Science in the News (please post articles of general interest here)

[UofO EPMA Lab]

This thread is for general science articles that you feel might be of interest to others on the forum.  Please post a short description of the article along with the text or links.

New measurements confirm the electron's charge is "smooth" to another order of magnitude:

http://www.boston.com/news/science/blogs/science-in-mind/2013/12/19/the-search-for-lumpy-electron-finds-perfect-sphere-instead/NpazIUk8BDv9bkM0xLIqcL/blog.html

The original paper in Science is here:

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2013/12/18/science.1248213.abstract?sid=1dc4c1f3-bcc1-4de6-aabd-396577994527

Edit by John: make topic "sticky"

[Probeman]

Interesting article on an "origami" microscope (see attached).

[John Donovan]

World's smallest EPMA instrument:

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ac201958d

(forwarded from Ed Vicenzi)

[John Donovan]

Researchers have created a high-functioning yet cheap ultracapacitor that is made from two one-atom-thick materials.

The research team mixed "graphene flakes with single-walled carbon nanotubes" to create the groundbreaking device, an American Institute of Physics news release reported.

Ultracapacitors are energy storage devices that can create surges by rapidly releasing the power. By combining the power the energy-density of batteries and the high power-density of capacitors the "ultracapacitor" can provide a boost to devices such as "electric vehicles, handheld electronics, audio systems and more," the news release reported.

http://www.hngn.com/articles/29458/20140422/ultracapacitor-made-from-graphene-and-nanotube-combo-smaller-and-cheaper-than-modern-technology.htm

[Probeman]

New light element WDS spectrometer:

http://www.microscopy-analysis.com/editorials/editorial-listings/sem-spectrometer-resolves-light-elements-ease

[Probeman]

Interesting new article on the future of electron microscopy in Physics Today:

http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/magazine/physicstoday/article/68/4/10.1063/PT.3.2747

[Probeman]

A quantum derivation of a classic math formula:

http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/magazine/physicstoday/news/10.1063/PT.5.7220

Weird...

[Probeman]

This is more of an "engineering in the news" article but still, very interesting:

waitbutwhy.com/2015/06/the-deal-with-solar.html

Here's one of the the take-away pics:



You know that "Mr Fusion" in the sky?  Well in a few hours it drops the same amount of energy on the Earth that the entire world consumes in a year...

[John Donovan]

Does anyone see a trend here?

[Probeman]

This isn't really EPMA related (though I'm thinking hard about some possibilities!), but this talk about tech disruption is quite worth watching I think:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M27KECEL5Zo

You'll probably want to skip to the 19:53 time stamp in order to skip the introductions.  I admit it's difficult to believe his claims so far as the proposed timelines are concerned, but then again I can't find any fault with his reasoning...  quite interesting!
john

[Probeman]

Just FYI I picked up this little projection telescope a few years ago for my "Weird Science" freshman seminar for a partial eclipse and it worked great for the 2017 total eclipse in the US (see attached- remember to login to see attachments).

It's not inexpensive but great for teaching solar astronomy to students. It's available here:

https://www.teachersource.com/product/sunspotter-solar-telescope/astronomy-space

john

PS a second attachment shows a bit of the total eclipse group we were with.  Some of you might recognize a few of the people in the pic...

[Probeman]

A student in our geology department, David Zakharov, has an interesting blog on petrography called, appropriately enough, "The Petrographer":

http://opticalmineralogy.blogspot.com

He recently wrote some scripts to output chemical maps without Surfer:

http://opticalmineralogy.blogspot.com/2017/10/automated-petrography-electron.html

john

[jon_wade]

Do we get awards for most random places you can get science?  if so, beat this:-

I'd like to point to an article we managed to get in North Korea news.....

https://north-korea.news/news=322240

and this is the pinnacle
https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/weird-news/668797/mars-science-nasa-aliens-discovery-space-university-of-oxford

boffin, egghead and aliens.....

heres some clown in Radio Sputnik:-

https://soundcloud.com/radiosputnik/mars-would-not-be-my-number-one-holiday-destination-dr-jon-wade

[Probeman]

Do we get awards for most random places you can get science?  if so, beat this:-

I'd like to point to an article we managed to get in North Korea news.....

https://north-korea.news/news=322240

and this is the pinnacle
https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/weird-news/668797/mars-science-nasa-aliens-discovery-space-university-of-oxford

boffin, egghead and aliens.....

heres some clown in Radio Sputnik:-

https://soundcloud.com/radiosputnik/mars-would-not-be-my-number-one-holiday-destination-dr-jon-wade

Nice Radio Sputnik interview! 

Re Daily Star, if I ever get the chance, I look forward to introducing you as "Oxford uni boffin egghead Dr. Jon Wade"!

[Probeman]

This is not a book review, just a suggestion to read Steven Pinker's new book "Enlightenment Now, which looks at global trends over the last century or so.  I think it's the most interesting and readable non-fiction I've read in many years. 

For some people the worst thing about the book may be be that it contains some good news about global trends, though Pinker is careful to point out that this *does not* mean that we should rest on our laurels or stop working towards a better future. Ocean acidification and changing regional rainfall patterns due to global warming will be a huge challenge, as he is quick to point out.

And I don't agree with everything he says, for example he calls for a rapid increase in nuclear energy to reduce carbon emissions. So while I agree with this statement in principle, in practice I don't think it will be cost effective now and especially in the future. But reasonable people can disagree on this issue, though I suspect $/kWh will decide this ultimately.

Although the book is more focused on global perspectives there is lots of data by country, so here is a graph for some parameters just in the US, which illustrates that one can increase GDP, increase population, decrease carbon intensity and reduce pollution all at the same time: