Monthly Archives: October 2010

Year of Science in the province of British Columbia

This is an initiative by the province of British Columbia announced by Premier Gordon Campbell on Sept. 24, 2010 (from the news release titled),

To inspire young minds across the province and foster a culture of research and innovation Premier Gordon Campbell today proclaimed the 2010-2011 school year as the Year of Science in B.C.

Premier Campbell was joined by Moira Stilwell, Minister of Advanced Education and Labour Market Development, schoolchildren, award-winning science students and science organizations at today’s event at Science World to officially launch the Year of Science.

“Labour market forecasts predict that by the end of this decade, three quarters of all future jobs in B.C. will need some post-secondary education, and many of the most interesting and well-paying jobs will need a solid understanding of math, sciences, engineering and technologies,” said Premier Campbell. “Through the Year of Science, working in partnership with leaders in the science community, our government wants to help B.C. families connect with the passion and exhilaration of science discovery, and call attention to some of the diverse and exciting career opportunities available through science right in their own communities.”

The Year of Science is a major cross-government initiative led by the Ministry of Advanced Education and Labour Market Development. The goal is to engage British Columbians, in particular young people, in science by showcasing how science works, who scientists are, the kinds of work they do, and why science matters in the everyday lives of British Columbians and the communities they live in.

“Science is about creative spirit and inspiration – about developing new knowledge – and the ability to turn knowledge into new and improved goods and services demanded by the global marketplace,” said Stilwell. “Through the Year of Science, we want to create a legacy that will continue to encourage a culture of innovation and research in B.C. and inspire young minds with the thrill of scientific discovery.”

The Premier unveiled phase one of the Year of Science website to provide up-to-date information about Year of Science events as the year unfolds. The site features profiles on businesses, science centres and B.C. science personalities who are shaping the face of science in B.C. Interactive games and activities will be added in October.

I checked out the Year of Science website and I’m sorry to say it looks like one of those websites that are good for you, something I call ‘spinach programming’. If I were borderline about the attractions of science, this site would not help. In fact, it might have the opposite effect intended.  Here’s sample text from the front page,

It’s important for PARENTS to encourage kids to explore the world of science.

Read more …

I don’t know how much a busy parent who’s made the effort to check out this site is going appreciate being harangued (full caps are generally considered shouting) to do more. On the optimistic side of things, it’s good to see the interest from the province and changing text from full caps to mixed case is an easy fix.

More about bubble chambers

Imagine (or not) my surprise at running across a story about how bubble chambers were developed just a day after discovering The Bubble Chamber blog. I found the story serendipitously when reading the Sam Kean book about the periodic table of elements, The Disappearing Spoon. Here’s my seriously shortened version of the story Kean tells:

A young scientist by the name of Donald Glaser was drinking beer and while staring at the bubbles streaming though it got to thinking about particle physics. (Glaser was a junior faculty member at the nearby University of Michigan in the early 1950s when this took place.) There was a belief amongst physicists of that time that particles might lead to the overthrow of the periodic table of elements as the fundamental map of matter. But, the inability to ‘see’ the particles was holding the physicists back. That night, Glaser, inspired by his beer, decided that bubbles might serve as a means to ‘see’ particles.

In his first attempt to create a bubble chamber, Glaser used beer as the liquid at which he aimed an atomic gun in order to bombard it with particles. The first attempts didn’t work and left a bad smell in the lab so Glaser and a colleague refined the experiment to use liquid hydrogenin place of the beer. This refinement worked so well that Glaser won the Nobel Prize at the age of 33.

Canadian government announces science and technology funds for 2010/11 fiscal year

According to a news item on CBC News, Ottawa will be spending $11.7B next year on science and technology. From the news item,

The government said that $5.9 billion will be allocated to departments and agencies within the federal government while other sectors will receive $5.8 billion. These sectors include higher education, business and non-profit and foreign groups.

The plans include spending $7.4 billion on research and development and $4.3 billion on gathering and synthesizing data, information services, museum services, policy studies and education.

Three-quarters of the government’s proposed spending will be directed to natural sciences and one-quarter toward social sciences and humanities.

I assume the recent $2M investment announced on October 8, 2010 for Alberta’s nanotechnology sector (more details in my Oct. 11, 2010 posting) will be coming out of this $11.7B budget for science and technology.

Welcome to a new(ish) Canadian science blog

The Bubble Chamber blog was launched in August 2010 (at least that’s when the archive starts) by the University of Toronto’s Science Policy Working Group, which is part of the Institute for  the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology (IHPST). From their About page,

Because bubble chambers were constructed by the mutually reinforcing intellectual collaboration of a variety of different specialists, bubble chambers serve as a nice metaphor for what we hope to achieve with this blog. The Bubble Chamber is run by a group of historians and philosophers of science whose interests and specializations vary widely, giving us all an opportunity to learn from each other and integrate our knowledge in new and fruitful ways. Our main hope for the blog, however, is that it will find readers from outside our academic disciplines. The idea is that we, as historians and philosophers of science, can create new applications for our specialized knowledge by bringing it to bear on social, political, and policy issues of general interest in ways that engage with a variety of people, from the general public to business people to working scientists. We hope to find such applications because we believe our society as a whole could do with a better, more nuanced understanding of the nature of science, and its place in our modern world.

Thanks to David Bruggeman at the Pasco Phronesis blog for mentioning this new Canadian blog, from his October 5, 2010 posting,

First, some historians and philosophers of science and technology at the University of Toronto have gathered together to form their own blog, The Bubble Chamber (perhaps betraying the influence of physics on their fields). While some of the posts suggest they have not been particularly engaged with the intersections of politics and science, it’s hard to find many historians and philosophers of science and technology looking at contemporary issues, and I think they’re off to a good start.

He also mentions in this posting a science atlas/mapping project that you may want to check out.

USA Science and Engineering Festival taking place now

Much of the USA Science and Engineering Festival (Oct. 10 – 24, 2010) appears to be taking place in Washington, DC accompanied by a number of satellite events  across the United States. (The festival was first mentioned in my March 4, 2010 posting.) This reminds me a little of Canada’s Science and Technology Week (Oct. 15-24, 2010) as they take place at roughly the same time and both are being run nationally with a strong focus on events in the countries’ respective capital regions.

The Pasco Phronesis (David Bruggeman) blog  extols (spelling error corrected Oct.13, 2010) the USA festival’s virtues and features a couple of videos in an October 10, 2010 posting,

While events on the National Mall will take place on the 23rd and 24th, the first (hopefully annual?) USA Science and Engineering Festival officially starts later today with a performance of “Powers of Ten” at the University of Maryland (located in the D.C. suburbs). (Event is currently fully booked, but you can try and catch any last minute releases at the hall.) The event has been in the works for months, and I think it will end up being bigger (at least in scale if not in attendance) than I anticipated. Excellent.

Things to look forward to at the Expo [in Washington, DC, Oct. 23-24, 2010]: history, lots of science music (but no Baba Brinkman? Someone dropped the ball), some science comedy, and plenty of demonstrations. It even looks like National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins will play his guitar.

You can check out the festival details here.

Thanksgiving in Alberta and Canada

The Thanksgiving holiday started early in Alberta. Friday, October 8, 2010, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced a gift of almost $2M to Alberta’s nano and microtechnology industries. From the news item on CBC News,

Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced an $1.95 million investment in the Alberta high-technology sector during his visit to Edmonton Friday.

The funding will go to the Alberta Centre for Advanced Microsystems and Nanotechnology Products (ACAMP) in Edmonton, a not-for-profit organization that companies helps bring products to market.

“This support is to help western micro and nanotechnology firms market their exciting new products in rapidly emerging markets,” Harper said.

The world market for such products should exceed $3 trillion by 2015, he added.

ACAMP’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Ken Brizel noted that ACAMP had six lead companies when it opened its doors in 2008 and now boasts over 50 clients and 30 more future prospects. I imagine you can get more information about both ACAMP and Alberta’s nanotechnology sector by checking out Alberta’s Nanotechnology Asset Map by going to this page (the downloadable PDF is in the column to the right of the page).

The Edmonton Sun also covered Harper’s announcement in an article by Richard Lebrecht. Oddly, I have not come across any mention of this announcement from the folks at Canada’s National Institute of Nanotechnology which is situated in Alberta or from the Alberta Innovates — Technology Futures folks.

Publicity for Canadian nano companies, Quantium Technologies and Vive Nano

The Canadian nanotechnology business scene lit up, so to speak, late last week with articles about two companies, Vive Nano (based in Ontario) and Quantium Technologies (based in Alberta).

Anne McIlroy, science reporter for the Globe and Mail newspeper reported on October 8, 2010 (from her article, Nanotechnology firm sets sights on India) that

The president and CEO of Toronto-based nanotechnology firm Vive Nano [Keith Thomas] was looking for new clients, and he was prepared to talk about how Vive Nano’s nanomaterials can help protect crops or remove contaminants, such as textile dye effluents, from industrial waste water.

Keith Thomas didn’t expect to be asked so many personal questions on his first visit to a large company in India.

The president and CEO of Toronto-based nanotechnology firm Vive Nano was looking for new clients, and he was prepared to talk about how Vive Nano’s nanomaterials can help protect crops or remove contaminants, such as textile dye effluents, from industrial waste water.

But first, he had a 45-minute chat with a staff member who asked him about his life, his wife and family.

“He wanted to take the measure of the man,” Mr. Thomas says.

Vive Nano is now working on two Indian projects, including one with the first company he visited. The privately-held firm employs 18 people, and two thirds of them hold a non-Canadian passport. Its clients include large chemical companies, but in 2008, two years after the company was founded, it seemed prudent to look for other markets, Mr. Thomas says.

Vive Nano wanted to focus on one country, and it picked India. There is an aggressive, entrepreneurial business style there, says Mr. Thomas, and huge interest in novel technology.

… scientists continue to investigate how they [nanoparticles] affect living organisms, including humans, and they are evaluating them for their potential toxicity and impact on the environment. The company is sensitive to the possibility that people may have concerns about nanotechnology, says Mr. Thomas, and it is part of a federally funded study at the University of Alberta that is testing the toxicity of nanoparticles.

McIroy’s article comes on heels of Vive Nano’s Sept. 14, 2010 media release about selling industrial-sized quantities of nanoparticles (from the item on Nanowerk),

Vive Nano is committed to driving down the cost of high-quality nanomaterials. The company’s pilot plant is now producing more than 5 tons/year of nanoparticles of Ceria, Magnetite, Silver and Zinc Oxide. Vive is offering samples up to 20L and full-scale production runs are available.

Vive’s nanoparticles are ultra-small (less than 10nm), non-agglomerating, and water dispersible, allowing simple incorporation into existing products and processes.

Vive Nano Magnetite nanoparticles are superparamagnetic with numerous novel applications in industry, medicine and research. Silver, Zinc Oxide and Ceria applications include catalysis, UV absorption and environmental treatment.

Business is not really my field but this looks to be a leap from a small, R&D-focused and project-based company to a more substantive manufacturing concern. If you’re interested in Vive Nano, their website is here.

Meanwhile in Alberta, Quantium Technologies (mentioned briefly in my August 21, 2009 posting) has made a bit of a splash with its recent announcement that it’s building a 34,000-square-foot (3,159-square-metre) production plant in Edmonton. From the news item on Nanowerk,

Quantiam Technologies Inc., this month’s featured innovator at Edmonton Research Park, is bringing Edmonton the potential of nanotechnology to benefit the environment and transform the city’s economy. The 12-year-old nanomaterials and clean-tech company and its 15 employees create, manufacture and apply advanced coatings based on the science of how materials interact with each other at the smallest detectable scale, such as the first few layers of atoms on the surface of a steel pipe.

Quantiam founder and CEO Dr. Steve Petrone and a small, PhD-rich team began the business by developing coatings that provide superior wear resistance to steel equipment. In addition to customers in petrochemicals, the oil sands, mining, oil and gas, Quantiam is working with the U.S. Defense Department to provide improved armored protection for soldiers and military vehicles.

Quantiam is building a 34,000-square-foot (3,159-square-metre) production plant in the Edmonton Research Park advanced technology centre, where it will join an innovation community of more than 50 companies. “From small start-up firms to global corporate players, Edmonton Research Park provides the environment where exciting developments like those of Quantiam Technologies can grow and thrive,” says the park’s manager, Neil Kaarsemaker.

The new facility, expected to open early in 2011, will house the most advanced private-sector nanotechnology research lab in Canada, an example of ERP’s commitment to its biotechnology business development centre.

How does housing the “most advanced private-sector nanotechnology research lab in Canada” act as an example of a commitment to a biotechnology business development centre? [emphases mine]

The news item posted October 7, 2010 on the Azonano website provides a slightly different picture of Quantium’s building project. I gather the information came from a different source. You can find out more about Quantium on their website although portions of it seem to be under construction.

Nano jobs, bits, and bobs

There’s a postdoctoral position at Penn State Center for Nanoscale Science (from the NISE [Nanoscale Informal Science Education] Net October newsletter),

Nano Employment Opportunity: Postdoctoral Position in Education and Outreach with Penn State MRSEC

The Penn State Center for Nanoscale Science, a NSF-supported Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC), has a postdoctoral position available in education and outreach. The successful candidate will join a team developing and presenting education and outreach programs materials including nanoscience curriculum for K-12 students and teachers among other tasks. Interested applicants should go to the Penn State job opportunity site and scroll down to the Postdoctoral Position – Center for Nanoscale Science (MRSEC Center) listing for more details and application instructions.

The newsletter also features its monthly nano haiku,

Teeny-tiny stuff,
you act so different now.
Wish you were still big.

by Leigha Horton of the Science Museum of Minnesota.

Thanks to someone on Twitter (sorry, I don’t remember who) I found  Nature journalist Geoff Brumfiel’s interview (published Oct. 7, 2010) with one of the winners (Andre Geim) of the 2010 Nobel Prize for Physics. Given my interest in intellectual property, here’s Geim’s response to a question about patents,

You haven’t yet patented graphene. Why is that?

We considered patenting; we prepared a patent and it was nearly filed. Then I had an interaction with a big, multinational electronics company. I approached a guy at a conference and said, “We’ve got this patent coming up, would you be interested in sponsoring it over the years?” It’s quite expensive to keep a patent alive for 20 years. The guy told me, “We are looking at graphene, and it might have a future in the long term. If after ten years we find it’s really as good as it promises, we will put a hundred patent lawyers on it to write a hundred patents a day, and you will spend the rest of your life, and the gross domestic product of your little island, suing us.” That’s a direct quote.

I considered this arrogant comment, and I realized how useful it was. There was no point in patenting graphene at that stage. You need to be specific: you need to have a specific application and an industrial partner. Unfortunately, in many countries, including this one, people think that applying for a patent is an achievement. In my case it would have been a waste of taxpayers’ money.

This is a very engaging and funny (particularly Geim’s response to the final question: “Finally, are you one of those Nobel prizewinners who is going to go crazy now that you’ve won?” of the interview.

Elemental Music for the Year of the Nano celebration at Rice University

Rice University’s Year of the Nano celebration for its 25th anniversary of the buckminster fullerene discovery launches this Sunday, October 10, 2010 with a gala and a special piece of music, a ‘nanosymphony’.  From the news item on Nanowerk,

[Anthony] Brandt, an associate professor of composition and theory at Rice’s Shepherd School of Music, thought of atoms as notes and molecules as motifs when he wrote the nanosymphony.

“When I was asked to do this, I almost immediately saw what I wanted,” Brandt said. “I wanted to write a complete symphony orchestra concert with a tuning segment, an overture, a modern piece, a piano concerto, the intermission, a symphony on the second half and an encore — all in about the length of a commercial pop song.

“It’s a complete evening’s worth of music on the scale of a single piece.”

Brandt’s mini-masterpiece is one of two commissioned for the Buckyball Discovery Gala. The other, a musical tribute to Richard Smalley, who was a University Professor and the Gene and Norman Hackerman Chair of Chemistry at Rice until his death in 2005, was written by Houston composer Todd Frazier and will feature a narrative by former Rice President Malcolm Gillis.

The discovery of the buckyball led to a Nobel Prize for the team of Smalley, Robert Curl and Sir Harry Kroto, along with graduate students Sean O’Brien and Jim Heath. What they found on a summer day in 1985 laid the groundwork for the still-growing field of nanotechnology.

The musical works’ genesis goes back to Smalley himself, said Wade Adams, director of Rice’s Smalley Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology. “I had wanted something like this for a long time, since it was a conversation — actually, an argument — between Rick Smalley and my wife, Mert, that turned Rick on to the emotional power of music. I had conversations with people at the Shepherd School several years ago, and I was delighted when Tony and Todd stepped up to write these fabulous pieces.”

There are more details about the music and how nanotechnology concepts were incorporated into the compositions at Nanowerk. The conference (which follows the gala) website is here.