Phenomenal Man

Why do all the black hash tags no longer exist?

And yet we still have all of these…

American Customer: you’re English right? Do you know the bookshop between Wales and Bristol that has lots of books in?

A squishy Rubik’s Cube that chemists built from polymers holds promise for data storage

A team of chemists from the U.S. and China have constructed a cube of colored, hydrogel blocks, which looks and acts much like a Rubik’s Cube. The researchers say their work is more than just fun to play with: it might inspire new ways to store and detect information, and possibly even help patients monitor their medical conditions.

Just like the toy, the new structure contains rotatable individual rows and columns; manipulating these changes the color patternon the cube’s six faces. But unlike the rigid plastic of a Rubik’s Cube, this new structure is made of a self-healing hydrogel, a squishy polymer material that can absorb large amounts of water and form new chemical bonds when old bonds break.

The team came up with the structure as part of a larger effort to find new ways to encode information into physical objects.

“Think of QR codes, which are patterns of black and white pixels on a two-dimensional surface used to store information,” said Jonathan Sessler, a professor of chemistry at The University of Texas at Austin and co-author of a study published today in the journal Advanced Materials. “We’re exploring ways to encode information in patterns of color and in three dimensions, theoretically leading to a much higher information density.”

Glasses: Low iron glass

Glass is known for its transparency, or its ability to allow the visible wavelengths of light to pass through it relatively unaltered. However, the primary constituents of silica-based glasses (the most well known type) usually have impurities that can be difficult to completely remove. Impure glass often has a greenish-tint to it, resulting from iron left behind. Low iron glass, therefore, is a form of ultrapure silica glass, in which the iron content has been carefully managed and reduced to allow for increased transparency (often by selecting raw materials that contain less iron). 

The difference in transmission can vary, and depends greatly on the thickness of the glass. Thinner sections of low iron glass usually have 2-3% greater transmission of light, but thicker glasses can have even higher percentages. (See chart in the upper right corner above.) There are no set compositions for most types of glass, but low iron glass most always has around 1/10 the amount of iron as other silica glass, or around 0.01% ferric oxide content.

Typical applications of this specialty glass include display, lighting, or architectural applications, as well as optical applications requiring clear visibility and solar panels. Several brand names for this material are UltraClear, Optiwhite, Starphire, Starlite, and Krystal Klear. Low iron glass can technically be used anywhere clear float glass is also used though, and can be processed in much the same ways as well, including lamination, toughening, and other treatments.

Charcoal Bioplastics Tests

Here’s a few shots from my first few tests. I’ve used a formula/recipe from Clare Davies’ Restology project that she conducted with FabLab, Barcelona. There’s tons that you learn on the job conducting these tests and there can be enormous variables (environment, heat, drying time, texture, flexibility etc) even if you use a similar amount of each material. 

Test #1 -  For this recipe I used 16g ground charcoal (roughly bashed with a rolling pin), 100ml water, 16g gelatine, 16g of glycerol.  After pouring it in to the silicone mould, I left it to dry over the weekend. I came back to a beautiful looking matt texture, that highlighted every detail of the charcoal. It also had a surprising amount of flexibility and is conductive. There’s only one downside to test 1 - it has a slight meaty (porky) smell, even though charcoal it supposed reduce odours. With this in mind, I swapped out the gelatine for agar in subsequent tests. 

Test #2 - 25g charcoal (finer grind with a coffee grinder), 100ml of water, 15g Agar. Once again poured this into moulds and left to dry. This version started to split as it dried, and once it was fully dry it crumbled into lots of flakey pieces (see pic 4).  Quite clear that without the addition of glycerol it didn’t bind as well.

Test #3 - 25g charcoal, 100ml of water, 10g Agar, 15g Agar. This test took quite some time to dry and appeared to have a more flexibility. Once fully dried it also started to crack. As much as I do not wish to use gelatine to make a more natural product, I feel that I might need to proceed with it as it has proved the most successful binding agent.

Charcoal Properties 

What makes charcoal so amazing is the carbonisation process which creates a product with an enormous surface area to mass ratio, which has high ability to attract and hold (adsorption) a wide range of materials, chemicals, minerals, radio-waves, humidity, odours and harmful substances. As you can see from these images under a microscope, they have a number of pores. The porosity of activated carbon, as defined by IUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry), is divided in three families:

Macropores (> 250 Å);

Mesopores (10 ÷ 250 Å);

Micropores (< 10 Å).

Utrafast magnetism: Electron-phonon interactions examined at BESSY II

How fast can a magnet switch its orientation, and what are the microscopic mechanisms at play? An HZB team at BESSY II has, for the first time, experimentally assessed the principal microscopic process of ultra-fast magnetism. The methodology developed for this purpose can also be used to investigate interactions between spins and lattice oscillations in graphene, superconductors or other quantum materials.

Interactions between electrons and phonons are regarded as the microscopic driving force behind ultrafast magnetization or demagnetization processes (spin flips). However, it was not possible until now to observe such ultrafast processes in detail due to the absence of suitable methods.

Now, a team headed by Prof. Alexander Föhlisch has developed an original method to determine experimentally the electron-phonon driven spin-flip scattering rate in two model systems: ferromagnetic nickel and nonmagnetic copper. They used X-ray emission spectroscopy (XES) at BESSY II to do this. X-rays excited core electrons in the samples (Ni or Cu) to create the so-called core holes, which were then filled by the decay of valence electrons. This decay results in the emission of light, which can then be detected and analyzed. The samples were measured at different temperatures to observe the effects of lattice vibrations (phonons) increasing from room temperature to 900 degrees Celsius.

Credit: Africa Studio Shutterstock 

By Shardell Joseph

Celebrating LGBT in STEM day, the science, technology engineering and mathematics divisions will not only embrace diversity, but also focus on the challenges to social inclusion in a professional environment. A recent survey highlighted the discrimination LGBTQ+ scientists still face within the workplace to the extent that they contemplate leaving their jobs. 

According to the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), Institute of Physics and Royal Astronomical Society survey – Exploring the workplace for LGBT+ physical scientists – 28% of LGBTQ+ considered quitting in the past year, and one in five trans scientists thinks about it often. With more than one thousand people contributing to the survey – 588 of which were analysed in detail – 16% of respondents were found to have experienced exclusionary behaviour in the past year, while 30% have witnessed this behaviour. 

Comfort levels in a working climate are on the rise, as reported in the survey, yet unlike other aspects of diversity, identity is often hidden from others within the workplace. Visual identifiers, such as flags, are helping to create an inclusive culture, but the day-to-day actions of those in the workplace, particularly senior figures, was a cause for concern. The survey stated that almost 50% agreed there was a lack of overall awareness of LGBT+ issues in the workplace.

A total of 60% thought that their organisation’s policies and procedures were supportive or very supportive of LGBTQ+ staff within STEM – men were found to be more likely to report positively regarding policies. Yet, 17% felt that there was a general absence of LGBTQ+ support or even discrimination – women were slightly less likely to feel supported, and non-binary and trans individuals even less so. 

In light of LGBT in STEM day, Materials Scientist and Engineer and Pride in STEM Trustee, Dr Ben Britton, spoke with Materials World about the current state of inclusivity in science, and what can be done to improve the workplace environment for LGBTQ+ scientists. 

Dr Ben Britton FIMMM

‘For employers, the most important thing you can do is stop assuming that everyone is straight. Review your policies for LGBTQ+ employees, ask your LGBTQ+ employees what matters to them, prioritise protecting people and the creation of an inclusive working environment,’ Britton said. 

‘Consider supporting visible icons, e.g. flying the pride flag, to share your culture with your employees as well as those who you work with. Support the development of networks, both through providing money but also encourage senior management to attend and engage with social initiatives and meetings.

‘Hopefully together we can help continue this shift in the fabric of our society and our profession, of the power that comes from embracing and understanding equality, diversity and inclusivity.’

For the full article with Dr Ben Britton, go to bit.ly/2KRlZJxl

•  It has to be a mistake, on the syllabus your professor e-mailed over yesterday. The lab class can’t possibly start at 8pm. Not that you’d notice the time of night anyway, considering that for some reason it’s held in a basement of the STEM buildings that you were sure was closed off. You’ve never seen anyone emerging from its depths, and honestly you’re not even sure how to get down there. But not to worry, your professor assures you when you reply with your concerns. He’ll send his TA to pick you up. Just try not to stare at their hand. Especially if it sparks. They’re still working out the kinks.

• The transparent lightboard you use in your apartment building for working out math equations that require more room is the only illumination piercing your otherwise dim living room. You’ve been working for hours, and haven’t noticed how late it’s become, mostly because you’re pretty sure that you accidentally just determined exactly when the world is going to end. Before you can grab your phone to tell everyone, there’s a knock at your door. “Well done,” the man and woman in dark clothes and glasses that reflect even the minor light so that you can’t see your eyes as they enter your apartment. “A little too well done, we think. You’ll be coming with us now.”

•   H2 = H 2 0 [ Ωm(1+z) 3 +ΩDEexp {3 Z/z 0 dz 1+z [1+w(z)]}

•  “We are doctors,” in heart if not yet in degree,” the neurologist teaching your afternoon class says, laughing. “We are the ones who stand between that looming reaper Death and all of our patients, scalpels and syringes in hand, and say “not today, old friend. Not this one.” But then the mirth fades from his voice, and his gaze drifts to the left of the lecture hall for some odd reason, fixed on some dark corner. “That’s why it hates us, you know. Death. All of us. We as doctors must be very, very careful in our everyday lives, because Death despises us for stalling its work time and time again, and it constantly has its eyes on us. Waiting for us to relax, to look away. There are rituals, as we get older and Death steps closer every day…” but then they come back to themselves, shaking their heads and laughing. “Not enough coffee for me today, apparently!” Shadows in the corner where no one sits seem to be shifting.

•  The chemistry majors always seem to know something that no one else does. They all keep tiny glass bottles of clove oil in their backpacks at all times, for some reason. You’re starting to wonder if it wouldn’t be smart for you to do the same.

•  The engineering majors know exactly what the chem majors think only they know, and they laugh when you mention the clove oil. “They really think that will protect them,” one future robotics pioneer says to you, shaking his head. “They really think they can stop what’s coming.”

•  Something in the forensics lab whispers at night, but only when a lone student is working down there alone. One of them snags you in the halls one morning and says, “I know you’re not forensics and you’ve never heard it before, but last night I was working on a paper down there and, well. It knows your name.”

• Your roommate is a biogenetics student. She keeps beakers brimming with bubbling fluids in the fridge, and she often seems restless and distracted. You’ve caught her stealing hair off of your brush before, and one night as you watch her mixing and stirring and taking notes as she’s hunched over her desk, you realize that a single blinking eyeball is staring back at you from the green fluid surrounding it in her glass tube.

•  The mathematics students have figured out what the chemistry students know, and what the engineering students have known for years. They all look anxious now, walking around campus and constantly looking over their shoulders. One of them suggests to you that maybe you should start stockpiling bottled water. Just in case.

•  An astronomy major comes barreling into one of your classes one dim and dying afternoon, slapping a star chart down onto a desk in front of a newly enlightened mathematics student, sweating and furious. “You weren’t even going to tell us, you bastard?! You were just going to let it happen while we sat around unprepared?!”

Digitally programmable perovskite nanowire-block copolymer composites

One-dimensional nanomaterials with highly anisotropic optoelectronic properties can be used within energy harvesting applications, flexible electronics and biomedical imaging devices. In materials science and nanotechnology, 3-D patterning methods can be used to precisely assemble nanowires with locally controlled composition and orientation to allow new optoelectronic device designs. In a recent report, Nanjia Zhou and an interdisciplinary research team at the Harvard University, Wyss Institute of Biologically Inspired Engineering, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Kavli Energy Nanoscience Institute developed and 3-D printed nanocomposite inks composed of brightly emitting colloidal cesium lead halide perovskite (CsPbX3, where X= Cl, Br, or I) nanowires.

They suspended the bright nanowires in a polystyrene-polyisoprene-polystyrene block copolymer matrix and defined the nanowire alignment using a programmed print path. The scientist produced optical nanocomposites that exhibited highly polarized absorption and emission properties. To highlight the versatility of the technique they produced several devices, including optical storage, encryption, sensing and full color displays. The work is now published on Science Advances.

In experiments in mice, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers say they have found additional evidence that Parkinson’s disease originates among cells in the gut and travels up the body’s neurons to the brain. The study, described in the June issue of the journal Neuron, offers a new, more accurate model in which to test treatments that could prevent or halt Parkinson’s disease progression.

“These findings provide further proof of the gut’s role in Parkinson’s disease, and give us a model to study the disease’s progression from the start,” says Ted Dawson, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Cell Engineering and professor of neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Parkinson’s disease is characterized by the buildup of a misfolded protein, called alpha-synuclein, in the cells of the brain. As more of these proteins begin to clump together, they cause nerve tissues to die off, leaving behind large swaths of dead brain matter known as Lewy bodies. As brain cells die, they impair a person’s ability to move, think or regulate emotions.