An April 2, 2024 news item on phys.org is, in fact, an open invitation to participate in data collection for NASA during the April 8, 2024 eclipse,
On April 8, 2024, as the moon passes between the sun and Earth, thousands of amateur citizen scientists will measure air temperatures and snap pictures of clouds. The data they collect will aid researchers who are investigating how the sun influences climates in different environments.
Among those citizen scientists are the fifth- and sixth-grade students at Alpena Elementary in northwest Arkansas. In the weeks leading up to the eclipse, these students are visiting the school’s weather station 10 times a day to collect temperature readings and monitor cloud cover. They will then upload the data to a phone-based app that’s part of a NASA-led program called GLOBE, short for Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment.
The goal, according to Alpena Elementary science and math teacher Roger Rose, is to “make science and math more real” for his students. “It makes them feel like they’re doing something that’s important and worthwhile.”
The GLOBE eclipse tool is a small part of the much broader GLOBE project, through which students and citizen scientists collect data on plants, soil, water, the atmosphere, and even mosquitoes. Contributors to the eclipse project will only need a thermometer and a smartphone with the GLOBE Observer app downloaded. They can access the eclipse tool in the app. [emphases mine]
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An April 1, 2024 NASA article by James Riordon, which originated the news item, provides more information about the GLOBE program and the hopes for the April 8, 2024 eclipse initiative,
This is not the first time the GLOBE eclipse tool has been deployed in North America. During the 2017 North American eclipse, NASA researchers examined the relationship between clouds and air temperature and found that temperature swings during the eclipse were greatest in areas with less cloud cover, while temperature fluctuations in cloudier regions were more muted. It’s a finding that would have been difficult, perhaps impossible, without the assistance of numerous amateur observers along the eclipse path, said Marilé Colón Robles, a meteorologist based at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, and the GLOBE project scientist overseeing the cloud study portion of the project.
The number of weather stations along this year’s eclipse path is limited, and while satellites give us a global view, they can’t provide the same level of detail as people on the ground, said Ashlee Autore, a NASA Langley data scientist who will be conducting a follow-up to the 2017 study. “The power of citizen science is that people make the observations, and they can move.”
It’s still unclear how temperature fluctuations during a total eclipse compare across different climate regions, Colón Robles said. “This upcoming eclipse is passing through desert regions, mountainous regions, as well as more moist regions near the oceans.” Acquiring observations across these areas, she said, “will help us dig deeper into questions about regional connections between cloud cover and ground-level temperatures.” The studies should give scientists a better handle on the flow of energy from the Sun that’s crucial for understanding climate.
In many areas, citizen scientists are expected to gather en masse. “We’re inviting basically all of El Paso to campus,” said geophysicist and GLOBE partner John Olgin of El Paso Community College in Texas. The area will experience the eclipse in near totality, with about 80% of the Sun covered at the peak. It’s enough to make for an engaging event involving citizen scientists from the U.S. and Juarez, Mexico, just across the Rio Grande.
Just a few minutes of midday darkness will have the long-term benefits of increasing awareness of NASA citizen science programs, Olgin said: “It’s going to inspire people to say, ‘Hey look, you can actually do stuff with NASA.’”
More than 30 million people live along the path of the 2024 eclipse, and hundreds of millions more will see a partial eclipse. It will be another 20 years before so many people in North America experience another total solar eclipse again.
With this in mind, Colón Robles has a piece of advice: As the Moon actively blocks the Sun, set your phone and thermometer aside, and marvel at one of the most extraordinary astronomical events of your lifetime.
Visit NASA’s Citizen Science page to learn how you can help NASA scientists study the Earth during eclipses and all year round. The GLOBE Program page provides connections to communities of GLOBE participants in 127 countries, access to data for retrieval and analysis, a roadmap for new participants, and other resources.
For anyone who wants to experience all of the ways that NASA has made their citizen science April 2024 eclipse projects accessible there’s NASA’s ‘general eclipse’ webpage.
This morning (March 26, 2024) a notice from the Science Media Centre of Canada (SMCC) arrived (via email) with two bits of news I’m including here.
A freshly launched online science magazine, Sequencer,
From the Science Media Centre of Canada’s March 26, 2024 notice,
Science journalists launch new online science magazine
Sequencer is a writer-owned, subscriber-based platform to explore the world’s weird, exciting, rage-inducing, or even hilarious phenomena.
There was more about this new science magazine in a March 21, 2024 posting by Neel Dhanesh for the Nieman Lab blog, (Note 1: The Nieman Lab appears to be an initiative of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University; Note 2: Links have been removed),
Last year, freelance journalist and National Geographic alum Michael Greshko predicted that a worker-owned science publication would be born in 2024. On Thursday, his prediction came true with the launch of Sequencer.
Sequencer is looking to fill a gap that’s been created by the withering of science desks at newsrooms across the country. The four founders — Max G. Levy, Dan Samorodnitsky, Shi En Kim, and Maddie Bender, all of whom are alums of Massive Science, which stopped publishing in 2021 — write that “traditional science media is broken” in a letter introducing the site:
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Like its worker-owned brethren (see: Defector, 404 Media, Hell Gate, Aftermath, and more), Sequencer plans to be reader-supported, with subscriptions starting at $7 per month. I, like many others in the world of science journalism, am incredibly excited. …
There’s more about the cat called Masha, formerly known as Velveteen, and the author in a March 21, 2024 blog posting on Sequencer.
As for Sequencer and its founders, there’s the About Us webpage,
Sequencer is a place to decode our world with stories about science. It’s a venue for readers who care about pressing scientific questions and appreciate the weird, exciting, rage-inducing, spine-tingling, mind-bending, or even hilarious phenomena around us. It’s a platform for perennially curious journalists who don’t take themselves too seriously. It’s an invitation to discover alongside us.
We – Dan, Kim, Maddie, and Max [more about the founders later in this posting] – are not just the writers and editors, we’re also the founders and owners. We’re established science journalists and alumni of The Daily Beast, Scientific American, WIRED, Quanta, Smithsonian, C&EN, and more. We’re also all former scientists. Sequencer is our experiment.
Like any good experiment, Sequencer exists atop a heavily researched, rigorously tested, science-backed hypothesis: Traditional science media is broken, so it’s time for something new.
I found this bit particularly interesting,
This is typically how the sausage gets made in our industry: A scientist, usually someone who works at one of a handful of American or European universities, publishes their new work in a prestigious journal. Their well-funded institution’s PR team crafts a press release, puts the work under embargo, and emails it to journalists on their press list.
When it works, this model earns many important labs their 15 minutes of fame; millions of people learn about a breakthrough. But when it’s the governing model of science journalism, it constrains any content to bounds that are sterile and homogenous. There’s little room for analysis and perspective about the work that goes into doing science, let alone criticism or any reckoning with the future. At a time where climate change is laying waste to the planet and a historic pandemic trudges on and on, science journalism is too-often blank-faced and credulous.
That’s all assuming the model works. More and more, we’re realizing that it doesn’t. Bedrock science publications are dying. Or rather, they’re being actively killed by layoffs, predatory venture capital firms, and mega-conglomerates that keep inexplicably pivoting to video. It would be funny if it weren’t so bleak. [emphases mine]
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My March 8, 2024 posting, “Science journalism … ch-ch-ch-ch-changes” provides more context for the phrases I’ve highlighted in the excerpt in the above,
Sequencer is subscriber-supported,
Sequencer is subscriber-supported. That means we are cutting out the middleman and going directly to the reader. We depend on your money to power us, and your feedback to shape our coverage. Do you like our stories? Are we missing something? What do normal people want to see in a science publication? Tell us! Email us at hello@sequencermag.com
We’re choosing $7/month because if you live in a major American city, $7 is the price of a latte. We deserve a latte, don’t you think?
Meet the founders,
Maddie Bender
Maddie is a science, health, and technology journalist. She has worked in print, digital, audio, and video media. Some reporting highlights include covering spotted lanternfly fetish content, brain-breaking pseudoscience, and metaverse fitness. She lives in Honolulu, HI, and deeply misses her cat (not dead, just in New York.)
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Dan Samorodnitsky
Dan is a science journalist based in Minneapolis, MN. He’ll write about anything but specializes in biology, genetics, health, and the history of science. He has also written about Dairy Queens, church fish fries, and local politics. He has a cat, Masha, who will definitely appear in newsletters and posts.
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Shi En Kim
Kim is a Malaysian-born, DC-based journalist whose writing spans the scientific gamut (please don’t make her pick a favorite beat). Outside of science writing, she dabbles in art, plans for backpacking trips faster she can go on them, and plots the next move against her imposter syndrome in a never-ending tussle.
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Max G. Levy
Max is a science journalist whose favorite work tells the human stories behind discoveries in public health, climate change and tech. Max’s work appears in news outlets, magazines, and science videos on YouTube. He’s got sand in his hair as he writes this from his home in Los Angeles. If he goes a couple weeks without mentioning his late pet rats (R.I.P. Fiona, Syd, and Mouse) please call for help.
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Storytelling grants and the National Geographic
This is the second item of interest from the SMCC March 26, 2024 notice,
National Geographic Storytelling Grants Submission deadline has been extended. New submission deadline: April 11, 2024 | 23:59 ET The grants fund individuals working on projects in science, conservation, storytelling, education, and technology that align with one or more of our focus areas …
I found the page where the grants are described to be confusing. First, storytelling grants are part of the National Geographic’s ‘Grants and Investments program known as ‘National Geographic Explorers’ and there are two levels of grant opportunities with ‘storytellers’ being at Level II.
If you scroll down the National Geographic Grants and Investments webpage about 80% of the way, you’ll find Additional Resources, which includes the Level II Grants Program Storytelling Application Template. Good luck!
Extra
In the next day or so (probably by March 28, 2024), you may be seeing some articles about moon-bound Canadian astronaut, Jeremy Hansen, He’s giving a virtual presentation at the University of British Columbia (UBC). From a March 26, 2024 UBC media advisory (received via email),
Hansen is one of four crew members for the Artemis II mission, which will send astronauts around the Moon on the first crewed flight of the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft, no earlier than September 2025. He has lived in a cave underground and on the ocean floor in space mission simulations, and will be the first Canadian to participate in a lunar mission.
I don’t believe this event is open to the public, which is why I haven’t included details but you can be on the lookout for articles particularly in local (Vancouver, Canada) publications over the next few days.
The technology described in a January 5, 2024 news item on Nanowerk has not been tried in human clinical trials but early pre-clinical trial testing offers promise,
Using a new technology developed at MIT, diagnosing lung cancer could become as easy as inhaling nanoparticle sensors and then taking a urine test that reveals whether a tumor is present.
Key Takeaways
*This non-invasive approach may serve as an alternative or supplement to traditional CT scans, particularly beneficial in areas with limited access to advanced medical equipment.
*The technology focuses on detecting cancer-linked proteins in the lungs, with results obtainable through a simple paper test strip.
*Designed for early-stage lung cancer detection, the method has shown promise in animal models and may soon advance to human clinical trials.
*This innovation holds potential for significantly improving lung cancer screening and early detection, especially in low-resource settings.
The new diagnostic is based on nanosensors that can be delivered by an inhaler or a nebulizer. If the sensors encounter cancer-linked proteins in the lungs, they produce a signal that accumulates in the urine, where it can be detected with a simple paper test strip.
This approach could potentially replace or supplement the current gold standard for diagnosing lung cancer, low-dose computed tomography (CT). It could have an especially significant impact in low- and middle-income countries that don’t have widespread availability of CT scanners, the researchers say.
“Around the world, cancer is going to become more and more prevalent in low- and middle-income countries. The epidemiology of lung cancer globally is that it’s driven by pollution and smoking, so we know that those are settings where accessibility to this kind of technology could have a big impact,” says Sangeeta Bhatia, the John and Dorothy Wilson Professor of Health Sciences and Technology and of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, and a member of MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science.
Bhatia is the senior author of the paper, which appears today [January 5, 2024] in Science Advances. Qian Zhong, an MIT research scientist, and Edward Tan, a former MIT postdoc, are the lead authors of the study.
Inhalable particles
To help diagnose lung cancer as early as possible, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends that heavy smokers over the age of 50 undergo annual CT scans. However, not everyone in this target group receives these scans, and the high false-positive rate of the scans can lead to unnecessary, invasive tests.
Bhatia has spent the last decade developing nanosensors for use in diagnosing cancer and other diseases, and in this study, she and her colleagues explored the possibility of using them as a more accessible alternative to CT screening for lung cancer.
These sensors consist of polymer nanoparticles coated with a reporter, such as a DNA barcode, that is cleaved from the particle when the sensor encounters enzymes called proteases, which are often overactive in tumors. Those reporters eventually accumulate in the urine and are excreted from the body.
Previous versions of the sensors, which targeted other cancer sites such as the liver and ovaries, were designed to be given intravenously. For lung cancer diagnosis, the researchers wanted to create a version that could be inhaled, which could make it easier to deploy in lower resource settings.
“When we developed this technology, our goal was to provide a method that can detect cancer with high specificity and sensitivity, and also lower the threshold for accessibility, so that hopefully we can improve the resource disparity and inequity in early detection of lung cancer,” Zhong says.
To achieve that, the researchers created two formulations of their particles: a solution that can be aerosolized and delivered with a nebulizer, and a dry powder that can be delivered using an inhaler.
Once the particles reach the lungs, they are absorbed into the tissue, where they encounter any proteases that may be present. Human cells can express hundreds of different proteases, and some of them are overactive in tumors, where they help cancer cells to escape their original locations by cutting through proteins of the extracellular matrix. These cancerous proteases cleave DNA barcodes from the sensors, allowing the barcodes to circulate in the bloodstream until they are excreted in the urine.
In the earlier versions of this technology, the researchers used mass spectrometry to analyze the urine sample and detect DNA barcodes. However, mass spectrometry requires equipment that might not be available in low-resource areas, so for this version, the researchers created a lateral flow assay, which allows the barcodes to be detected using a paper test strip.
The researchers designed the strip to detect up to four different DNA barcodes, each of which indicates the presence of a different protease. No pre-treatment or processing of the urine sample is required, and the results can be read about 20 minutes after the sample is obtained.
“We were really pushing this assay to be point-of-care available in a low-resource setting, so the idea was to not do any sample processing, not do any amplification, just to be able to put the sample right on the paper and read it out in 20 minutes,” Bhatia says.
Accurate diagnosis
The researchers tested their diagnostic system in mice that are genetically engineered to develop lung tumors similar to those seen in humans. The sensors were administered 7.5 weeks after the tumors started to form, a time point that would likely correlate with stage 1 or 2 cancer in humans.
In their first set of experiments in the mice, the researchers measured the levels of 20 different sensors designed to detect different proteases. Using a machine learning algorithm to analyze those results, the researchers identified a combination of just four sensors that was predicted to give accurate diagnostic results. They then tested that combination in the mouse model and found that it could accurately detect early-stage lung tumors.
For use in humans, it’s possible that more sensors might be needed to make an accurate diagnosis, but that could be achieved by using multiple paper strips, each of which detects four different DNA barcodes, the researchers say.
The researchers now plan to analyze human biopsy samples to see if the sensor panels they are using would also work to detect human cancers. In the longer term, they hope to perform clinical trials in human patients. A company called Sunbird Bio has already run phase 1 trials on a similar sensor developed by Bhatia’s lab, for use in diagnosing liver cancer and a form of hepatitis known as nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).
In parts of the world where there is limited access to CT scanning, this technology could offer a dramatic improvement in lung cancer screening, especially since the results can be obtained during a single visit.
“The idea would be you come in and then you get an answer about whether you need a follow-up test or not, and we could get patients who have early lesions into the system so that they could get curative surgery or lifesaving medicines,” Bhatia says.
Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,
Inhalable point-of-care urinary diagnostic platform by Qian Zhong, Edward K. W. Tan, Carmen Martin-Alonso, Tiziana Parisi, Liangliang Hao, Jesse D. Kirkpatrick, Tarek Fadel, Heather E. Fleming, Tyler Jacks, and Sangeeta N. Bhatia. Science Advances 5 Jan 2024 Vol 10, Issue 1 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adj9591
This paper is open access.
Sunbird Bio (the company mentioned in the news release) can be found here.
It’s a bit disconcerting to think that one might be resurrected, in this case, digitally, but Dr Masaki Iwasaki has helpfully published a study on attitudes to digital cloning and resurrection consent, which could prove helpful when establishing one’s final wishes.
In a 2014 episode of sci-fi series Black Mirror, a grieving young widow reconnects with her dead husband using an app that trawls his social media history to mimic his online language, humor and personality. It works. She finds solace in the early interactions – but soon wants more.
Such a scenario is no longer fiction. In 2017, the company Eternime aimed to create an avatar of a dead person using their digital footprint, but this “Skype for the dead” didn’t catch on. The machine-learning and AI algorithms just weren’t ready for it. Neither were we.
Now, in 2024, amid exploding use of Chat GPT-like programs, similar efforts are on the way. But should digital resurrection be allowed at all? And are we prepared for the legal battles over what constitutes consent?
In a study published in the Asian Journal of Law and Economics, Dr Masaki Iwasaki of Harvard Law School and currently an assistant professor at Seoul National University, explores how the deceased’s consent (or otherwise) affects attitudes to digital resurrection.
US adults were presented with scenarios where a woman in her 20s dies in a car accident. A company offers to bring a digital version of her back, but her consent is, at first, ambiguous. What should her friends decide?
Two options – one where the deceased has consented to digital resurrection and another where she hasn’t – were read by participants at random. They then answered questions about the social acceptability of bringing her back on a five-point rating scale, considering other factors such as ethics and privacy concerns.
Results showed that expressed consent shifted acceptability two points higher compared to dissent. “Although I expected societal acceptability for digital resurrection to be higher when consent was expressed, the stark difference in acceptance rates – 58% for consent versus 3% for dissent – was surprising,” says Iwasaki. “This highlights the crucial role of the deceased’s wishes in shaping public opinion on digital resurrection.”
In fact, 59% of respondents disagreed with their own digital resurrection, and around 40% of respondents did not find any kind of digital resurrection socially acceptable, even with expressed consent. “While the will of the deceased is important in determining the societal acceptability of digital resurrection, other factors such as ethical concerns about life and death, along with general apprehension towards new technology are also significant,” says Iwasaki.
The results reflect a discrepancy between existing law and public sentiment. People’s general feelings – that the dead’s wishes should be respected – are actually not protected in most countries. The digitally recreated John Lennon in the film Forrest Gump, or animated hologram of Amy Winehouse reveal the ‘rights’ of the dead are easily overridden by those in the land of the living.
So, is your digital destiny something to consider when writing your will? It probably should be but in the current absence of clear legal regulations on the subject, the effectiveness of documenting your wishes in such a way is uncertain. For a start, how such directives are respected varies by legal jurisdiction. “But for those with strong preferences documenting their wishes could be meaningful,” says Iwasaki. “At a minimum, it serves as a clear communication of one’s will to family and associates, and may be considered when legal foundations are better established in the future.”
It’s certainly a conversation worth having now. Many generative AI chatbot services, such as like Replika (“The AI companion who cares”) and Project December (“Simulate the dead”) already enable conversations with chatbots replicating real people’s personalities. The service ‘You, Only Virtual’ (YOV) allows users to upload someone’s text messages, emails and voice conversations to create a ‘versona’ chatbot. And, in 2020, Microsoft obtained a patent to create chatbots from text, voice and image data for living people as well as for historical figures and fictional characters, with the option of rendering in 2D or 3D.
Iwasaki says he’ll investigate this and the digital resurrection of celebrities in future research. “It’s necessary first to discuss what rights should be protected, to what extent, then create rules accordingly,” he explains. “My research, building upon prior discussions in the field, argues that the opt-in rule requiring the deceased’s consent for digital resurrection might be one way to protect their rights.”
There is a link to the study in the press release above but this includes a citation, of sorts,
I almost forgot about the February 21, 2024 news item on Nanowerk announcing this new artist-in-residence programme. Thankfully, there’s still plenty of time before the submission deadline of May 17, 2024, Note: Links have been removed,
The Paul-Drude-Institut für Festkörperelektronik (PDI) in Berlin has launched its inaugural Artist-in-Residency Program, aimed at inspiring unique perspectives on science and presenting new opportunities for engaging with the community.
The PDI Artist-in-Residency Program offers a unique opportunity for Berlin-based artists to immerse themselves in the scientific process, collaborate with researchers and technicians, and access state-of-the-art facilities and resources in the field of materials science. Located in the heart of Berlin, PDI is one of the world’s leading institutes in the fabrication and analysis of nanomaterials for semiconductor technology.
PDI’s in-house facilities provide over 1500 m² of laboratory space, including 11 molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) systems and a central clean room area of 450 m2 dedicated to state-of-the-art processing and nanofabrication.
“We are delighted to introduce our Artist-in-Residency Program which reflects our commitment to sharing knowledge with the community.” said Prof. Dr. Roman Engel-Herbert, Director of PDI. “Through this program, we aim to immerse artists in the scientific process, helping them to gain an understanding of our work, develop unique perspectives, and uncover new ways to engage and inspire the community.”
The residency program is open to Berlin-based artists working in any discipline. Each residency lasts three months, during which time artists will have access to labs, a dedicated workspace, and mentorship from PDI’s scientists and technicians. At the end of the residency, the artist will present their processes and learnings in a public discussion, and showcase their work in a format suitable to their medium. Artists will receive a stipend of EUR 1,500 per month. The call for submissions is open until May 17th, 2024.
“We believe that collaboration is essential to both the scientific and creative processes,” said Dr. Carsten Hucho, Head of Department Technology and Transfer at PDI. “Our Artist-in-Residency Program encourages artists and scientists to exchange ideas, ask questions, and challenge the ways we perceive and communicate science.”
Applications for the Artist-in-Residency Program at PDI are now open. Interested artists are encouraged to visit the PDI website for more information.
I have found more information about applying, assuming you are a Berlin-based artist. From the website’s Artist-in-Residence program webpage,
Over a three-month period, the selected artist will work closely with scientists and technicians at PDI, gain access to labs, equipment, and insights into our research and activities. At the end of the residency, the artist will present their processes and learnings in a public discussion, and showcase their work in an exhibition format suitable to their discipline.
Duration: The residency runs for 3 months, from July to September 2024.
Remuneration: Artists will receive a stipend of EUR 1,500 per month.
Facilities: Artists will be assigned an office at PDI, and gain access to our labs and insights into our research through close contact with a mentor. Please note that accommodation is not provided.
Presentation: At the conclusion of the residency, the artist will have the opportunity to showcase their work through a public discussion and an accompanying exhibition, presentation, or performance, depending on the nature of their project.
Submission deadline: May 17th, 2024.
Eligibility
Open to artists who are based in Berlin and working in any medium, including but not limited to visual arts, digital arts, performance, and literature.
Artists at all stages of their careers are welcome to apply.
Applicants must be able to commit to the duration of the residency and closing presentation.
Application Process
To apply for the Artist-in-Residence Program at PDI, please submit the following materials:
Artist Statement: Describe your artistic practice, interests, and why you are interested in participating in the residency (500 words maximum).
Project Proposal: Outline your proposed project for the residency, including its objectives, methodology, and anticipated outcomes (500 words maximum).
Portfolio: Provide examples of previous work relevant to your proposed project (up to 10 images, videos, or links).
CV/Resume: Include a current CV or resume detailing your artistic background, education, exhibitions, and any relevant experience.
All materials must be submitted via email to art(at)pdi-berlin.de with the subject line “Artist-in-Residence Application – [Your Name].”
Applications must be received by midnight, May 17th, 2024.
Late or incomplete applications will not be considered.
Selection & Notification
Selection criteria will include artistic merit, originality, feasibility of the proposed project, and alignment with PDI’s mission. The selected artist will be notified by email by May 31st, 2024.
This brainlike transistor (not a memristor) is important because it functions at room temperature as opposed to others, which require cryogenic temperatures.
Researchers develop transistor that simultaneously processes and stores information like the human brain
Transistor goes beyond categorization tasks to perform associative learning
Transistor identified similar patterns, even when given imperfect input
Previous similar devices could only operate at cryogenic temperatures; new transistor operates at room temperature, making it more practical
EVANSTON, Ill. — Taking inspiration from the human brain, researchers have developed a new synaptic transistor capable of higher-level thinking.
Designed by researchers at Northwestern University, Boston College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the device simultaneously processes and stores information just like the human brain. In new experiments, the researchers demonstrated that the transistor goes beyond simple machine-learning tasks to categorize data and is capable of performing associative learning.
Although previous studies have leveraged similar strategies to develop brain-like computing devices, those transistors cannot function outside cryogenic temperatures. The new device, by contrast, is stable at room temperatures. It also operates at fast speeds, consumes very little energy and retains stored information even when power is removed, making it ideal for real-world applications.
The study was published today (Dec. 20 [2023]) in the journal Nature.
“The brain has a fundamentally different architecture than a digital computer,” said Northwestern’s Mark C. Hersam, who co-led the research. “In a digital computer, data move back and forth between a microprocessor and memory, which consumes a lot of energy and creates a bottleneck when attempting to perform multiple tasks at the same time. On the other hand, in the brain, memory and information processing are co-located and fully integrated, resulting in orders of magnitude higher energy efficiency. Our synaptic transistor similarly achieves concurrent memory and information processing functionality to more faithfully mimic the brain.”
Hersam is the Walter P. Murphy Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Northwestern’s McCormick School of Engineering. He also is chair of the department of materials science and engineering, director of the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center and member of the International Institute for Nanotechnology. Hersam co-led the research with Qiong Ma of Boston College and Pablo Jarillo-Herrero of MIT.
Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have motivated researchers to develop computers that operate more like the human brain. Conventional, digital computing systems have separate processing and storage units, causing data-intensive tasks to devour large amounts of energy. With smart devices continuously collecting vast quantities of data, researchers are scrambling to uncover new ways to process it all without consuming an increasing amount of power. Currently, the memory resistor, or “memristor,” is the most well-developed technology that can perform combined processing and memory function. But memristors still suffer from energy costly switching.
“For several decades, the paradigm in electronics has been to build everything out of transistors and use the same silicon architecture,” Hersam said. “Significant progress has been made by simply packing more and more transistors into integrated circuits. You cannot deny the success of that strategy, but it comes at the cost of high power consumption, especially in the current era of big data where digital computing is on track to overwhelm the grid. We have to rethink computing hardware, especially for AI and machine-learning tasks.”
To rethink this paradigm, Hersam and his team explored new advances in the physics of moiré patterns, a type of geometrical design that arises when two patterns are layered on top of one another. When two-dimensional materials are stacked, new properties emerge that do not exist in one layer alone. And when those layers are twisted to form a moiré pattern, unprecedented tunability of electronic properties becomes possible.
For the new device, the researchers combined two different types of atomically thin materials: bilayer graphene and hexagonal boron nitride. When stacked and purposefully twisted, the materials formed a moiré pattern. By rotating one layer relative to the other, the researchers could achieve different electronic properties in each graphene layer even though they are separated by only atomic-scale dimensions. With the right choice of twist, researchers harnessed moiré physics for neuromorphic functionality at room temperature.
“With twist as a new design parameter, the number of permutations is vast,” Hersam said. “Graphene and hexagonal boron nitride are very similar structurally but just different enough that you get exceptionally strong moiré effects.”
To test the transistor, Hersam and his team trained it to recognize similar — but not identical — patterns. Just earlier this month, Hersam introduced a new nanoelectronic device capable of analyzing and categorizing data in an energy-efficient manner, but his new synaptic transistor takes machine learning and AI one leap further.
“If AI is meant to mimic human thought, one of the lowest-level tasks would be to classify data, which is simply sorting into bins,” Hersam said. “Our goal is to advance AI technology in the direction of higher-level thinking. Real-world conditions are often more complicated than current AI algorithms can handle, so we tested our new devices under more complicated conditions to verify their advanced capabilities.”
First the researchers showed the device one pattern: 000 (three zeros in a row). Then, they asked the AI to identify similar patterns, such as 111 or 101. “If we trained it to detect 000 and then gave it 111 and 101, it knows 111 is more similar to 000 than 101,” Hersam explained. “000 and 111 are not exactly the same, but both are three digits in a row. Recognizing that similarity is a higher-level form of cognition known as associative learning.”
In experiments, the new synaptic transistor successfully recognized similar patterns, displaying its associative memory. Even when the researchers threw curveballs — like giving it incomplete patterns — it still successfully demonstrated associative learning.
“Current AI can be easy to confuse, which can cause major problems in certain contexts,” Hersam said. “Imagine if you are using a self-driving vehicle, and the weather conditions deteriorate. The vehicle might not be able to interpret the more complicated sensor data as well as a human driver could. But even when we gave our transistor imperfect input, it could still identify the correct response.”
The study, “Moiré synaptic transistor with room-temperature neuromorphic functionality,” was primarily supported by the National Science Foundation.
Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,
Moiré synaptic transistor with room-temperature neuromorphic functionality by Xiaodong Yan, Zhiren Zheng, Vinod K. Sangwan, Justin H. Qian, Xueqiao Wang, Stephanie E. Liu, Kenji Watanabe, Takashi Taniguchi, Su-Yang Xu, Pablo Jarillo-Herrero, Qiong Ma & Mark C. Hersam. Nature volume 624, pages 551–556 (2023) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06791-1 Published online: 20 December 2023 Issue Date: 21 December 2023
Yes, nanomaterials from Mars! A December 21, 2023 news item on Nanowerk makes the proposition, Note: A link has been removed,
Researchers at the University of Sussex have discovered the transformative potential of Martian nanomaterials, potentially opening the door to sustainable habitation on the red planet. They published their findings in (“Quasi–1D Anhydrite Nanobelts from the Sustainable Liquid Exfoliation of Terrestrial Gypsum for Future Martian-Based Electronics”).
Using resources and techniques currently applied on the International Space Station [ISS] and by NASA [US National Aeronautics and Space Administration], Dr Conor Boland, a Lecturer in Materials Physics at the University of Sussex, led a research group that investigated the potential of nanomaterials – incredibly tiny components thousands of times smaller than a human hair – for clean energy production and building materials on Mars.
Taking what was considered a waste product by NASA and applying only sustainable production methods, including water-based chemistry and low-energy processes, the researchers have successfully identified electrical properties within gypsum nanomaterials – opening the door to potential clean energy and sustainable technology production on Mars.
“This study shows that the potential is quite literally out of this world for nanomaterials. Our study builds off recent research performed by NASA and takes what was considered waste, essentially lumps of rock, and turns it into transformative nanomaterials for a range of applications from creating clean hydrogen fuel to developing an electronic device similar to a transistor, to creating an additive to textiles to increase their robustness.
“This opens avenues for sustainable technology – and building – on Mars but also highlights the broader potential for eco-friendly breakthroughs here on Earth.”
To make the breakthrough the researchers used NASA’s innovative method for extracting water from Martian gypsum, which is dehydrated by the agency to get water for human consumption. This produces a byproduct called anhydrite—considered waste material by NASA, but now shown to be hugely valuable.
The Sussex researchers processed anhydrite into nanobelts – essentially tagliatelle-shaped materials – demonstrating their potential to provide clean energy and sustainable electronics. Furthermore, at every step of their process, water could be continuously collected and recycled.
Dr Boland added:
“We are optimistic of the feasibility of this process on Mars, as it requires only naturally occurring materials – everything we used could, in theory, be replicated on the red planet. Arguably this is the most important goal in making the Martian colony sustainable from the outset.”
While full-scale electronics production may be impractical on Mars due to the lack of clean rooms and sterile conditions, the anhydrite nanobelts hold promise for clean energy production on Earth, and could, later down the line, still have a profound effect on sustainable energy production on Mars.
“Geist’s handmade robots made movements as simple as a ping-pong table flapping or coiling up to shoot, but the contact microphones and sound processing documented a percussive, electro, mini symphony.” – Austin Chronicle
There’s mystery in Geist’s music. It’s heady, ASMR-infused dance music — there’s something special happening here, but it’s not immediately clear what.” –– Engadget
“For Geist, the instruments represent not just a new way to make music, but a new way to experience it. The instruments each have a visual component, which makes it possible to watch the sounds as Geist creates them.” – Wired
The performance is fascinating and bewildering, but the music itself provokes one to want to dance in a dimly lit nightclub.” – MixMag
“It doesn’t get geekier than this” – New York Times.
“These robots play electrifying techno music.”– CNET
German sonic artist Moritz Simon Geist will showcase his latest work “Don’t Look At Me” at the Central Presbyterian Church March 15th. With his new robotic instrument Geist is presenting a contemplative ambient performance around the themes attention economy, spatial sound and sine waves. “Don’t Look at Me” was developed as an interactive installation in 2023 in South Korea and uses resonator tubes, light, and vibrato elements to create a fascinating ever-changing soundscape. For the SXSW event, Geist is showcasing his latest compositions with this instrument.
Moritz is returning to SXSW 2024 with a handful of performances and robotic interventions. His works and performances revolve around the questions: How do machines, algorithms and humans interact? How can we find a playful way to interact with non-human music players? And can robots play techno?
Moritz and his team have been developing sound machines and kinetic installations for more than 10 years already, and his works and performances have been shown at festivals and stages around the world. For this SXSW, Moritz is bringing both performances for several techno shows as well as a contemplative ambient show at the Central Presbyterian Church on March 15th [2024]. Here he will present compositions for his latest work “Don’t Look At Me”.
Geist is well known for his performances and self-developed instruments using robots and mechanics as the main sound source. His works have been shown internationally and have been awarded numerous awards in the last years.
Of his return to SXSW, Moritz says, “SXSW 2024 is only the second time I’m playing ‘Don’t Look at Me’ with my new robotic instrument! Playing with a new instrument this complex is always like this first walk outside with a toddler: You never know where you end up: manic laughter at the playground or existential crying in the supermarket.” Regarding his ongoing fascination with machines as instruments, Moritz muses, “When I was younger, I played in a punk rock band, but at some point, I got really annoyed by my fellow musicians, so I swore to myself that I would never play with human musicians again. Jokes aside, I think robotics is a wonderful tool to give a body back to the normally electronically generated sound of techno. The main reason why I’m using robotics as a musical instrument is that the computer is, in my opinion, not the best tool for creating electronic sounds.”
Should you be considering a ticket purchase for the April 15 – 19, 2024 TED event in Vancouver, the cheap ($6250 [USD?]) seats are sold out. Tickets at the next level up are $12,500 and after that, they are $25,000. Should you have more money to burn, you are of course free to become a patron.
A look at the 2024 list of speakers will tell you it is an eclectic list with a significant proportion of speakers focused on the topic of artificial intelligence/robotics.
The three speakers being highlighted here are not focused on artificial intelligence/robotics and have nothing in common with each other (topic wise).
First up, Bill Ackman, a very, very wealthy man, has a messy backstory. Here’s the short description followed by the long one,
Bill Ackman
Founder and CEO, Pershing Square Capital Management
TALK TOPIC
The activist investor playbook (in conversation with Alison Taylor)
Bill Ackman is founder and CEO of the hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management and a storied activist investor. He is the chairman of Howard Hughes Holdings, a real estate development and management company based in Texas, and a member of the board of Universal Music Group. He is also the co-trustee of The Pershing Square Foundation, a family foundation supporting those tackling important social issues worldwide. At TED2024, Ackman will be interviewed by business professor Alison Taylor.
Mr. Ackman is not entirely self-made, from his Wikipedia entry, Note: Links have been removed,
…
Ackman was raised in Chappaqua, New York, the son of Ronnie I. (née Posner) and Lawrence David Ackman, the former chairman of a New York real estate financing firm, Ackman-Ziff Real Estate Group. [emphases mine] [10][11][12] He is of Ashkenazi Jewish descent.[13][14][15] In 1988, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree magna cum laude in social studies from Harvard College. His thesis was titled Scaling the Ivy Wall: The Jewish and Asian American Experience in Harvard Admissions.[16] In 1992, he received a Master of Business Administration degree from Harvard Business School.[17]
As for the messiness, there’s this from from his Wikipedia entry, Note 1: Links have been removed, Note 2: All emphases are mine,
…
In October 2023, following the onset of the 2023 Israel–Hamas war after the October 7 attack, several Harvard undergraduate student groups signed a letter condemning the Israeli state. The statement held the “Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence,” declared that millions of Palestinians in Gaza have been “forced to live in an open-air prison,” and called on Harvard to “take action to stop the ongoing annihilation of Palestinians.”
In response, Ackman called for the publication of the names of all students involved in signing the letter so that he could ensure his company and others do not “inadvertently hire” any of the signatories. Ackman posted, “One should not be able to hide behind a corporate shield when issuing statements supporting the actions of terrorists,” and the names “should be made public so their views are publicly known”.[83] Ackman’s stance was supported by other CEOs such as Jonathan Neman, David Duel and Jake Wurzak.[84] Former Harvard president Lawrence Summers, though agreeing with Ackman on the need to look at employees’ political views, called Ackman’s request for a list of names “the stuff of Joe McCarthy”.[85]
In November 2023, Ackman defended Elon Musk after the latter expressed agreement with a user who asserted that “Jewish communities” supported “hordes of minorities flooding their country” and pushed “dialectical hatred against whites”, describing it as “shoot from the hip commentary”.[86][87]
Ackman also engaged in a campaign to remove Claudine Gay from her position as Harvard’s president. He argued that her response to antisemitism was insufficient and amplified allegations by conservative media that she engaged in plagiarism.[88][89]
On January 3, 2024, Business Insider published an article alleging that Ackman’s wife, Neri Oxman*, plagiarized portions of her dissertation. A day after the article’s publication, Oxman apologized for plagiarizing portions of her dissertation.[90][91]Ackman, in response to the article, pledged to conduct a plagiarism review of all MIT [Massachusetts Institute of Technology] faculty, including MIT’s president, Sally Kornbluth, who, alongside Gay, attended a congressional hearing on antisemitism in higher education.[90]
…
In 2018, Ackman became engaged to Neri Oxman.[94] In January 2019, Oxman and Ackman married at the Central Synagogue in Manhattan,[13] and they had their first child together in spring 2019.[95] In August 2019, Ackman wrote to MIT Media Lab director Joi Ito to discourage him from mentioning Oxman when discussing convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who had donated $125,000 to Oxman’s lab.[96]
…
*There are more complications where Neri Oxman is concerned. She is an Israeli-American who came to the US in 2005 where she commenced PhD studies at MIT. After graduation she became a professor at MIT, a position she has left to found Oxman Architects in 2020. Despite the company name, the business seems more focused on art installations and experimental work. (sourced from Oxman’s Wikipedia entry)*
I wonder how Mr. Ackman characterizes the difference between activism and actions, which result in the destruction of other people’s careers because you disagree with them.
Ackman’s interviewer, Alison Taylor is an interesting choice given that she is a business professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business and author of a February 6, 2024 article (Corporate Advocacy in a Time of Social Outrage; Businesses can’t weigh in on every issue that employees care about. But they can create a culture of open dialogue and ethical transparency [emphasis mine]) for the Harvard Business Review, The article is excerpted from Taylor’s book, “Higher Ground: How Business Can Do the Right Thing in a Turbulent World,” published by Harvard Business Review Press, Feb. 13 2024.
This talk looks like an attempt to rehabilitate Mr. Ackman’s reputation while giving Ms. Taylor publicity for her newly published book in an environment where neither is likely to be strongly challenged.
The two speakers I’m most excited about are Tammy Ma, fusion physicist, and Brian Stokes Mitchell, actor and singer.
As there is a local company known as General Fusion, the topic of fusion energy has been covered here a number of times including a relevant to Ms. Ma’s TED appearance December 13, 2022 posting, “US announces fusion energy breakthrough.”
Tammy Ma is the lead for the Inertial Fusion Energy Initiative at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where she creates miniature stars in order to develop ways to harness their power as a clean, limitless energy source for the future. She was a member of the team at the National Ignition Facility that achieved fusion ignition in December 2022 — a reaction that, for the first time in history, released more energy than it consumed. [emphasis mine] A fellow of the American Physical Society, she serves on the Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee, advising the US Department of Energy’s Office of Science on issues related to fusion energy and plasma research.
Brian Stokes Mitchell is a Tony-winning actor, singer and music producer. A veteran of 11 Broadway shows and a member of the Theatre Hall of Fame, he has performed iconic roles including Frasier’s snarky upstairs neighbor Cam, Hillary’s bungie-jumping boyfriend on the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, The Prince of Egypt (singing “Through Heaven’s Eyes”) and, most recently, Stanley Townsend in the 2024 feature film Shirley with Regina King. He has performed twice at the White House, serves on the board of Americans for the Arts and is one of the founding members of Black Theatre United.
Stokes Mitchell performed at the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song ceremony in 2017 when Tony Bennett was the honoree. The performances were top notch but something happened when Stokes Mitchell took the stage for his first number. The audience was electrified as was every performer who came after him, some of them giving their second performance of the evening. There is no guarantee that Mr. Stoke Mitchell can do that at his 2024 TED talk but that is the blessing and the curse of live performances.
I have two news bits both of them concerned with magnets.
Patent for magnets that can be made without rare earths
I’m starting with the patent news first since this is (as the company notes in its news release) a “Landmark Patent Issued for Technology Critically Needed to Combat Chinese Monopoly.”
For those who don’t know, China supplies most of the rare earths used in computers, smart phones, and other devices. On general principles, having a single supplier dominate production of and access to a necessary material for devices that most of us rely on can raise tensions. Plus, you can’t mine for resources forever.
Nanotechnology Discovery by 2023 Nobel Prize Winner Became Launch Pad to Create Permanent Magnets without Rare Earths from China
NEW YORK, NY, UNITED STATES, December 19, 2023 /EINPresswire.com/ — Integrated Nano-Magnetics Corp, a wholly owned subsidiary of Nanocrystal Technology LP, was awarded a patent for technology built upon a fundamental nanoscience discovery made by Aleksey Yekimov, its former Chief Scientific Officer.
This patent will enable the creation of strong permanent magnets which are critically needed for both industrial and military applications but cannot be manufactured without certain “rare earth” elements available mostly from China.
At a glittering awards ceremony held in Stockholm on December10, 2023, three scientists, Aleksey Yekimov, Louis Brus (Professor at Columbia University) and Moungi Bawendi (Professor at MIT) were honored with the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their discovery of the “quantum dot” which is now fueling practical applications in tuning the colors of LEDs, increasing the resolution of TV screens, and improving MRI imaging.
As stated by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, “Quantum dots are … bringing the greatest benefits to humankind. Researchers believe that in the future they could contribute to flexible electronics, tiny sensors, thinner solar cells, and encrypted quantum communications – so we have just started exploring the potential of these tiny particles.”
Aleksey Yekimov worked for over 19 years until his retirement as Chief Scientific Officer of Nanocrystals Technology LP, an R & D company in New York founded by two Indian-American entrepreneurs, Rameshwar Bhargava and Rajan Pillai.
Yekimov, who was born in Russia, had already received the highest scientific honors for his work before he immigrated to USA in 1999. Yekimov was greatly intrigued by Nanocrystal Technology’s research project and chose to join the company as its Chief Scientific Officer.
During its early years, the company worked on efficient light generation by doping host nanoparticles about the same size as a quantum dot with an additional impurity atom. Bhargava came up with the novel idea of incorporating a single impurity atom, a dopant, into a quantum dot sized host, and thus achieve an extraordinary change in the host material’s properties such as inducing strong permanent magnetism in weak, readily available paramagnetic materials. To get a sense of the scale at which nanotechnology works, and as vividly illustrated by the Nobel Foundation, the difference in size between a quantum dot and a soccer ball is about the same as the difference between a soccer ball and planet Earth.
Currently, strong permanent magnets are manufactured from “rare earths” available mostly in China which has established a near monopoly on the supply of rare-earth based strong permanent magnets. Permanent magnets are a fundamental building block for electro-mechanical devices such as motors found in all automobiles including electric vehicles, trucks and tractors, military tanks, wind turbines, aircraft engines, missiles, etc. They are also required for the efficient functioning of audio equipment such as speakers and cell phones as well as certain magnetic storage media.
The existing market for permanent magnets is $28 billion and is projected to reach $50 billion by 2030 in view of the huge increase in usage of electric vehicles. China’s overwhelming dominance in this field has become a matter of great concern to governments of all Western and other industrialized nations. As the Wall St. Journal put it, China’s now has a “stranglehold” on the economies and security of other countries.
The possibility of making permanent magnets without the use of any rare earths mined in China has intrigued leading physicists and chemists for nearly 30 years. On December 19, 2023, a U.S. patent with the title ‘’Strong Non Rare Earth Permanent Magnets from Double Doped Magnetic Nanoparticles” was granted to Integrated Nano-Magnetics Corp. [emphasis mine] Referring to this major accomplishment Bhargava said, “The pioneering work done by Yekimov, Brus and Bawendi has provided the foundation for us to make other discoveries in nanotechnology which will be of great benefit to the world.”
This research offers a pathway to neuromorphic (brainlike) computing with chiral (or twisted) magnets, which, as best as I understand it, do not require rare earths. From a November13, 2023 news item on ScienceDaily,
A form of brain-inspired computing that exploits the intrinsic physical properties of a material to dramatically reduce energy use is now a step closer to reality, thanks to a new study led by UCL [University College London] and Imperial College London [ICL] researchers.
In the new study, published in the journal Nature Materials, an international team of researchers used chiral (twisted) magnets as their computational medium and found that, by applying an external magnetic field and changing temperature, the physical properties of these materials could be adapted to suit different machine-learning tasks.
Dr Oscar Lee (London Centre for Nanotechnology at UCL and UCL Department of Electronic & Electrical Engineering), the lead author of the paper, said: “This work brings us a step closer to realising the full potential of physical reservoirs to create computers that not only require significantly less energy, but also adapt their computational properties to perform optimally across various tasks, just like our brains.
“The next step is to identify materials and device architectures that are commercially viable and scalable.”
Traditional computing consumes large amounts of electricity. This is partly because it has separate units for data storage and processing, meaning information has to be shuffled constantly between the two, wasting energy and producing heat. This is particularly a problem for machine learning, which requires vast datasets for processing. Training one large AI model can generate hundreds of tonnes of carbon dioxide.
Physical reservoir computing is one of several neuromorphic (or brain inspired) approaches that aims to remove the need for distinct memory and processing units, facilitating more efficient ways to process data. In addition to being a more sustainable alternative to conventional computing, physical reservoir computing could be integrated into existing circuitry to provide additional capabilities that are also energy efficient.
In the study, involving researchers in Japan and Germany, the team used a vector network analyser to determine the energy absorption of chiral magnets at different magnetic field strengths and temperatures ranging from -269 °C to room temperature.
They found that different magnetic phases of chiral magnets excelled at different types of computing task. The skyrmion phase, where magnetised particles are swirling in a vortex-like pattern, had a potent memory capacity apt for forecasting tasks. The conical phase, meanwhile, had little memory, but its non-linearity was ideal for transformation tasks and classification – for instance, identifying if an animal is a cat or dog.
Co-author Dr Jack Gartside, of Imperial College London, said: “Our collaborators at UCL in the group of Professor Hidekazu Kurebayashi recently identified a promising set of materials for powering unconventional computing. These materials are special as they can support an especially rich and varied range of magnetic textures. Working with the lead author Dr Oscar Lee, the Imperial College London group [led by Dr Gartside, Kilian Stenning and Professor Will Branford] designed a neuromorphic computing architecture to leverage the complex material properties to match the demands of a diverse set of challenging tasks. This gave great results, and showed how reconfiguring physical phases can directly tailor neuromorphic computing performance.”
The work also involved researchers at the University of Tokyo and Technische Universität München and was supported by the Leverhulme Trust, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), Imperial College London President’s Excellence Fund for Frontier Research, Royal Academy of Engineering, the Japan Science and Technology Agency, Katsu Research Encouragement Award, Asahi Glass Foundation, and the DFG (German Research Foundation).
Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,
Task-adaptive physical reservoir computing by Oscar Lee, Tianyi Wei, Kilian D. Stenning, Jack C. Gartside, Dan Prestwood, Shinichiro Seki, Aisha Aqeel, Kosuke Karube, Naoya Kanazawa, Yasujiro Taguchi, Christian Back, Yoshinori Tokura, Will R. Branford & Hidekazu Kurebayashi. Nature Materials volume 23, pages 79–87 (2024) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-023-01698-8 Published online: 13 November 2023 Issue Date: January 2024
I don’t always do as good a job at covering the commercialization of emerging technologies as I’d like, so, this December 13, 2023 news item on Yahoo News was a welcome discovery,
Oakville, Ontario–(Newsfile Corp. – December 13, 2023) – FendX Technologies Inc. (CSE: FNDX) (OTCQB: FDXTF) (FSE: E8D) (the “Company” or “FendX“), a nanotechnology company developing surface protection coatings is pleased to announce it has entered into a Collaborative Research Agreement (“CRA“) dated December 12, 2023 with McMaster University (“McMaster“) which details the research and development plan to create a protective catheter coating using our nanotechnology licensed pursuant to the license agreement dated February 5, 2021, as amended, between the Company and McMaster.
Dr. Carolyn Myers, President and CEO of FendX, stated, “We are excited about the prospect of developing a coating for catheters using our nanotechnology which we believe will reduce catheter blockage caused by either blood clots or bacterial biofilms. Early work conducted at McMaster has demonstrated significant reduction in the adherence of both bacteria and blood which could potentially translate to reduced bacterial biofilm or blood clot formation. [emphasis mine] Our aim is to further this research to tackle the medical need to reduce catheter blockage rates, which can be costly and interfere with patient therapy. We anticipate the development of this coating formulation will also strengthen our overall intellectual property portfolio.”
The CRA outlines more fully the research and development work to be conducted by McMaster on behalf of FendX as well as a payment schedule for the maximum research funding requirements. The term of the CRA is for 24 months commencing on the effective date of December 1, 2023, unless terminated in accordance with the provisions of the CRA. In the first and second year, maximum research funding to McMaster will be $150,547 each year.
About FendX Technologies Inc.
FendX is a Canada-based nanotechnology company focused on developing products to make people’s lives safer by reducing the spread of pathogens. The Company is developing both film and spray products to protect surfaces from contamination. The lead product under development, REPELWRAP™ film, is a protective surface coating film that, due to its repelling properties, prevents the adhesion of pathogens and reduces their transmission on surfaces prone to contamination. The spray nanotechnology is a bifunctional spray coating being developed to reduce contamination on surfaces by repelling and killing pathogens. The Company is conducting research and development activities using its nanotechnology in collaboration with industry-leading partners, including McMaster University. The Company has an exclusive worldwide license to its technology and IP portfolio from McMaster, which encompass both film and spray coating nanotechnology formulations.
Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor the Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Forward-Looking Statements
This news release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation, including with respect to: the plans of the Company; statements regarding the catheter coating development and anticipated benefits; the Company’s belief that the catheter coating could reduce catheter occlusions caused by either blood clots or bacterial biofilms; statements regarding strengthening the Company’s overall intellectual property portfolio; the Company’s belief that REPELWRAP™ will have applications in healthcare settings and other industries; and products under development and any pathogen reduction benefits related thereto. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts; they are generally, but not always, identified by the words “expects,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “intends,” “estimates,” “projects,” “aims,” “potential,” “goal,” “objective,” “prospective,” and similar expressions, or that events or conditions “will,” “would,” “may,” “can,” “could” or “should” occur, or are those statements, which, by their nature, refer to future events. The Company cautions that forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of the Company’s management on the date the statements are made and involve several risks and uncertainties. Consequently, there can be no assurances that such statements will prove to be accurate and that actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements.
Important factors that could cause future results to differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements include: product candidates only being in formulation/reformulation stages; limited operating history; research and development activities; dependence on collaborative partners, licensors and others; effect of general economic and political conditions; and other risk factors set forth in the Company’s public filings which are available on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca. Accordingly, the reader is urged to refer to the Company’s such filings for a more complete discussion of such risk factors and their potential effects. Except to the extent required by applicable securities laws and the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements if management’s beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors should change.
FendX offers next to no information about their technology or the proposed work with McMaster as seen in this excerpt from the Our Technology webpage on the FendX website,
Our patent-pending licensed nanotechnology works by combining a hierarchical wrinkled molecular structure with chemical functionalization to create nano-surfaces with repelling properties that prevent adhesion of bacteria, viruses and liquids.
Inspired by the water-resistant surface of the lotus leaf
Our nanotechnology causes both high surface tension (e.g., water) and low surface tension (e.g., oil) liquids to form droplets when they come in contact with the nano-surface.
The repelling properties of our nano-surfaces prevents adhesion of bacteria and viruses.
We believe our technology will have numerous applications and opportunities in healthcare and other industries.
That’s it. No technical details and not a single research study is cited.
While McMaster University doesn’t seem to have issued any news releases about their joint research effort with FendX, there are two research papers that I’m reasonably confident are relevant. From the Didar Lab Publications webpage, here are links and citation for both papers,