Tag Archives: National Film Board

Setting a tone for Canadian science, now what about science and a culture of innovation?

On the heels of reinstating the mandatory long form census, removing the muzzle from Canadian government scientists, and assigning multiple new ministers to old and new ‘science’ ministries, Justin Trudeau has delivered his new ministerial mandate letters where he thanks the ministers for agreeing to serve and lays out his priorities. David Bruggeman provides priority lists from two of the letters in a Nov. 13, 2015 posting on his Pasco Phronesis blog (Note: Links have been removed),

The new Science Minister, Kirsty Duncan, was given the following priorities in her letter:

Create a Chief Science Officer mandated to ensure that government science is fully available to the public, that scientists are able to speak freely about their work, and that scientific analyses are considered when the government makes decisions.
Support your colleagues in the review and reform of Canada’s environmental assessment processes to ensure that environmental assessment decisions are based on science, facts, and evidence.
Support the Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Labour [emphasis mine] in efforts to help employers create more co-op placements for students in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and business programs [emphasis mine].
Support your Ministerial colleagues as they re-insert scientific considerations into the heart of our decision-making and investment choices.

…

It’s worth noting – because it often gets lost – that this philosophy sees scientific knowledge and scientific considerations are but one input into policy and decision making. [emphasis mine] Inform, not dictate.

It’s also worth noting that the Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development (MP Navdeep Bains) is mentioned just once in the Minister of Science letter. Looking at the letter sent to Minister Bains, it would seem that PM Trudeau sees science in this portfolio in service to economic development and innovation. The role as outlined in the letter:

“As Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, your overarching goal will be to help Canadian businesses grow, innovate and export so that they can create good quality jobs and wealth for Canadians. You will achieve this goal by working with provinces, territories, municipalities, the post-secondary education system, [emphasis mine] employers and labour to improve the quality and impact of our programs that support innovation, scientific research and entrepreneurship. You will collaborate with provinces, territories and municipalities to align, where possible, your efforts. I expect you to partner closely with businesses and sectors to support their efforts to increase productivity and innovation. …

I have a few comments about the ‘science’ letters. I’m happy to see the first priority for the Science minister is the appointment of a Chief Science Officer. David’s point about the letter’s emphasis that science is one input into the policy making process is interesting. Personally, I applaud the apparent even-handedness since scientific evidence is not always unequivocal but this does give the government some room to ignore scientific evidence in favour of other political considerations.

Finally, I see a gray area between the two ministries has been delineated with the Science minister being exhorted to:

“Support the Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Labour in efforts to help employers create more co-op placements for students in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and business programs”

and the Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development being exhorted to

” … achieve this goal [economic prosperity] by working with provinces, territories, municipalities, the post-secondary education system, employers and labour to improve the quality and impact of our programs that support innovation, scientific research and entrepreneurship.”

Note the crossover where the Science minister is being asked to help develop more coop placements while the Innovation, Science and Economic Development Minister is being asked to work with the post-secondary education system and employers to improve programs for entrepreneurship. Interestingly the exhortation for the Innovation minister is included in the general text of the letter and not in the list of priorities.

There is one other ministry I’d like to include here and it’s Canadian Heritage. While it might seem an odd choice to some, there is what seems to be an increasing interest in the relationship between art, science, and the humanities. While I’m thrilled with much of the content in the Heritage letter, mentions of science and technology are notably absent. Given what’s happened in our cultural sector (serious funding cutbacks over several years from both the Conservative government and previous Liberal governments), it’s understandable and it’s good to see more funding (from the Canadian Heritage Ministerial Mandate letter),

As Minister of Canadian Heritage, your overarching goal will be to implement our government’s plan to strengthen our cultural and creative industries. Our cultural sector is an enormous source of strength to the Canadian economy. Canada’s stories, shaped by our immense diversity, deserve to be celebrated and shared with the world. Our plan will protect our important national institutions, safeguard our official languages, promote the industries that reflect our unique identity as Canadians, and provide jobs and economic opportunities in our cultural and creative sectors.

You will be the leader of a strong team of ministers, supported by the Minister of Sport and Persons with Disabilities and the Minister of Status of Women.

In particular, I will expect you to work with your colleagues and through established legislative, regulatory, and Cabinet processes to deliver on your top priorities:

Review current plans for Canada 150 [Canada will be celebrating its 150th anniversary in 2017] and champion government-wide efforts to promote this important celebration.

Restore and increase funding for CBC/Radio-Canada, following consultation with the broadcaster and the Canadian cultural community.

Review the process by which members are appointed to the CBC/Radio-Canada Board of Directors, to ensure merit-based and independent appointments.

Double investment in the Canada Council for the Arts.

Increase funding for Telefilm Canada and the National Film Board.

Restore the Promart and Trade Routes International cultural promotion programs, update their design, and increase related funding.

Increase funding for the Young Canada Works program to help prepare the next generation of Canadians working in the heritage sector.

Work with the Minister of Infrastructure and Communities to make significant new investments in cultural infrastructure as part of our investment in social infrastructure.

…

Work in collaboration with the Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs to provide new funding to promote, preserve and enhance Indigenous languages and cultures.

…

I hope at some point this government integrates a little science and technology into Canadian Heritage because we have often achieved breakthroughs, scientifically and technically, and we have, at times, achieved the impossible as anyone who’s taken a train ride through the Rocky Mountains knows. Plus, if the government wants to encourage entrepreneurship and risk-taking, Canadian artists of all types provide an excellent model.

For the interested, the Ministerial Mandate letters have been made publicly available.

Two final items, there’s a Nov. 16, 2015 posting by Josh Silberg on Science Borealis which provides a more comprehensive roundup of science commentary in the wake of the new Liberal government’s ascendance. Yes, I’m on it and you may recognize some others as well but there should be one or two new writers to discover.

Second, Phil Plait who has written about Canadian science and the Conservative government’s policies many times provides a brief history of the situation along with a few ebullient comments about the changes that have been taking place. You can find it all in Plait’s Nov. 17, 2015 posting on Slate.com.

Canada’s 2010 National Science and Technology Week

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Canada’s annual National Science and Technology Week is coming up shortly. This year it’s scheduled for Oct. 15 – 24, 2010 (which is really 10 days and not one week but I don’t think anyone except me cares about that). You can check here for events taking places in various provinces, including BC.

I almost missed mentioning it this year as I haven’t seen any publicity or been sent any information about it. Maybe the promotional budget was cut?

Thanks heavens for the National Film Board and their October 2010 newsletter,

Ottawa: Screenings, animation workshops and new related exhibition at the Science and Technology Museum

Ottawa’s Science and Technology Museum is organizing a series of events for history and film buffs this month. On the weekend of October 16-17, the Museum will screen the documentary Passage, by John Walker, to coincide with the opening of its newest exhibition, “Echoes in the Ice: History, Mystery, and Frozen Corpses.”

That same weekend, the Museum will offer stop-motion animation workshops led by NFB facilitators. From storyboard to building plasticine characters, participants will learn how to animate their own stories frame by frame. $5 per person, spaces limited.

I checked out the Canada Science and Technology Museum website and found out that some of these events seem to be part of the National Science and Technology (NST) week. My proof is that the timing is right and there’s a video about the NST week on the Passage page I’ve linked to previously.

I also came across some interesting news about the museum recently on the Canadian Science Policy Centre website. Apparently the museum is trying to find a new home (from the CBC news item found on the Canadian Science Policy Centre site),

Canada’s forlorn science-and-technology museum has ordered yet another study to help it find a new home after being stuck for more than 40 years in a suburban industrial park in Ottawa.

The museum corporation advertised Monday for a $175,000 study — the fourth in the last seven years — to make a business case for the move and to “suggest a path forward.”

Every other national museum or gallery in the Ottawa area has snagged posh new digs over the last quarter century: the National Art Gallery, the Canadian Museum of Civilization, the Canadian War Museum and the National Aviation Museum.

Even the Canadian Museum of Nature, the latest recipient of federal largesse, re-opened this year after a multimillion-dollar makeover of its century-old structure.

The Canada Science and Technology Museum, on the other hand, has seen its grand vision of a new home dashed several times. The latest was an $800-million blueprint vetoed by the incoming Conservative government in 2006.

Apparently, they’d like to be in a new place by 2017 for Canada’s 150th anniversary.

Canada’s new copyright bill being introduced June 3, 2010 (we think), NFB, RIP!, and student copyright video

De Montfort University researchers create golden memories; NFB’s Science Please!; Van Gogh nanotubes and other materials nano art; nano haiku and more

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De Montfort University (UK) is one of my alma maters but that’s not the only reason for mentioning this item. Researchers at the university are examining the possibility of using gold nanoparticles and small molecules to create flexible memory drives. From the news item on Azonano,

Medicine bottles that alert you when a prescription needs updating and computer screens which can be rolled up to fit in a briefcase are a step closer thanks to research led by a De Montfort University (DMU) academic from Punjab, India.

Dr Shashi Paul, Head of DMU’s Emerging Technologies Research Centre (EMTERC) in Leicester, UK, has been working with a team of researchers, exploring the potential of gold nanoparticles and small molecules to create memory chips that are so flexible they can be used in paper and clothing.

I’m intrigued by the reference to paper and clothing which seems to be a very popular ‘macro material’ application for nanotech research into flexible batteries and, now, memory drives. However, I’ve noted before (‘singing’ varnish) I’m not a big fan of materials which sound alarms since researchers don’t seem to be including a shut off button as a part of the package.

Science Please!

Canada’s National Film Board (NFB) has released part 1 (15 mins 59 secs) of a compendium of animated science minutes produced by Marc Bertrand. You can watch it online and/or order it from the NFB site,

The Science Please! collection uses archival footage, animated illustrations and amusing narration to explain various scientific discoveries and phenomena. This compilation includes: The Atom, The State of the Matter, The Dirt on Soap, Explosives, Gravity, Operation Lever, The Force of Water, Lift Off, Wheel Meets Friction, The Internal Combustion Engine, Fire, The Wind, Slippery Ice and The Refrigerator.

You can also read about the producer’s experience making these films.

Van Gogh nanotubes and other materials nano art

After posting information about the restoration of a Van Gogh masterpiece (The Bedroom) which is being blogged, I couldn’t resist Nanowerk’s latest news item about nano art,

During the 2009 MRS Fall Meeting in Boston, MA last year, the MRS conducted the eigth installment of the popular “Science as Art” competition (View winners from past competitions). Here are the six first-place and second-place winners

Here’s a sample image from the series on Nanowerk,

Van Gogh Nanotubes From the mind of Vincent van Gogh to the surface of self-assembled arrays of carbon nanotubes. This image obtained via scanning electron microscopy, evokes the magnum opus of Vincent van Gogh, Starry Night. These arrays are formed from a dried dispersion of single wall carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) dispersed in water with a polymer PVP and a surfactant SDBS. The average width of a small SWNT bundle shown here is ∼1 µm. False color was added with Adobe Photoshop. (Image: Mariela Bravo-Sanchez, Universidad Autonoma de San Luis Potosi, Mexico)

Do check out this and the other images available at Nanowerk (they’re also including links to some of their other galleries). It’s exciting to see how the imagery is changing as it seems to me that the use of colour and shape is getting more subtle. There’s still dramatic stuff but not all the images are dramatic which makes for a richer viewing experience.

If you are interested in viewing the Materials Research Society site, go here.

News and haiku from the Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network

I got my newsletter yesterday from the Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network (NISE Net). As their big annual project Nano Days (Mar. 27 – April 4, 2010) is due to finish this Sunday, the network is beginning to focus on the upcoming April 22, 2010 Earth Day.The newsletter lists some podcasts you can access on solar cells and water purification,

Solar Cells

NISE Net Podcast: Nanotechnology’s Role in Making Cheap Solar Power

Museum of Science New England Cable News segment: Making Solar Energy More Affordable (on solar thin films)

Museum of Science Podcast: New Solar Cells (on dye-sensitized or Gratzel solar cells)

YouTube Video: How to Make a Solar Cell with Donuts and Tea (via Wired magazine, the making of a dye-sensitized solar cell with powdered donuts, Passion iced tea, and vodka)

University of Wisconsin-Madison MRSEC Lab: Titanium Dioxide Raspberry Solar Cell

Video winner of the second American Chemical Society NanoNation video contest: NanoGirls (they think it’s fly when solar cells become more efficient)

→ Water Purification

DragonflyTV Episode: Water Clean Up (about using nanoiron to clean up pollution in soil and prevent it from getting into drinking water)

Museum of Science Podcast: Purifying Pollutants (about using glass to remove oil from water, plus a videocast on the same topic)

They also mention that this year is the 20th anniversary of one of the defining moments for nanotechnology in the US. Don Eigler, IBM, nudged a series of Xenon atoms into place forming the letters IBM at the nanoscale.

→ 20th Anniversary On April 5, 1990, Don Eigler and Erhard Schweizer announced in Nature that they had arranged 35 single atoms of xenon to spell out IBM. Chris Toumey of University of South Carolina looks back on the experiment in the April issue of Nature Nanotechnology. You can watch Don Eigler talk to visitors at the Museum of Science about moving atoms in a series of YouTube videos here (part of the Talking Nano dvd set).

This month the newsletter was able (sigh of relief, they didn’t have any submissions last month) to end on a nano haiku,

For hours, I build a
giant balloon nanotube.
Ouch. My fingers hurt!

by Karine Thate, Education Associate, Museum of Science, Boston

Do check out the NISE Net site for all this information and more including a recent blog post about the difference between talking about nanotech with fellow academics and talking about it with the general public. The organization is focused on educators both in schools and in science museums but they do offer lots of interesting information even if you don’t fall into one of their target markets.

FrogHeart

Commentary about nanotech, science policy and communication, society, and the arts

Tag Archives: National Film Board

Setting a tone for Canadian science, now what about science and a culture of innovation?

Canada’s 2010 National Science and Technology Week

Canada’s new copyright bill being introduced June 3, 2010 (we think), NFB, RIP!, and student copyright video

De Montfort University researchers create golden memories; NFB’s Science Please!; Van Gogh nanotubes and other materials nano art; nano haiku and more