While Valentine’s Day as celebrated here in Canada and elsewhere (but not everywhere) on February 14 of each year is usually marked in a purely joyous fashion,I’m going to focus on heartbreak. Here is one of the greatest versions of ‘What becomes of the broken-hearted?’ Then, repair follows in the context of some cardiac research coming out of Ireland, Thank you Joan Osborne and the Funk Brothers. If you haven’t seen ‘Standing in the shadows…

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Caption: Researchers at ORNL’s Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences demonstrated the first example of capacitance in a lipid-based biomimetic membrane, opening nondigital routes to advanced, brain-like computation. Credit: Michelle Lehman/Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Energy The last time I wrote about memcapacitors (June 30, 2014 posting: Memristors, memcapacitors, and meminductors for faster computers), the ideas were largely theoretical; I believe this work is the first research I’ve seen on the topic. From an…

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Just in time for Valentine’s Day 2020, there’s this February 12, 2020 University of British Columbia (UBC) Faculty of Medicine Brain Talks event (from the Brain Talks event page), When: Wednesday February 12, 2019 at 6:00pmWhere: VGH [Vancouver General Hospital] Paetzhold TheatreClick here to get your tickets!Speakers:Dr. Rebecca Cobb: Sexual CommunicationDr. Spencer Wade and Veronica Li, RCC: Is Love an Emotion?Dr. Rebecca Cobb is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Simon Fraser University. Dr. Cobb…

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h/t to Miriam Halpenny’s October 14, 2019 Castanet article as seen on the Vancouverisawesome website for this news about bulletproof clothing being developed for Canada’s National Department of Defence. I found a September 4, 2019 University of British Columbia Okanagan news release describing the research and the funds awarded to it, The age-old technique of dressing in layers is a tried and tested way to protect from the elements. Now thanks to $1.5 million in…

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I just received (via email on February 7, 2020) the call for the 2020 (or 12th annual) Canadian Science Policy Conference (CSPC) panel submissions. After many years in Ottawa, the conference is moving a few feet over the provincial border between Ontario and Quebec into the city of Gatineau. For anyone not familiar with the Ottawa region, Gatineau is next door (from the Gatineau Wikipedia entry), Note: Links have been removed, Gatineau (/ˈɡætɪnoÊŠ/; French: [É¡atino]) is…

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I received this notice from ArtSci Salon mailing (on February 7, 2020 via email), Geometry is Life Robin Kingsburgh February 5 — 16, 2020Opening Reception: Saturday, February 8, 2 — 5 pm​ Cicada (detail), Robin Kingsburgh (Acrylic on MDF board, 36″ x 38″, 2018) My work takes inspiration from geometry. For me the square and the circle are starting points. And ending points. The square, defined by the horizontal and the vertical: it’s all you need.…

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An October 16, 2019 news item on Nanowerk announces some of the latest work with colloidal quantum dots, Researchers of the Optoelectronics and Measurement Techniques Unit (OPEM) at the University of Oulu [Finland] have invented a new method of producing ultra-sensitive hyper-spectral photodetectors. At the heart of the discovery are colloidal quantum dots, developed together with the researchers at the University of Toronto, Canada.Quantum dots are tiny particles of 15-150 atoms of semiconducting material that…

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