Monthly Archives: April 2012

Math puzzles and sunflowers at the Manchester Science Festival

Leave a reply

The Manchester Science Festival (UK) has organized a citizen science project in honour of the 100th anniversary of Alan Turing’s (Wikipedia essay) birth (from the essay [Note: I have removed links and bibiographic references]),

Alan Mathison Turing, OBE, FRS (… TEWR–ing; 23 June 1912 – 7 June 1954), was an English mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst, and computer scientist. He was highly influential in the development of computer science, providing a formalisation of the concepts of “algorithm” and “computation” with the Turing machine, which played a significant role in the creation of the modern computer. Turing is widely considered to be the father of computer science and artificial intelligence. He was stockily built, had a high-pitched voice, and was talkative, witty, and somewhat donnish. He showed many of the characteristics that are indicative of Asperger syndrome.

Here’s more about the project, thanks to the GrrlScientist April 16, 2012 posting on the Guardian Science blogs,

What do sunflowers and Alan Turing share in common? Basically, Turing noticed that the number of spirals in the seed patterns of sunflower heads often conform to a number that appears in the mathematical sequence called the Fibonacci sequence (0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89…). Other plants also show this pattern. When Turing came to the University of Manchester, he began exploring how this phenomenon might help us to understand the growth of plants, a field now known as phyllotaxis.

Tragically, Turing died before his work was complete, so the Manchester Science Festival is asking for you to help mathematicians explore Turing’s ideas about plant growth.

This video on the GrrlScientist posting (there are other related videos in the posting) by Brady Haran, the video journalist who amongst other projects films the Numberphile series, explains Turing’s interest in sunflowers and Fibonacci’s spiral,

You don’t have to be a mathematician to join in although it seems that it’s best if you’re in Manchester (the festival doesn’t specify residence there as a requirement), from the Turing’s Sunflowers webpage on the Manchester Science Festival website,

This spring, we need your green fingers! Join Manchester Science Festival and MOSI (Museum of Science & Industry) for a mass planting of sunflowers as part of an experiment to solve the mathematical riddle that Turing worked on before his death in 1954.

…

Brighten up Manchester and the Nation, whilst helping mathematicians to explore Turing’s theories about plant growth. We need you to sow sunflower seeds in April and May, nurture the plants throughout the summer and when the sunflowers are fully grown we’ll be counting the number of spirals in the seed patterns in the sunflower heads. Don’t worry – expertise will be on hand to help count the seeds and you’ll be able to post your ‘spiral counts’ online.

The results will be announced during the Manchester Science Festival 2012 (27 Oct – 4 Nov), alongside a host of cultural events connected to Turing’s life and legacy, at MOSI, Manchester Museum and other cultural spaces.

You can find out more about the Manchester Science Festival, which runs from Oct. 27 – Nov. 4, 2012, here.

Although they don’t identify it on the Turing’s Sunflowers webpage,I’m pretty sure this is a bronze of Turing seated on a bench. Someone has thoughtfully given him a bouquet of sunflowers,

Bronze of Alan Turing in Manchester. (downloaded from http://www.manchestersciencefestival.com/connect/getinvolved/sunflowers)

Have fun!

Cotton and nanotechnology at the US Dept. of Agriculture

Leave a reply

The April 2012 item by Jan Suszkiw of the US Dept. of Agriculture (on the Western Farm Press website) seemed strangely familiar as it focused on research into flame-retardant cotton. From the Suszkiw article,

In one ongoing project, the researchers have teamed with Texas A&M University scientists to evaluate a first-of-its-kind, environmentally friendly flame-retardant for cotton apparel and durable goods. Halogenated flame retardants have been among the most widely used chemical treatments, but there’s been a push to find alternatives that are more benign and that won’t cause treated fabric to stiffen, according to Condon [Brian Condon, Agricultural Research Service [ARS]).

I mentioned the research work in the context of a 2011 meeting of the American Chemical Society in my Sept. 6, 2011 posting (scroll down about 3/4 of the way) except the focus was on the Texas A&M University in College Station research team who had yet to collaborate with Condon’s team at the ARS,

In responding to the need for more environmentally friendly flame retardants, Grunlan’s [Jaime C. Grunlan] team turned to a technology termed “intumescence,” long used to fireproof exposed interior steel beams in buildings. At the first lick of a flame, an intumescent coating swells up and expands like beer foam, forming tiny bubbles in a protective barrier that insulates and shields the material below. The researchers are at Texas A&M University in College Station. …

Since the meeting last fall, the two teams (US ARS [Condon] and Texas A&M [Grunlan]) have collaborated to make cotton more flame retardant according to the April 2012 news article (Cotton Gets Nanotech and Biotech Treatment in New Orleans) on the US Dept. of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service website (Note: I have removed a link),

Condon and CCUR (Cotton Chemistry and Utilization Research Unit) chemist SeChin Chang are collaborating with Texas A&M University (TAMU) scientists to evaluate a first-of-its-kind, environmentally friendly flame retardant for cotton apparel and durable goods.

Halogenated flame retardants have been among the most widely used chemical treatments for cotton. But there’s been a push to find alternatives that are not only more benign, but that also avoid imparting the same stiffness to fabric characteristic of some chemical treatments. For these and other reasons, “the textiles industry would like to move away from using halogenated flame retardants,” says Condon.

Made of water-soluble polymers, nanoscale clay particles, and other “green” ingredients, the ARS-TAMU flame retardant is applied as a nanocoating that reacts to open flame by rapidly forming a swollen, charred surface layer. This process, known as “intumescence,” stops the flame from reaching underlying or adjacent fibers.

A team led by Jaime Grunlan at TAMU’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, in College Station, Texas, originally developed the intumescent nanocoating using a layer-by-layer assembly. In this procedure, alternating layers of positively and negatively charged ingredients, including clay particles 50-100 nanometers wide, are deposited onto the surface of a desired material. The result is a striated nanocoating that, when viewed under a scanning electron or other high-powered microscope, resembles the stacked layers of a brick wall.

Condon’s interest was piqued after listening to Grunlan discuss his team’s research at a recent American Chemical Society meeting, and he approached the TAMU professor about potential benefits to cotton. That conversation, in turn, led to a cooperative research project enabling Condon and Chang to evaluate the nanocoating at CCUR.

Treating cotton for flame resistance isn’t a recent concept, adds Condon, whose lab is part of the ARS Southern Regional Research Center in New Orleans. In fact, some of the most successful early treatments were born of research conducted by Benerito [Ruth Benerito] and colleagues there several decades ago. (See “Cross-Linking Cotton,” Agricultural Research, February 2009, pp. 10-11.) Condon coauthored a 2011 ACS Nano paper on the potential of intumescent coatings together with Chang, Grunlan and his TAMU team, and Alexander Morgan of the University of Dayton Research Institute in Ohio.

Early trials of the nanocoating using standard flame-resistance tests are promising. In one case, 95 percent of treated cotton fabric remained intact after exposure to flame, whereas the untreated fabric used for comparison was completely destroyed

“What we’re investigating now is how well it will perform after repeated launderings of treated fabric,” says Condon. “After all, the coating contains clay, and that’s something detergents are made to remove.”

Even if the coating does eventually wash out and the treated fabric loses its flame resistance, the nanotech approach could still be used to protect textiles and durable goods that aren’t frequently washed, such as upholstery, mattress pads, box spring covers, automotive interiors, and firefighter coats.

This is one of the images that accompany the article,

Cross-section of a cotton fiber with clay nanoparticles attached. (from: http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/apr12/cotton0412.htm)

If you are interested in the work being done by the US Dept. of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service on cotton, there’s a lot more than I managed to excerpt.

Majorana, matter, anti-matter, and nanowires

Leave a reply

This is one of my favourite types of science story and I’m going to start with the quantum physics part of this (from the April 13, 2012 news item on Nanowerk),

Scientists at TU Delft’s Kavli Institute and the Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (FOM Foundation) have succeeded for the first time in detecting a Majorana particle. In the 1930s, the brilliant Italian physicist Ettore Majorana deduced from quantum theory the possibility of the existence of a very special particle, a particle that is its own anti-particle: the Majorana fermion. That ‘Majorana’ would be right on the border between matter and anti-matter.

The researchers have made a video about the Majorana fermion and nanowires (from the April 12, news release on the TU Delft website),

Here’s a little more about the Majorana fermion and why the researchers as so excited (from the TU Delft news release),

Majorana fermions are very interesting – not only because their discovery opens up a new and uncharted chapter of fundamental physics; they may also play a role in cosmology. A proposed theory assumes that the mysterious ‘dark matter, which forms the greatest part of the universe, is composed of Majorana fermions. Furthermore, scientists view the particles as fundamental building blocks for the quantum computer. Such a computer is far more powerful than the best supercomputer, but only exists in theory so far. Contrary to an ‘ordinary’ quantum computer, a quantum computer based on Majorana fermions is exceptionally stable and barely sensitive to external influences.

This breakthrough was achieved not with the Large Hadron Collider at CERN (European Particle Physics Laboratory) but with nanowires (from the TU Delft news release),

For the first time, scientists in Leo Kouwenhoven’s research group managed to create a nanoscale electronic device in which a pair of Majorana fermions ‘appear’ at either end of a nanowire. They did this by combining an extremely small nanowire, made by colleagues from Eindhoven University of Technology, with a superconducting material and a strong magnetic field. ‘The measurements of the particle at the ends of the nanowire cannot otherwise be explained than through the presence of a pair of Majorana fermions’, says Leo Kouwenhoven.

The device is made of an Indium Antemonide nanowire, covered with a Gold contact and partially covered with a Superconducting Niobium contact. The Majorana fermions are created at the end of the Nanowire. (from the TU Delft website)

At the end of the TU Delft news release, they mention more about Ettore Majorana and this is where the story gets quite intriguing,

The Italian physicist Ettore Majorana was a brilliant theorist who showed great insight into physics at a young age. He discovered a hitherto unknown solution to the equations from which quantum scientists deduce elementary particles: the Majorana fermion. Practically all theoretic particles that are predicted by quantum theory have been found in the last decades, with just a few exceptions, including the enigmatic Majorana particle and the well-known Higgs boson. But Ettore Majorana the person is every bit as mysterious as the particle. In 1938 he withdrew all his money and disappeared during a boat trip from Palermo to Naples. Whether he killed himself, was murdered or lived on under a different identity is still not known. No trace of Majorana was ever found.

Here’s the citation for the article describing the discovery of the Majorana fermion (from the TU Delft news release),

The article is published in Science Express on 12 April: Signatures of Majorana fermions in hybrid superconductor-semiconductor nanowire devices, V. Mourik, K. Zuo, S.M. Frolov, S.R. Plissard, E.P.A.M. Bakkers, L.P. Kouwenhoven

There’s more information and there are more images with the April 12, 2012 TU Deflt news release.

Canadian government as a venture capitalist and its Integran investment

1 Reply

Canada’s Minister of Industry, Christian Paradis, has just announced a $339,386 investment in Integran Technologies Inc. The company is based in Mississauga [sometimes identified as Toronto], Ontario and I mentioned it most recently in my March 26, 2012 posting in regard to a business deal with Pratt & Whitney and Integran’s electroplating process for the aerospace industry. (Integran is also mentioned in my Sept. 4, 2008 posting about $4.5M in research funds from the Canadian government for coatings in the US-led Joint Strike Fighter Program [presumably military airplanes].)

Here’s a little more about the investment, which is to be repaid, (from the April 16, 2012 news item on Nanowerk),

The Honourable Christian Paradis, Minister of Industry, today announced a repayable [emphasis mine] government investment of $399,386 in a project by Integran Technologies Inc. The Mississauga-based company is developing innovative nano-structured aerospace and defence products that will offer superior performance while meeting the highest environmental standards. The contribution will be made through the Strategic Aerospace and Defence Initiative.

…

Integran’s project will result in the creation of next-generation metal alloys that are more robust and free from toxic beryllium copper. This will help expand the company’s product line and its customer base. As part of the initiative, Integran will collaborate with graduate-level engineering students from the University of Toronto.

“Since being founded over 12 years ago, Integran has been committed to developing environmentally benign alternatives to toxic materials and processes,” said Gino Palumbo, Integran’s President and CEO. “Integran is confident that through this program, our core patented nanotechnology can be optimized and demonstrated to be a viable, cost-effective alternative to the alloying of copper with toxic beryllium-a strengthening process that remains in widespread use for various industrial, aerospace and defence applications.”

The latest funds appear to be part of a new approach to science and research funding by the Canadian government.  From the news item,

Economic Action Plan 2012 commits $1.1 billion over five years to directly support business innovation and makes available $500 million for venture capital to realign the government’s approach to promoting innovation and create better opportunities for businesses. This includes helping high-growth firms access risk capital, increasing direct support for business innovation, supporting private and public research collaboration, supporting innovation through procurement, refocusing National Research Council Canada, and improving the Scientific Research and Experimental Development tax incentive program.

The mention of venture capital, supporting innovation through procurement, refocusing the National Research Council, etc. were all recommendations made in the Jenkins report (Innovation Canada: A Call to Action aka, Report on Review of Federal Support to R&D). I last posted about the report on Oct. 21, 2011 at about the time it was released.

OECD job for senior economist/analyst specializing in nanotech and biotech

Leave a reply

The Organization for Econ0mic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is offering a two year contract for a senior economist/analyst. I assume you will be located at the OECD’s  headquarters in Paris, France. From the Econ-Jobs.com website,

We are looking for an experienced professional to lead the work on biotechnology and nanotechnology carried out in the Directorate for Science, Technology and Industry (STI), and to provide oversight for the activities of the Working Party on Biotechnology (WPB) and its task force, and of the Working Party on Nanotechnology (WPN) in the context of the Work Programme for the Committee for Scientific and Technological Policy (CSTP). The selected person will work under the general direction of the Head of the Science and Technology Policy Division of the STI.

Main Responsibilities
Management and Analysis
• Lead OECD work on biotechnology, nanotechnology and innovation through biotechnology, nanotechnology and their convergence, as well as their interaction and convergence with other technologies (e.g. information and communication technologies). Carry out strategic planning, orientation and oversight of the OECD programme of work related to biotechnology and nanotechnology.
• Identify priorities for the WPB and WPN work programmes and develop projects in liaison with member and non-member economies, other international organisations and other stakeholders as appropriate, focusing on the range of key scientific, technological, economic and regulatory issues relevant to biotechnology and nanotechnology.
• Oversee and contribute to the implementation of the work programmes of the WPB and WPN by, inter alia, organising and managing meetings, conferences and workshops; drafting economic and scientific and technological policy reports.
• Contribute to horizontal and multidisciplinary initiatives of the Directorate and the Organisation as they relate to biotechnology and nanotechnology, such as the ongoing and forthcoming work on new sources of growth, on green growth, on economic and social impacts of public funding in science, and on new industrial policy.
• Lead projects, manage budgets and raise funds.

Liaison and Communication
• Develop and ensure effective co-ordination with other parts of the OECD involved in relevant work, with other international organisations and other relevant outside bodies. Represent STI and OECD as required in internal and external fora.
• Liaise with the accession candidate country (the Russian Federation), enhanced engagement countries (Brazil, China, India, Indonesia and South Africa), and other non-member economies to encourage their participation in efforts relating to emerging issues in biotechnology and nanotechnology.
• Work with the media to promote a better understanding of the OECD’s work in biotechnology and nanotechnology, and maintain relationships with journalists and others who can give a wider audience to that work.
• Create deep and effective links with officials and other actors in countries that are major players in the policy debates around innovation through biotechnology and nanotechnology.

Leadership and Staff Management
• Provide leadership to the team working on biotechnology and nanotechnology, and manage a multidisciplinary team, including policy analysts, statisticians and consultants. Participate in the recruitment process for these positions as well as oversee the day-to-day management of staff in the team (including consultants).

The job was posted today, April 13, 2012 and the deadline for applications is April 27, 2012. You can find more details such as qualifications and application procedures at the Econ-Jobs.com website or go directly to the job notice on the OECD website.

Walking on eggshells at the University of Alberta

Leave a reply

It’s Friday, April 13, 2012 and I wanted a little fun in my headline so Zhi Li and his colleagues in the Mitlin Group at the University of Alberta are not walking on eggshells. They are, instead, carbonizing them as a means of increasing the amount of electrical energy that can be stored as Michael Berger explains in his April 12, 2012 article, Converting eggshell membranes into a high-performance electrode material for supercapacitors (links have been removed from the following excerpt),

Today’s commercial supercapacitors – which are mostly electric double layer capacitors (EDLC) – store energy in two closely spaced layers with opposing charges and offer fast charge/discharge rates and the ability to sustain millions of cycles. Researchers have come up with various electrode materials to improve the performance of supercapacitors, focussing mostly on porous carbon due to its high surface areas, tunable structures, good conductivities, and low cost. In recent years, this has increasingly included research on various carbon nanomaterials such as carbon nanotubes, carbon nano-onions, or graphene.

“An ideal supercapacitor is one with both high energy density and high power density,” Zhi Li, a post doc researcher in David Mitlin’s group at the University of Alberta, explains to Nanowerk. …

…

In new work recently published in Advanced Energy Materials (“Carbonized Chicken Eggshell Membranes with 3D Architectures as High-Performance Electrode Materials for Supercapacitors”), first-authored by Li, researchers have demonstrated that a common daily waste – the eggshell membrane – can be converted into a high-performance carbon material for supercapacitors.

“Considering over 1000 billion eggs are consumed per year globally, and that 30–40 mg finished carbon is derivable from one egg, the eggshell membrane is indeed a reliable and sustainable resource for clean energy storage,” says Li.

…

“The most exciting finding, for me, is that the amazing nature-made architecture of chicken eggshell membrane is critical to its performance as electrode materials after carbonization,” notes Li. “Why? The carbonized eggshell membrane is a real ‘integrated system’ composed of interwoven carbon fibers with diameter from 50 nm to 2 µm where the big fibers and tiny fibers are naturally connected together.”

As a consequence of their architecture,

… carbonized eggshell membrane can work at high current loading. That means capacitors based on it can be charged and discharged faster than capacitor based on traditional carbons.

You can find out more about the Mitlin Group here and you can find the article, “Carbonized Chicken Eggshell Membranes with 3D Architectures as High-Performance Electrode Materials for Supercapacitors,” here but it is behind a paywall. By the way, Dr. David Mitlin, group leader, is also a principal investigator at Canada’s National Institute of Technology.

Parce que j’aime le savoir; 80e congrès de l’Acfas

Leave a reply

As you may have guessed, Acfas’s 80th congress is an event where you will need to understand French, even if you don’t speak it well. The overarching theme for the 80th annual event is ‘Science and Society’ as expressed by the specific phrase, Parce que j’aime le savoir (Because I love knowledge) and it’s being held in Montréal, Québec from May 7 – 11, 2012.

They expect 3500 participants from 30 countries with some 169 scheduled presentations. From the April 11, 2012 news release on News Wire,

Le Congrès annuel de l’Acfas franchira cette année le cap des 80 ans avec une programmation toujours aussi riche et pertinente axée sur le grand thème du dialogue science et société. Cette édition tout à fait exceptionnelle, concoctée avec la collaboration de tous les établissements d’enseignement supérieur québécois et de plusieurs universités canadiennes, se déroulera du 7 au 11 mai 2012 au Palais des congrès de Montréal.

80 ans au cœur du savoir

Placé sous le thème Parce ce que j’aime le savoir, le Congrès réunira plus de 5 000 participants d’une trentaine de pays, dont 3 500 conférenciers, qui profiteront de ce cadre stimulant pour partager leurs plus récents résultats de recherche et débattre d’enjeux de société déterminants. Fidèle à sa tradition, l’événement ratissera large en proposant, dans le cadre d’une quarantaine de domaines de recherche, plus de 3 500 communications réparties dans 169 colloques et Activités  Enjeux de la recherche. À cette ambitieuse programmation scientifique se grefferont des activités grand public conçues pour favoriser le dialogue entre chercheurs et citoyens.

« Pour la première fois de son histoire, le Congrès est le fruit d’une collaboration de tous les établissements universitaires et du réseau collégial » souligne Pierre Noreau, président de l’Acfas. Ce regroupement sans précédent marque le caractère exceptionnel de cette édition anniversaire qui entend multiplier les occasions de rencontre entre le milieu de la recherche et la société. »

Acfas stands for Association francophone pour le savoir. You can find more about Acfas and the 80th congress here.

Teijin Fibers Limited update

4 Replies

Teijin Fibers was the first company to create a product based on the nanostructures seen on a Morpho butterfly’s wing. The textile was featured in my July 19, 2010 posting about an Australian designer, Donna Sgro, who created a dress made from the company’s Morphotex product. Sadly, the textile is no longer in production as of this April 5, 2012 notice on the AskNature.org website,

Teijin Fibers Limited of Japan produces Morphotex® fibers. No dyes or pigments are used. Rather, color is created based on the varying thickness and structure of the fibers. Energy consumption and industrial waste are reduced because no dye process must be used.

In 2011, Teijin Fibers Limited stopped manufacturing Morphotex.

In the latest news about Teijin Fibers, the April 11, 2012 news item by Cameron Chai on Azonano notes,

Teijin Fibers, a company of Teijin Group, has revealed that Srixon is fabricating its new Pro Tour golf gloves called Srixon GGG-S005 using Teijin Fibers’ Nanofront high-strength polyester nanofiber.

…

The Srixon GGG-S005 gloves deliver remarkable grip performance, enabled by Nanofront’s soft texture and superior frictional properties. The high-strength polyester nanofiber also provides remarkable moisture diffusion and absorption for improved comfort, making the fiber a suitable material for golf gloves.

I went to the Teijin Fibers website to find more information about their Nanofront product,

Here comes the world’s first 700 nanometer ultra fine polyester nanofiber “Nanofront™”. The new “island-in-sea” composite spinning technology has solved the problem of unstable quality associated with conventional mass-production nanofibers. The surface area woven in long fibers structure could be tens of times greater than conventional fibers. This enhances water absorption, absorbability of particulates, and anti-translucency. The texture feels soft to the skin, and reduces irritation drastically. Suitable for a variety of applications, including functional sportswear, innerwear, skin care products, antibacterial filter, precision grinding cloth, etc. Teijin “Nanofront™” opens the future for fibers at last.

The Nanofront product is also being used in New Balance Japan socks according to the company’s Jan. 10, 2012 news release,

Teijin Fibers Limited, the core company of the Teijin Group’s polyester fibers business, announced today that it is supplying its high-strength polyester nanofiber Nanofront for use in running socks made by New Balance. The socks are being marketed by New Balance Japan and sold in its directly owned shops in Tokyo and Osaka, as well as other sports retail stores nationwide from this month.

Teijin's NanoFront New Balance Japan sock (http://www.teijin.co.jp/english/news/2012/ebd120110.html)

I’m sorry to see that Morphotex is no longer being produced especially since I’ve looked at Teijin Fiber’s statement about environmentally-friendly materials,

Teijin Fibers is striving to be friendly to the global environment, humans and various other creatures to make our society sustainable. We taking initiatives to manufacture environmentally-friendly materials such as using recycled polyester materials which turn garbage into resources, and employing recycling systems for polyester products. Furthermore, we are developing synthetic fibers derived from plants based on the concept of carbon neutral materials that do not use hazardous Substances [sic] as much as possible, and materials that create color without dyestuff.

I assume that there wasn’t enough demand for a product which achieved its colour, like the Morpho butterfly, due to the properties of its structure at the nanoscale.

The company seems to be having better luck with some of their other ‘eco products’. Note: Nanofront does not appear to be one of the company’s ‘eco’ products.

Vancouver’s (Canada) 2nd annual International Poetry Festival

1 Reply

Vancouver seems to be experiencing a renaissance poetrywise. The city is about to enjoy its 2nd International Poetry Festival just on the heels of V125PC, a poetry conference, held in Oct. 2011 to celebrate the city’s 125th anniversary (mentioned in my Oct. 20, 2011 posting).

I’m not sure how I missed Vancouver’s 1st annual International Poetry Festival but here are some details about this year’s which runs from April 23 – 28, 2012 (from the Dec.16, 2011 news release on the Vancouver Poetry Festival website),

This is just a tiny reminder about the 2nd Annual Vancouver International Poetry Festival and the 2nd Annual Canadian Individual Poetry Slam Championship this coming April 23rd through 28th 2012. Some of you may note that the festival is later on ion April. This is because we wish to align our schedule with the Calgary International Spoken Word Festival and the wonderful Banff Spoken Word Program so that we can collaborate in future years and so that potentially artists may attend both.

Attending poets, pass holders and tournament volunteers will receive a festival pass that will get poets into all events including the Vancouver Poetry Slam Team Finals on Monday April 23rd, Mashed Poetics on Tuesday April 24th and of course, the  bouts, side events and workshops, and the Canadian Individual Poetry Slam Finals on Saturday April 28th.

…

Charles Hamilton will be back as tournament director. We will still be having a Haiku Death Match, a late night Nerd Slam, an Erotica show and a return of the poets brunch courtesy of Johnny MacRae and Steve Miller. The schedule will be trimmed down due to the Canada Council short fall but it should still be crazy fun and I’m going to bust my hump on the fundraising between now and then.

Again, this year we will have 38 open slots and 1 reserved for the returning champion Open Secret (should he wish to defend his championship) and 1 reserved for the Last Chance Slam on Wednesday April 25th.

…

If you have specific questions that can’t wait, please shoot me an email at mcgarragle@gmail.com and include in the subject line either Canadian Indies or VIP.

I hope you’re all really well and hopefully we’ll see you soon or at least in April.

Here’s a listing of events from the festival events page (Note: I have removed links, please check the page for full details),

Monday, April 23rd

Early Festival Registration
The Rio Theatre (1660 East Broadway Ave), 5-6pm
This is an opportunity for poets taking part in the Canadian Individual Poetry Slam Competition to get registered, receive their passes and meet other poets taking part in the competition.

Ian Keteku features at the 16th annual Van Slam Finals Night
The Rio Theatre (1660 East Broadway Ave), 7pm doors open, 8pm show starts
$12 in advance at the Van Slam or online, $15 at the door (group rates available for schools)
Over 80 poets have been competing throughout the year to qualify for this playoff event. The top eight vie for a spot on this year’s poetry slam team, which will be representing Vancouver at major tournaments and festivals across North America. As our featured performer for the evening, The Vancouver International Poetry Festival is proud to have 2010 World Slam Champ Ian Keteku from Ottawa perform.

Tuesday, April 24th

Late Festival Registration
Café Deux Soleils (2096 Commercial Dr), 5pm – 6pm
This is the last chance participants in the Canadian Individual Slam Championship have to register for the tournament. Any poet that is due to take part in the tournament but does not register in person will have their slot given to the next available competitor.

Mashed Poetics
Cafe Deux Soleils (2096 Commercial Drive), 7:30pm doors open, 8pm show starts, $10
Mashed Poetics brings together spoken word and classic rock for a rip-roaring evening of electric verse. Musical and poetic collaboration create an evening filled with new work and unexpected surprises. This year, poets will be working off of songs from the Beastie Boys album, Licence to Ill.

Wednesday, April 25th

Late Festival Registration
Café Deux Soleils (2096 Commercial Dr), 5pm – 6pm
This is the last chance participants in the Canadian Individual Slam Championship have to register for the tournament. Any poet that is due to take part in the tournament but does not register in person will have their slot given to the next available competitor.

Indies Poet Orientation
Café Deux Soleils (2096 Commercial Dr), 6–7pm
This is for all participants in the Canadian Individual Slam Championship to learn about the format of the tournament, and have all their questions answered.

Canadian Individual Slam Championship Last Chance Slam
Café Deux Soleils (2096 Commercial Dr), 7:30pm doors open, 8pm show starts, $10
Didn’t get chance to register in time? Want to pit your work against some of the strongest spoken word artists from across Canada? This is your last opportunity to get into the tournament. 12 spots are available in this slam. The top five highest-scoring poets in the first round move on to the second round. The highest-scoring poet in the second round is entered into the Canadian Individual Slam Championship.

Poets’ Delight
Eternal Abundance (1025 Commercial Dr), 10:30pm doors open, 11pm show starts, $5
Poets’ Delight: A revelry of open mic innovation and awesomeness!!

This is not a competition, but a showcase of performance poetry innovation. On Wednesday morning, all poets who have signed up will be given a prompt (the same prompt for everyone) and will have the day to write an original performance poetry piece to share.

Members of the audience will be asked to write love notes to the individual poets commenting on their original words and the poets will be able to take this feedback away with them as a souvenir of the evening. Those who have written love notes can either drop them into a box bearing the poet’s name or give them to the hosts to read out between other poets.

The night will also feature the music and poetry of Chelsea D.E. Johnson and Jillian Christmas and the poetic rumbling of Scruff Mouth and there will be a DJ playing music for us after the show and during the breaks.

Come ready to be dazzled and, well, delighted!

Thursday, April 26th

Writing and performance workshop with Daemond Arrindell
East Side Yoga (1707 Grant Street) 1:30pm till 3:30pm, $20

Performance poetry is such a unique art form. It’s not just poetry, but solid writing is vital. It’s not music, but it has a musicality to it. It’s not theater, but movement and voice play a large role. There are rules and things you should never do and times to ignore both of those things. At it’s best, it is a powerful and poetic story written in a way that only you could write and brought to life onstage in a way that only you can tell.

In this workshop, Daemond Arrindell, 8-time coach of the Seattle National Slam Team, will work with you to get past the weaknesses and help find and hone the strengths in both the writing and your performance to truly bring your poem to life. The focus will be on how to best tell the story your poem wants to tell. The workshop will begin with writing and poets should bring current poems they are wanting to workshop.

Writing and performance workshop with Barbara Adler
East Side Yoga (1707 Grant Street) 3:30pm till 5:30pm, $20
Fear and (self) Loathing: Getting Over Performance (Poetry) Anxiety

Have you ever finished a performance and immediately wanted to fall into an abyss? Does the thought of sucking, like, really sucking, keep you from doing things you might love?

At the tender age of 18, Barbara Adler started competing at the Vancouver Poetry Slam. She was generally a big, dark pile of self-loathing and nerves. Over the course of a decade of performances all over the world, she’s figured out many ways to outwit her genetic predisposition to neurotic insecurity\destructive perfectionism. Join her for a workshop, where she’ll share some of her ideas on how to get over the performance fears that keep you from pushing ahead. Bring a pen and some paper, and an idea for a performance that scares you.

Canadian Individual Poetry Slam Championship: Preliminary Bouts #1 & #3
Café Deux Soleils (2096 Commercial Dr), 6:30pm doors open, 7pm first bout, 9pm second bout, $10
These bouts will feature poets from across the country competing with 4-minute and 1-minute poems in a quest to take home the Canadian Individual Poetry Slam Championship.

Canadian Individual Poetry Slam Championship: Preliminary Bouts #2 & #4
Eternal Abundance (1025 Commercial Dr), 6:30pm doors open, 7pm first bout, 9pm second bout, $10
These bouts will feature poets from across the country competing with 4-minute and 1-minute poems in a quest to take home the Canadian Individual Poetry Slam Championship.

2nd annual VIP Nerd Night
Café Deux Soleils (2096 Commercial Dr), 10:30pm doors open, 11pm show starts, $10
Come on down to the Vancouver Nerd Poetry Slam! Watch browncoats, ensigns, mathletes, comic collectors, elves, power rings, geeks and jedis all get into a Tardis and go 88 miles per hour for your viewing pleasure. Our finest nerd brothers and sisters will face off in an epic slam to proclaim a winner because in the end, ‘there can be only one’. Come on down and spit your best nerd rhymes.

Come out to this late night event where we celebrate all things nerd-like. There will be prizes and costumes will be encouraged and will be featuring a performance by The Klute and hosted by our very own cosmonaut of cartoons, knight of the comic book kingdom, Duncan Shields.

Friday, April 27th

Chapbook making workshop with Warren Dean Fulton
East Side Yoga (1707 Grant Street) 1:30pm till 3:30pm, free for all poets and poetry fans
Are you looking at taking your poetry to the next level? Are you looking at producing your first chapbook or simply wanting to see a myriad of different style of chapbooks, then come to this workshop. Warren Dean Fulton has produced hundreds of chapbooks and has seen thousands more. Come pick his brain and learn from the chapbook guru himself.

Banter workshop with Brendan McLeod
East Side Yoga (1707 Grant Street) 3:30pm till 5:30pm, $20
Whenever you’re showcasing a group of poems for an audience, you always have to figure out how best to contextualize them. This workshop tackles what to do between poems onstage. What subjects should you talk about? What kind of stories/snippets/haikus/jokes should you tell? How do you change your performative style to accommodate these? The difference between a good set and a killer set is often how a poet relates to the audience. In this workshop, we’ll talk about how to do this in a way that is effective and true to your personality.

Canadian Individual Poetry Slam Championship: Preliminary Bouts #5 & #7
Café Deux Soleils (2096 Commercial Dr), 7pm doors open, 7:30pm first bout, 9pm second bout, $10
These bouts will feature poets from across the country competing with 2-minute and 3-minute poems in a quest to take home the Canadian Individual Poetry Slam Championship.

Canadian Individual Poetry Slam Championship: Preliminary Bouts #6 & #8
Eternal Abundance (1025 Commercial Dr), 7pm doors open, 7:30pm first bout, 9pm second bout, $10
These bouts will feature poets from across the country competing with 2-minute and 3-minute poems in a quest to take home the Canadian Individual Poetry Slam Championship.

Late Night Erotica Poetry Mic hosted by Jessica Mason Paull and Erich Haygen
Café Deux Soleils (2096 Commercial Dr), 10:30pm doors open, 11pm show starts, $5
Erotic Poetry shows are often celebratory and light-hearted, but they can also carry commentary regarding serious matters of sexual health such as personal boundaries, sexual identity, and sex trade and violence.

Even if you’re not competing in the slam, every true poet knows that the real measure of success is winning the affections of a crowd of beautiful strangers. Put on that scandalous outfit you’ve been waiting for an excuse to flaunt and bring your sestina about fisting to The Late Night Erotica Open Mic! Hosts Jessica Mason-Paull and Erich Haygun will be awarding prizes, shaming thinly-veiled sexism and encouraging strangers to make out all night long.d of beautiful strangers.

Saturday, April 28th

The Annual Haiku Death Match hosted by Jessica Mason Paull
Eternal Abundance (1025 Commercial Dr), 3:30 pm doors open, 4:00pm show starts, $5
Can you write a note in seventeen syllables? Then come to this show. The show will feature 16 haikusters doing battle with the winners getting amazing prizes. If you’re interested in reading please speak to incoming Van Slammistress, Jessica Mason Paull on the day of. And this is an audience participation event, so bring your outside voices to this inside event.

Canadian Individual Poetry Slam Finals
The Rio Theatre (1660 East Broadway Ave), 7pm doors open, 8pm show starts
Advance tickets $12, At the door $15
The finals of the Canadian Indies Slam Championship will be a three-round poetry slam. The ten best poets from the preliminary bouts will square off, and at the end of the night, one of them will walk away with the title of Canadian Poetry Slam Champion and $1000.

This international poetry festival is a Vancouver Poetry House initiative, which includes podcasts, poetry event listings, and more.

Meanwhile, Simon Fraser University (SFU) hosts its 2nd poetry lunch event,

Lunch Poems @SFU returns for its second installment with Wayde Compton and his guest poet Rahat Kurd.

Time: 12-1 p.m.
Place: Teck Gallery, Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings Street
Cost: Free

Compton is a Vancouver writer whose books include After Canaan: Essays on Race, Writing, and Region, Performance Bond, Bluesprint: Black British Columbian Literature and Orature and 49th Parallel Psalm. Compton is the Director of The Writer’s Studio, a creative writing program in Continuing Studies at Simon Fraser University. He also teaches English composition and literature at the Emily Carr University of Art and Design.

Kurd is an arts, politics and culture writer whose first suite of published poems, Surplus Knowledge, appeared in The New Quarterly in spring 2011, and has been nominated for a National Magazine Award.

There’s still more but this is getting too long. In any event, you should be able to find lots of poetry in Vancouver for the foreseeable future.