nanoparticles and contaminants may form a cocktail that is harmful to our cells. In their study, 72 pct. of cells died…

#Ornitholoday

March 11, 2019 Dan Gillis Communication, Education and Outreach, Science in Society, Technology and Engineering

If you are someone who loves birds, math, statistics, and/or computer science, you should probably put March 20th in your calendar right now. Between 8 am and 4 pm EDT on Wednesday the 20th, undergraduate student Brandon Edwards will be taking over the IBIS Journal’s Twitter account as part of their 2019 campaign to haveContinue reading "#Ornitholoday"

It’s a very ‘carbony’ time: graphene jacket, graphene-skinned airplane, and schwarzite

March 11, 2019 Maryse de la Giroday Science in Society, Technology and Engineering

In August 2018, I been stumbled across several stories about graphene-based products and a new form of carbon. Graphene jacket The company producing this jacket has as its goal “… creating bionic clothing that is both bulletproof and intelligent.” Well, ‘bionic‘ means biologically-inspired engineering and ‘intelligent‘ usually means there’s some kind of computing capability in the product. This jacket, which is the first step towards the company’s goal, is not bionic, bulletproof, or intelligent. Nonetheless,…

From perpetual motion machines to the Entscheidungsproblem

March 9, 2019 Theory, Evolution, and Games Group bloggers Biology and Life Sciences, Mathematics and Statistics, Technology and Engineering

There seems to be a tendency to use the newest technology of the day as a metaphor for making sense of our hardest scientific questions. These metaphors are often vague and inprecise. They tend to overly simplify the scientific question and also misrepresent the technology. This isn’t useful. But the pull of this metaphor also tends to transform the technical disciplines that analyze our newest tech into fundamental disciplines that analyze our universe. This was…

Undergraduate Student Heading To The 2019 American Ornithological Society Conference

March 9, 2019 Dan Gillis Communication, Education and Outreach, Science in Society, Technology and Engineering

Congratulations to undergraduate student, Brandon Edwards, whose abstract has been accepted for presentation at the 2019 American Ornithological Society Conference (AOS). Brandon will travel to Anchorage, Alaska from June 24-28 to present a new R package that he’s been developing to make it simpler to implement an environmental Agent Based Model (eABM). Brandon has previouslyContinue reading "Undergraduate Student Heading To The 2019 American Ornithological Society Conference"

Happy International Women’s Day on March 8, 2019—with a shout-out to women in science

March 8, 2019 Maryse de la Giroday Science in Society, Technology and Engineering

I did a very quick search for today’s (March 8, 2019) women in science stories and found three to highlight here. First, a somewhat downbeat Canadian story. Can Canadians name a woman scientist or engineer? According to Emily Chung’s March 8, 2019 article on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s (CBC) online news site, the answer is: no, You’ve probably heard of Stephen Hawking, Albert Einstein and Mark Zuckerberg.But can you name a woman scientist or engineer?…

Celebrating Co-Op Excellence

March 8, 2019 Dan Gillis Communication, Education and Outreach, Science in Society, Technology and Engineering

Yesterday I joined a packed room of students, staff, faculty, and industry partners as we celebrated the successes of more than ninety undergraduate students and their co-op employers during the 21st Annual Co-op Awards ceremony. The event included five student awards, and two employer awards. As part of the event, I also had the distinctContinue reading "Celebrating Co-Op Excellence"

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