This is going to be a ‘bits and pieces’ sort of a post. Over at the Framing Science blog, Matthew Nisbet notes that Madrid, Spain will be hosting a European science journalism conference, May 12 and 13, 2010. Registration is free. From the posting,

The event is intended for science journalists, media officers, science communicators, and scientists and is co-organized by the European Union Science Journalists Association. …

On the first day of the Forum, I will be participating as part of a round table discussion on “Public perception and participation in science.”

In Nisbet’s second posting about the Forum, he notes that the organizers have started a blog that has attracted some lively discussion. Nisbet focuses on the topic of whether or not university PR strategies are worthwhile. From Nisbet’s second posting,

In particular, relative to the responsibilities and practices of research universities, given the severe pressures to the news industry, to what extent should the resources traditionally spent on media relations–or for example the production of a university research magazine–be better spent in collaborating with journalism schools and faculty on launching digital news communities that would cover issues of science, health, the environment, and technology that are relevant to the university’s state, region or community and that actively engage local citizens as users, contributors, and co-creators of the news site?

He goes on to excerpt parts of the blog discussion with postings from various European journalists discussing this issue.

If you expect to be in Madrid around the time of the forum or are interested in it, go here to register or view the programme (or find the blog).

I have posted previously (here) about science, journalism, and PR although that posting is focused on different elements in the equation, i.e., that PR (or media relations) practitioners may be the investigative science journalists of the future. In looking at the last excerpt from Nisbet’s blog, it would seem that the idea of devoting media relations resources to ‘create digital news communities … that actively engage users to become co-creators’  (paraphrased) isn’t that far removed from the ‘PR practitioner as investigative journalist’ idea.

Iran’s Scientia Nanotechnology

As noted previously, the interest that oil-rich regions have in nanotechnology is intriguing to me so I’ve picked up on this news item featured on Nanowerk,

Iranian authorities are due to publish an ISI journal in the field of nanotechnology named as Scientia Nanotechnology.

This journal is one of Scientia Iranica divisions which are published by Sharif University of Technology.

Scientia Nanotechnology will publish the results of experimental and theoretical studies of nanotechnology researchers in English.

More details at Nanowerk and at the Scientia Iranica site.

Attosecond science

There hasn’t been much news about attoscale science lately so I”m happy to say that there’s a news item about it on Azonano. For anyone who’s not familiar with the attoscale, here’s a very quick summary starting with nano, diminishing to femto and finishing (for now) with atto. Nano is one billionth, femto is one quadrillionth, and atto is one quintillionth. From Azonano,

While there are more femtoseconds in a single second than there are seconds in 32 million years, attoseconds are a thousand times shorter yet – slices of time so fine that, while they can be counted and measured, they can hardly be imagined. In the time it takes a hydrogen molecule to make a single, vibratory bounce, its two electrons whiz around the molecule 300 times.

Mindboggling isn’t it? The news item goes on to explain why a scientist might be interested in the attoscale,

But for [Steve] Leone [professor of chemistry and physics and director of Chemical Dynamics Beamline at the Advanced Light Source at the University of California Berkeley], femtoseconds don’t do the job. He wants to see electrons moving for themselves.

“Electrons are lighter and quicker and move in a much, much shorter time than nuclei,” Leone says. “Electron dynamics and electron correlation are the problems to be solved if we want to really understand and eventually control chemical processes and complex materials, such as high-speed electronics. To get at the electron dynamics directly, we need to work on the attosecond timescale.”

If this sort thing interests you, do read the news item as it is well written and gives clear explanations.

NanoMaterials 2010

June 8 – 10, 2010, a nanomaterials conference is being held in London. The news item on Nanowerk features details about speakers and session such as this [my additions in square brackets],

First day of the main conference will commence with two keynotes from ETH ZURICH and NANOVENTURES, first exploring how to maximize opportunities for spin-outs and the second discussing commercialisation of emerging technologies. Other presentations will include market analysis by CIENTIFICA LTD [Tim Harper, Cientifica’s principal blogs here] and examination of the applications for cooling microprocessors by the leading manufacturer INTEL. INSCX will talk about establishing a commodity exchange for nanomaterials, followed by COMDAQ presenting a model for equity financing of emerging nanotechnology companies. The plenary will close with a TECHNOLOGY STRATEGY BOARD’s talk discussing nanotechnology as part of national technology investment strategy.

After lunch in the exhibition area, 4 afternoon parallel tracks will follow. These will be focused on different end use applications of nanomaterials and will present speakers from NOKIA RESEARCH CENTRE, CAMBRIDGE DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY [along with Nokia has been working on the Morph telephone], CAN GMBH, BAYER MATERIAL SCIENCE [has patented Baytubes {a type of carbon nanotube}], HEXCEL, SUN CHEMICAL, TEER COATINGS, ALTANA, AZ-TECH CONSULTING SERVICES LTD and many others. The final presentation of day 1 in each track will be hand-picked by the +Plastic Electronics editorial team, the main media partner of the event, and will feature case studies illustrating cutting edge innovation across the four conference tracks.

After writing so much about nanomaterials lately, this notice seems timely. If you want to sign up for the conference, go here.

Questions for Health Canada and their consultation on a nanomaterials definition

I received a response from someone at Health Canada about my questions. I hope to be able to publish the response late this week or early next week. My latest posting about the consultation is here.