I’m not sure that “transform[ing] cells into super cells, enabling them to do unimaginable thing,” as research Pang Dai-Wen says, is something that is necessary but he and at least one of his colleagues seem quite enthused by the prospect (you’ll find Pang’s quote in the press release which follows the news item).
National Science Review recently published research on the synthesis of quantum dots (QDs) in the nucleus of live cells by Dr. Hu Yusi, Associate Professor Wang Zhi-Gang, and Professor Pang Dai-Wen from Nankai University.
During the study of QDs synthesis in mammalian cells, it was found that the treatment with glutathione (GSH) enhanced the cell’s reducing capacity. The generated QDs were not uniformly distributed within the cell but concentrated in a specific area.
Through a series of experiments, it was confirmed that this area is indeed the cell nucleus. Dr. Hu said, “This is truly amazing, almost unbelievable.”
Dr. Hu and his mentor Professor Pang attempted to elucidate the molecular mechanism of quantum dot synthesis in the cell nucleus. It was found that GSH plays a significant role. There is a GSH transport protein, Bcl-2, on the nucleus, which transports GSH into the nucleus in large quantities, enhancing the reducing ability within the nucleus, promoting the generation of Se precursors. At the same time, GSH can also expose thiol groups on proteins, creating conditions for the generation of Cd precursors. The combination of these factors ultimately enables the abundant synthesis of quantum dots in the cell nucleus.
Professor Pang stated, “This is an exciting result; this work achieves the precise synthesis of QDs in live cells at the subcellular level.” He continued, “Research in the field of synthetic biology mostly focuses on live cell synthesis of organic molecules through reverse genetics. Rarely do we see the live cell synthesis of inorganic functional materials. Our study doesn’t involve complex genetic modifications; it achieves the target synthesis of inorganic fluorescent nanomaterials in cellular organelles simply by regulating the content and distribution of GSH within the cell. This addresses the deficiency in synthetic biology for the synthesis of inorganic materials.”
While the synthesis of organic materials in cells remains predominant in the field of biosynthesis, this research undoubtedly paves the way for the synthesis of inorganic materials in synthetic biology. Professor Pang expressed, “Each of our advancements is a new starting point. We firmly believe that in the near future, we can use cell synthesis to produce nanodrugs, or even nanorobots in specified organelles. Moreover, we can transform cells into super cells, enabling them to do unimaginable things.” [emphasis mine]
Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,
In-situ synthesis of quantum dots in the nucleus of live cells by Yusi Hu, Zhi-Gang Wang, Haohao Fu, Chuanzheng Zhou, Wensheng Cai, Xueguang Shao, Shu-Lin Liu , Dai-Wen Pang. National Science Review, Volume 11, Issue 3, March 2024, nwae021, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/nsr/nwae021 Published:: 12 January 2024
Researchers at McGill University have come up with an innovative approach to improve the energy efficiency of carbon conversion, using waste material from pulp and paper production. The technique they’ve pioneered using the Canadian Light Source at the University of Saskatchewan not only reduces the energy required to convert carbon into useful products, but also reduces overall waste in the environment.
“This is a new field,” says Roger Lin, a graduate student in chemical engineering “We are one of the first groups to combine biomass recycling or utilization with CO2 capture.” The research team, from McGill’s Electrocatalysis Lab, published their findings in the journal RSC [Royal Society of Chemistry] Sustainability.
Capturing carbon emissions is one of the most exciting emerging tools to fight climate change. The biggest challenge is figuring out what to do with the carbon once the emissions have been removed, especially since capturing CO2 can be expensive. The next hurdle is that transforming CO2 into useful products takes energy. Researchers want to make the conversion process as efficient and profitable as possible.
“For these reactions, it really matters that we target energy efficiency,” says Amirhossein Farzi, a PhD student in chemical engineering at McGill. “The highest burden on the profitability of these reactions and these processes is usually how energy efficient they are.”
Farzi, Lin, and their research team focused their efforts on changing out one of the most energy-intensive parts of the carbon conversion process.
Because the approach is so new, there are many questions to answer about how to get the purest outputs and best efficiency. The team used CLS beamlines to observe chemical reactions in real-time, mimicking industrial processes as closely as possible.
The researchers hope to expand the range of products that can be made with CO2, and help develop a truly green technology.
“If we use a renewable energy source like hydro, wind, or solar …then in the end, we have really a carbon negative process,” says Lin.
Researchers at McGill University have come up with an innovative approach to improve the energy efficiency of carbon conversion, using waste material from pulp and paper production. The technique they’ve pioneered using the Canadian Light Source at the University of Saskatchewan not only reduces the energy required to convert carbon into useful products, but also reduces overall waste in the environment.
“We are one of the first groups to combine biomass recycling or utilization with CO2 capture,” said Ali Seifitokaldani, Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Canada Research Chair (Tier II) in Electrocatalysis for Renewable Energy Production and Conversion. The research team, from McGill’s Electrocatalysis Lab, published their findings in the journal RSC Sustainability.
Capturing carbon emissions is one of the most exciting emerging tools to fight climate change. The biggest challenge is figuring out what to do with the carbon once the emissions have been removed, especially since capturing CO2 can be expensive. The next hurdle is that transforming CO2 into useful products takes energy. Researchers want to make the conversion process as efficient and profitable as possible.
It seems that physicists are having a moment in the pop culture scene and they are excited about two television series (Fallout and 3 Body Problem) televised earlier this year in US/Canada.
The world ends on Oct. 23, 2077, in a series of radioactive explosions—at least in the world of “Fallout,” a post-apocalyptic video game series that has now been adapted into a blockbuster TV show on Amazon’s Prime Video.
The literal fallout that ensues creates a post-apocalyptic United States that is full of mutated monstrosities, irradiated humans called ghouls and hard scrabble survivors who are caught in the middle of it all. It’s the material of classic Atomic Age sci-fi, the kind of pulp stories “Fallout” draws inspiration from for its retro-futuristic version of America.
But there is more science in this science fiction story than you might think, according to Pran Nath, Matthews distinguished university professor of physics at Northeastern University.
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“Fallout” depicts a post-apocalyptic world centuries after nuclear war ravaged the United States. Amazon MGM Studios Photo
In the opening moments of “Fallout,” which debuted on April 10 [2024], Los Angeles is hit with a series of nuclear bombs. Although it takes place in a clearly fictional version of La La Land –– the robots and glistening, futuristic skyscrapers in the distance are dead giveaways –– the nuclear explosions themselves are shockingly realistic.
Nath says that when a nuclear device is dropped there are three stages.
“When the nuclear blast occurs, because of the chain reaction, in a very short period of time, a lot of energy and radiation is emitted,” Nath says. “In the first instance, a huge flash occurs, which is the nuclear reaction producing gamma rays. If you are exposed to it, people, for example, in Hiroshima were essentially evaporated, leaving shadows.”
Depending on how far someone is from the blast, even those who are partially protected will have their body rapidly heat up to 50 degrees Celsius, or 122 degrees Fahrenheit, causing severe burns. The scalded skin of the ghouls in “Fallout” are not entirely unheard of (although their centuries-long lifespan stretches things a bit).
The second phase is a shockwave and heat blast –– what Nath calls a “fireball.” The shockwave in the first scene of “Fallout” quickly spreads from the blast, but Nath says it would probably happen even faster and less cinematically. It would travel around the speed of sound, around 760 miles per hour.
The shockwave also has a huge amount of pressure, “so huge … that it can collapse concrete buildings.” It’s followed by a “fireball” that would burn every building in the blast area with an intense heatwave.
“The blast area is defined as the area where the shockwaves and the fireball are the most intense,” Nath says. “For Hiroshima, that was between 1 and 2 miles. Basically, everything is destroyed in that blast area.”
The third phase of the nuclear blast is the fallout, which lasts for much longer and has even wider ranging impacts than the blast and shockwave. The nuclear blast creates a mushroom cloud, which can reach as high as 10 miles into the atmosphere. Carried by the wind, the cloud spreads radioactivity far outside the blast area.
“In a nuclear blast, up to 100 different radioactive elements are produced,” Nath says. “These radioactive elements have lifetimes which could be a few seconds, and they could be up to millions of years. … It causes pollution and damage to the body and injuries over a longer period, causing cancer and leukemia, things like this.”
A key part of the world of “Fallout” is the Vaults, massive underground bunkers the size of small towns that the luckiest of people get to retreat into when the world ends. The Vaults are several steps above most real-world fallout shelters, but Nath says that kind of protection would be necessary if you wanted to stay safe from the kind of radiation released by nuclear weapons, particularly gamma rays that can penetrate several feet of concrete.
“If you are further away and you keep inside and behind concrete, then you can avoid both the initial flash of the nuclear blast and also could probably withstand the shockwaves and the heatwave that follows, so the survivability becomes larger,” Nath says.
But what about all the radioactive mutants wandering around the post-apocalyptic wasteland?
It might seem like the colossal, monstrous mutant salamanders and giant cockroaches of “Fallout” are a science fiction fabrication. But there is a real-world basis for this, Nath says.
“There are various kinds of abnormalities that occur [with radiation,]” Nath says. “They can also be genetic. Radiation can create mutations, which are similar to spontaneous mutation, in animals and humans. In Chernobyl, for example, they are discovering animals which are mutated.”
In the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, the genetics of wild dogs have been radically altered. Scientists hypothesize that thewolves near Chernobyl may have developed to be more resistant to radiation, which could make them “cancer resistant,” or at least less impacted by cancer. And frogs have adapted to have more melanin in their bodies, a form of protection against radiation, turning them black.
“Fallout” takes the horrifying reality of nuclear war and spins a darkly comic sci-fi yarn, but Nath says it’s important to remember how devastating these real-world forces are.
It’s estimated that as many as 146,000 people in Hiroshima and 80,000 people in Nagasaki were killed by the effects of the bombs dropped by the U.S. Today’s nuclear weapons are so much more powerful that there is very little understanding of the impact these weapons could have. Nath says the fallout could even exacerbate global warming.
“Thermonuclear war would be a global problem,” Nath says.
Although “Fallout” is a piece of science fiction, the reality of its world-ending scenario is terrifyingly real, says Pran Nath, Matthews distinguished university professor of physics at Northeastern University. Photo by Adam Glanzman/Northeastern University
Kudos to the photographer!
3 Body Problem (television series)
This one seems to have a lit a fire in the breasts of physicists everywhere. I have a number of written pieces and a video about this this show, which is based on a book by Liu Cixn. (You can find out more about Cixin and his work in his Wikipedia entry.)
“3 Body Problem,” Netflix’s new big-budget adaptation of Liu Cixin’s book series helmed by the creators behind “Game of Thrones,” puts the science in science fiction.
The series focuses on scientists as they attempt to solve a mystery that spans decades, continents and even galaxies. That means “3 Body Problem” throws some pretty complicated quantum mechanics and astrophysics concepts at the audience as it, sometimes literally, tries to bring these ideas down to earth.
However, at the core of the series is the three-body problem, a question that has stumped scientists for centuries.
What exactly is the three-body problem, and why is it still unsolvable? Jonathan Blazek, an assistant professor of physics at Northeastern University, explains that systems with two objects exerting gravitational force on one another, whether they’re particles or stars and planets, are predictable. Scientists have been able to solve this two-body problem and predict the orbits of objects since the days of Isaac Newton. But as soon as a third body enters the mix, the whole system gets thrown into chaos.
“The three-body problem is the statement that if you have three bodies gravitating toward each other under Newton’s law of gravitation, there is no general closed-form solution for that situation,” Blazek says. “Little differences get amplified and can lead to wildly unpredictable behavior in the future.”
In “3 Body Problem,” like in Cixin’s book, this is a reality for aliens that live in a solar system with three suns. Since all three stars are exerting gravitational forces on each other, they end up throwing the solar system into chaos as they fling each other back and forth. For the Trisolarans, the name for these aliens, it means that when a sun is jettisoned far away, their planet freezes, and when a sun is thrown extremely close to their planet, it gets torched. Worse, because of the three-body problem, these movements are completely unpredictable.
For centuries, scientists have pondered the question of how to determine a stable starting point for three gravitational bodies that would result in predictable orbits. There is still no generalizable solution that can be taken out of theory and modeled in reality, although recently scientists have started to find some potentially creative solutions, including with models based on the movements of drunk people.
“If you want to [predict] what the solar system’s going to do, we can put all the planets and as many asteroids as we know into a computer code and basically say we’re going to calculate the force between everything and move everything forward a little bit,” Blazek says. “This works, but to the extent that you’re making some approximations … all of these things will eventually break down and your prediction is going to become inaccurate.”
Blazek says the three-body problem has captivated scientific minds because it’s a seemingly simple problem. Most high school physics students learn Newton’s law of gravity and can reasonably calculate and predict the movement of two bodies.
Three-body systems, and more than three-body systems, also show up throughout the universe, so the question is incredibly relevant. Look no further than our solar system.
The relationship between the sun, Earth and our moon is a three-body system. But Blazek says since the sun exerts a stronger gravitational force on Earth and Earth does the same on the moon, it creates a pair of two-body systems with stable, predictable orbits –– for now.
Blazek says that although our solar system appears stable, there’s no guarantee that it will stay that way in the far future because there are still multi-body systems at play. Small changes like an asteroid hitting one of Jupiter’s moons and altering its orbit ever so slightly could eventually spiral into larger changes.
That doesn’t mean humanity will face a crisis like the one the Trisolarans face in “3 Body Problem.” These changes happen extremely slowly, but Blazek says it’s another reminder of why these concepts are interesting and important to think about in both science and science fiction.
“I don’t think anything is going to happen on the time scale of our week or even probably our species –– we have bigger problems than the instability of orbits in our solar system,” Blazek says. “But, that said, if you think about billions of years, during that period we don’t know that the orbits will stay as they currently are. There’s a good chance there will be some instability that changes how things look in the solar system.”
An April 12, 2024 news item on phys.org covers some of the same ground, Note: A link has been removed.
The science fiction television series 3 Body Problem, the latest from the creators of HBO’s Game of Thrones, has become the most watched show on Netflix since its debut last month. Based on the bestselling book trilogy Remembrance of Earth’s Past by Chinese computer engineer and author Cixin Liu, 3 Body Problem introduces viewers to advanced concepts in physics in service to a suspenseful story involving investigative police work, international intrigue, and the looming threat of an extraterrestrial invasion.
Yet how closely does the story of 3 Body Problem adhere to the science that it’s based on? The very name of the show comes from the three-body problem, a mathematical problem in physics long considered to be unsolvable.
Virginia Tech physicist Djordje Minic says, “The three-body problem is a very famous problem in classical and celestial mechanics, which goes back to Isaac Newton. It involves three celestial bodies interacting via the gravitational force—that is, Newton’s law of gravity. Unlike mathematical predictions of the motions of two-body systems, such as Earth-moon or Earth-sun, the three-body problem does not have an analytic solution.”
“At the end of the 19th century, the great French mathematician Henri Poincaré’s work on the three-body problem gave birth to what is known as chaos theory and the concept of the ‘butterfly effect.'”
Both the novels and the Netflix show contain a visualization of the three-body problem in action: a solar system made up of three suns in erratic orbit around one another. Virginia Tech aerospace engineer and mathematics expert Shane Ross discussed liberties the story takes with the science that informs it.
“There are no known configurations of three massive stars that could maintain an erratic orbit,” Ross said. “There was a big breakthrough about 20 years ago when a figure eight solution of the three-body problem was discovered, in which three equal-sized stars chase each other around on a figure eight-shaped course. In fact, Cixin Liu makes reference to this in his books. Building on that development, other mathematicians found other solutions, but in each case the movement is not chaotic.”
Ross elaborated, “It’s even more unlikely that a fourth body, a planet, would be in orbit around this system of three stars, however erratically — it would either collide with one or be ejected from the system. The situation in the book would therefore be a solution of the ‘four-body problem,’ which I guess didn’t have quite the right ring to use as a title.
“Furthermore, a stable climate is unlikely even on an Earth-like planet. At last count, there are at least a hundred independent factors that are required to create an Earth-like planet that supports life as we know it,” Ross said. “We have been fortunate to have had about 10,000 years of the most stable climate in Earth’s history, which makes us think climate stability is the norm, when in fact, it’s the exception. It’s likely no coincidence that this has corresponded with the rise of advanced human civilization.”
About Ross A professor of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering at Virginia Tech, Shane Ross directs the Ross Dynamics Lab, which specializes in mathematical modeling, simulation, visualization, and experiments involving oceanic and atmospheric patterns, aerodynamic gliding, orbital mechanics, and many other disciplines. He has made fundamental contributions toward finding chaotic solutions to the three-body problem. Read his bio …
About Minic Djordje Minic teaches physics at Virginia Tech. A specialist in string theory and quantum gravity, he has collaborated on award-winning research related to dark matter and dark energy. His most recent investigation involves the possibility that in the context of quantum gravity the geometry of quantum theory might be dynamical in analogy with the dynamical nature of spacetime geometry in Einstein’s theory of gravity. View his full bio …
For the last ‘3 Body Problem’ essay, there’s this April 5, 2023 article by Tara Bitran and Phillipe Thao for Netflix.com featuring comments from a physicist concerning a number of science questions,, Note: Links have been removed,
If you’ve raced through 3 Body Problem, the new series from Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss and True Blood writer Alexander Woo, chances are you want to know more about everything from Sophons and nanofibers to what actually constitutes a three-body problem. After all, even the show’s scientists are stumped when they witness their well-known theories unravel at the seams.
But for physicists like 3 Body Problem’s Jin (Jess Hong) and real-life astrophysicist Dr. Becky Smethurst (who researches how supermassive black holes grow at the University of Oxford and explains how scientific phenomena work in viral videos), answering the universe’s questions is a problem they’re delighted to solve. In fact, it’s part of the fun. “I feel like scientists look at the term ‘problem’ more excitedly than anybody else does,” Smethurst tells Tudum. “Every scientist’s dream is to be told that they got it wrong before and here’s some new data that you can now work on that shows you something different where you can learn something new.”
The eight-episode series, based on writer Cixin Liu’s internationally celebrated Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy, repeatedly defies human science standards and forces the characters to head back to the drawing board to figure out how to face humanity’s greatest threat. Taking us on a mind-boggling journey that spans continents and timelines, the story begins in ’60s China, when a young woman makes a fateful decision that reverberates across space and time into the present day. With humanity’s future in danger, a group of tight-knit scientists, dubbed the Oxford Five, must work against time to save the world from catastrophic consequences.
Dr. Matt Kenzie, associate professor of physics at University of Cambridge and 3 Body Problem’s science advisor, sits down with Tudum to dive into the science behind the series. So if you can’t stop thinking about stars blinking and chaotic eras, keep reading for all the answers to your burning scientific questions. Education time!
What is a Cherenkov tank?
In Episode 1, the Oxford Five’s former college professor, Dr. Vera Ye (Vedette Lim), walks out onto a platform at the top of a large tank and plunges to her death in a shallow pool of water below. If you were wondering what that huge tank was, it’s called a particle detector (sometimes also known as a Cherenkov tank). It’s used to observe, measure, and identify particles, including, in this case, neutrinos, a common particle that comes largely from the sun. “Part of the reason that they’re kind of interesting is that we don’t really understand much about them, and we suspect that they could be giving us clues to other types of physics in the universe that we don’t yet understand,” Dr. Kenzie told Netflix.
When a neutrino interacts with the water molecules stored inside the tank, it sets off a series of photomultiplier tubes — the little circles that line the tank Vera jumps into. Because Vera’s experiment is shut down and the water is reduced to a shallow level, the fall ends up killing her.
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What are nanofibers?
In the show, Auggie’s a trailblazer in nanofiber technology. She runs a company that designs self-assembling synthetic polymer nanofibers and hopes to use her latest innovation to solve world problems, like poverty and disease. But what are nanofibers and how do they work? Dr. Kenzie describes nanofiber technology as “any material with a width of nanometers” — in other words, one millionth of a millimeter in thickness. Nanofibers can be constructed out of graphene (a one-atom thick layer of carbon) and are often very strong. “They can be very flexible,” he adds. “They tend to be very good conductors of both heat and electricity.”
Is nanofiber technology real, and can it actually cut through human flesh?
Nanofiber technology does exist, although Dr. Kenzie says it’s curated and grown in labs under very specific conditions. “One of the difficulties is how you hold them in place — the scaffolding it’s called,” he adds. “You have to design molecules which hold these things whilst you’re trying to build them.”
After being tested on a synthetic diamond cube in Episode 2, we see the real horrors of nanofiber technology when it’s used to slice through human bodies in Episode 5. Although the nanofiber technology that exists today is not as mass produced as Auggie’s — due to the cost of producing and containing it — Dr. Kenzie says it’s still strong enough to slice through almost anything.
What can nanofiber technology be used for?
According to Dr. Kenzie, the nanofiber technology being developed today can be used in several ways within the manufacturing and construction industries. “If you wanted a machine that could do some precision cutting, then maybe [nanofiber] would be good,” he says. “I know they’re also tested in the safety of the munitions world. If you need to bulletproof a room or bulletproof a vest, they’re incredibly light and they’re incredibly strong.” He also adds that nanofiber technology is viewed as a material of the future, which can be used for water filtration — just as we see Auggie use it in the season finale.
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The Bitran and Thao piece includes another description of the 3 Body Problem but it’s the first I’ve seen that describes some of the other science.
Also mentioned in one of the excerpts in this posting is The Science and Entertainment Exchange (also known as The Science & Entertainment Exchange or Science & Entertainment Exchange) according to its Wikipedia entry, Note: Links have been removed,
The Science & Entertainment Exchange[1] is a program run and developed by the United States National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to increase public awareness, knowledge, and understanding of science and advanced science technology through its representation in television, film, and other media. It serves as a pro-science movement with the main goal of re-cultivating how science and scientists truly are in order to rid the public of false perceptions on these topics. The Exchange provides entertainment industry professionals with access to credible and knowledgeable scientists and engineers who help to encourage and create effective representations of science and scientists in the media, whether it be on television, in films, plays, etc. The Exchange also helps the science community understand the needs and requirements of the entertainment industry, while making sure science is conveyed in a correct and positive manner to the target audience.
Officially launched in November 2008, the Exchange can be thought of as a partnership between NAS and Hollywood, as it arranges direct consultations between scientists and entertainment professionals who develop science-themed content. This collaboration allows for industry professionals to accurately portray the science that they wish to capture and include in their media production. It also provides scientists and science organizations with the opportunity to communicate effectively with a large audience that may otherwise be hard to reach such as through innovative physics outreach. It also provides a variety of other services, including scheduling briefings, brainstorming sessions, screenings, and salons. The Exchange is based in Los Angeles, California.
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I hadn’t realized the exchange was physics specific. Given the success with physics, I’d expect the biology and chemistry communities would be eager to participate or start their own exchanges.
Back in 2019 Canada was having a problem with Malaysia and the Phillipines over the garbage (this is meant literally) that we were shipping over to those counties, which is why an article about Chinese science fiction writer, Chen Qiufan and his 2013 novel, The Waste Tide, caught my attention and I pubisihed this May 31, 2019 posting, “Chen Qiufan, garbage, and Chinese science fiction stories.” There’s a very brief mention of Liu Cxin in one of the excerpts.
Researchers at Imperial College London have genetically engineered bacteria to grow animal- and plastic-free leather that dyes itself.
In recent years, scientists and companies have started using microbes to grow sustainable textiles or to make dyes for industry—but this is the first time bacteria have been engineered to produce a material and its own pigment simultaneously.
Synthetic chemical dyeing is one of the most environmentally toxic processes in fashion, and black dyes – especially those used in colouring leather – are particularly harmful. The researchers at Imperial set out to use biology to solve this.
In tackling the problem, the researchers say their self-dyeing vegan, plastic-free leather, which has been fashioned into shoe and wallet prototypes, represents a step forward in the quest for more sustainable fashion.
Their new process, which has been published in the journal Nature Biotechnology, could also theoretically be adapted to have bacteria grow materials with various vibrant colours and patterns, and to make more sustainable alternatives to other textiles such as cotton and cashmere.
Lead author Professor Tom Ellis, from Imperial College London’s Department of Bioengineering, said: “Inventing a new, faster way to produce sustainable, self-dyed leather alternatives is a major achievement for synthetic biology and sustainable fashion.
“Bacterial cellulose is inherently vegan, and its growth requires a tiny fraction of the carbon emissions, water, land use and time of farming cows for leather.
“Unlike plastic-based leather alternatives, bacterial cellulose can also be made without petrochemicals, and will biodegrade safely and non-toxically in the environment.”
Designer collaboration
The researchers created the self-dyeing leather alternative by modifying the genes of a bacteria species that produces sheets of microbial cellulose – a strong, flexible and malleable material that is already commonly used in food, cosmetics and textiles. The genetic modifications ‘instructed’ the same microbes that were growing the material to also produce the dark black pigment, eumelanin.
They worked with designers to grow the upper part of a shoe (without the sole) by growing a sheet of bacterial cellulose in a bespoke, shoe-shaped vessel. After 14 days of growth wherein the cellulose took on the correct shape, they subjected the shoe to two days of gentle shaking at 30°C to activate the production of black pigment from the bacteria so that it dyed the material from the inside.
They also made a black wallet by growing two separate cellulose sheets, cutting them to size, and sewing them together.
As well as the prototypes, the researchers demonstrated that the bacteria can be engineered using genes from other microbes to produce colours in response to blue light. By projecting a pattern, or logo, onto the sheets using blue light, the bacteria respond by producing coloured proteins which then glow.
This allows them to project patterns and logos onto the bacterial cultures as the material grows, resulting in patterns and logos forming from within the material.
Co-author Dr Kenneth Walker, who conducted the work at Imperial College London’s Department of Bioengineering and now works in industry, said: “Our technique works at large enough scales to create real-life products, as shown by our prototypes. From here, we can consider aesthetics as well as alternative shapes, patterns, textiles, and colours.
“The work also shows the impact that can happen when scientists and designers work together. As current and future users of new bacteria-grown textiles, designers have a key role in championing exciting new materials and giving expert feedback to improve form, function, and the switch to sustainable fashion.”
Greener clothes
The research team are now experimenting with a variety of coloured pigments to use those that can also be produced by the material-growing microbes.
The researchers and collaborators have also just won £2 million in funding from Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), to use engineering biology and bacterial cellulose to solve more of fashion’s problems, such as the use of toxic chromium in leather’s production lines.
Professor Ellis said: “Microbes are already directly addressing many of the problems of animal and plastic-based leather, and we plan to get them ready to expand into new colours, materials and maybe patterns too.
“We look forward to working with the fashion industry to make the clothes we wear greener throughout the whole production line.”
The authors worked closely with Modern Synthesis, a London-based biodesign and materials company, who specialise in innovative microbial cellulose products.
This work was funded by Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and BBSRC, both part of UKRI.
“What is in the box? Kitty Q!” now echoes through Technische Sammlungen Dresden, the city’s science museum. The cute, half-dead cat is the star and namesake of the first quantum physics-themed escape room in Germany for youngsters, opened today. Inside the mysterious box is a quantum apartment filled with 17 puzzles. Visitors can delve into phenomena from the intriguing quantum world in a multisensory experience, guided by the voice of comedian Olaf Schubert. The project was developed by the Dresden-Würzburg Cluster of Excellence ct.qmat in collaboration with award-winning game designer Philipp Stollenmayer. The patron is Michael Kretschmer, Prime Minister of the Free State of Saxony.
Randomness, Donuts, and Cold Chips
Experience quantum physics in a hands-on, engaging way. The new escape room titled Kitty Q – A Quantum Adventure is a collaboration between the Dresden-Würzburg Cluster of Excellence ct.qmat – Complexity and Topology in Quantum Matter and Technische Sammlungen Dresden (the city’s science and technology museum). It draws youngsters into the extraordinary universe of Kitty Q. Perfect for family outings, children’s birthday parties, and school field trips, the enigmatic box features four distinct rooms that challenge visitors to explore the quirky quantum world in a multisensory experience and discover the fate of Kitty Q – is she dead or alive? Embedded in this adventure are 17 puzzles, each grounded in scientific phenomena and practical applications of quantum physics, including donuts as its “hallmark,” the principle of randomness, and energy-saving cold chips for future computers. The Kitty Q encyclopedia “Kittypedia to go” provides easily understandable background knowledge for each puzzle, enriching the learning experience. Narration by local comedian Olaf Schubert guides visitors through the quantum apartment’s very own living room, bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen – spaces where things behave very differently from ordinary life. The Kitty Q Escape Room can be explored in English or German.
New Highlight for Dresden and Saxony
“The Free State of Saxony is a high-tech region renowned for its leadership in microelectronics and for exceptional research. The development of new quantum technologies is crucial for the future on a global scale – and with the Cluster of Excellence ct.qmat, Saxony is a global player. Saxony and Dresden, its capital, now have a unique highlight in the form of the first quantum physics escape room for youngsters in Germany. It makes this exciting field of research accessible to all age groups and I am honored to serve as its patron. I’m delighted that, as a result, even very young people will find out about our region’s huge potential. This, too, is Simply Saxony.” Michael Kretschmer, Prime Minister of the Free State of Saxony and Patron of the Kitty Q Escape Room.
“Saxony, a beacon of scientific innovation, now boasts a new attraction: Germany’s first quantum physics escape room for youngsters. We’re excited to support this extraordinary project designed to attract young people to Saxony’s vibrant science sector, including in connection with our SPIN2030 campaign for the Science State Saxony.” Sebastian Gemkow, State Minister for Science, Culture and Tourism of the Free State of Saxony.
“Besides pushing the boundaries of knowledge with their science, the Cluster of Excellence ct.qmat – a joint project of the Universities of Dresden and Würzburg – the ct.qmat escape room is also pioneering new approaches in science communication. TUD cooperating with Technische Sammlungen Dresden has created an outstanding project with international appeal that arouses the curiosity of discovery across all ages and makes complex science tangible,” emphasized Professor Ursula M. Staudinger, Rector of TU Dresden, at the opening in Dresden.
“Dresden, a city of science, research and culture, has a new highlight – the Kitty Q Escape Room at the Technische Sammlungen science museum! This project entertainingly merges Dresden’s cultural heritage with the DRESDEN-concept Science and Innovation Campus. Olaf Schubert, a well-known Dresden voice, will also guide you through the quantum world,” declared Annekatrin Klepsch, Mayor for Culture, Science and Tourism of Dresden.
Experience Science
“Dresden is the global capital of solid-state physics. We want to spark curiosity in the fascinating aspects of the pure science topics that we research and show how much fun they are,” says Matthias Vojta, professor of theoretical solid-state physics at TU Dresden and ct.qmat’s Dresden spokesperson. “Traditionally, physics is often viewed as a challenging subject in schools, and notably, women are underrepresented in physics degree programs. To make physics and STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) more accessible to youngsters – and especially to inspire girls – we’ve transformed a famous quantum physics thought experiment into a multisensory experience. By embracing modern gamification techniques, we ensure that learning happens in an engaging and subtle way. The best part? You don’t need to be a math or physics expert to enjoy the game!”
The Kitty Q Escape Room is based on ct.qmat’s mobile game Kitty Q – A Quantum Adventure, which has been downloaded over half a million times worldwide and won international awards. Kitty Q now boasts its very own German Wikipedia page! In the escape room, the digital game is brought to life in a real-world game environment. Once again, award-winning game designer Philipp Stollenmayer played a key role in crafting the look of the charming, enigmatic half-dead cat and her world: “I’m very proud that my digital game has made the leap into the real world! It was an incredible adventure to send Kitty Q into an escape room and to enable the complex, bizarre phenomena of the quantum world to be explored in a multisensory experience. I’m looking forward to seeing how the quantum apartment goes down with youngsters.”
Purrrrrrrrrrr … Learning Playfully
“Complex research content can be challenging for the public to understand. That’s where we step in as Dresden’s science center. We aim to interest youngsters in science and technology and encourage them to tinker, try things out, experiment, and discover,” says Roland Schwarz, Director of Technische Sammlungen Dresden. “We translate scientific phenomena into captivating adventures. This approach has been adopted for Germany’s first quantum physics escape room for youngsters. We’re excited about the fantastic opening weekend ahead!”
Technische Sammlungen Dresden and the Cluster of Excellence ct.qmat will celebrate the opening of the new Kitty Q Escape Room on Saturday and Sunday, April 27/28 [2024], from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Visitors will be able to catch a glimpse of the quantum apartment during brief guided tours (hourly from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. over the weekend). Additionally, they can engage with the award-winning app Kitty Q – A Quantum Adventure, which inspired the escape room, in a designated gaming lounge. A special quantum cinema will continuously show all the episodes of ct.qmat’s video series QUANTube – Short Break Science throughout the weekend. On Sunday, Lea – one of the voices of the escape room – will conduct a jingle workshop in the recording studio at Technische Sammlungen (at 11 a.m., 1 p.m., and 3 p.m.). For bookings for the guided tours or jingle workshops, please contact the museum’s Visitor Service (phone: +49 351 4887272; service@museen-dresden.de).
Visiting Kitty Q
From Tuesday, April 30, 2024, the Kitty Q Escape Room will be open for regular visits at Technische Sammlungen Dresden (Junghansstrasse 1–3, 01277 Dresden). The escape room offers two fixed slots daily, available for group bookings ranging from 8 to 30 participants. These sessions are ideal for school parties (recommended for students aged 11 and above) and children’s birthday parties (ages 10+):
Tuesday to Friday: 9.30 and 11.00 a.m. Saturday, Sunday and public holidays: 10.30 am and 12.00 noon
To book, please contact Visitor Service by calling +49 351 488 7272 (Monday to Friday, 8.30 a.m. to 5.00 p.m.) or writing to service@museen-dresden.de. Outside these reserved times, the escape room is open to all museum visitors.
Visit the quantum apartment: schule.katzeq.app Stroke the quantum cat: katzeq.app Katze Q in Wikipedia (only in German): de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katze_Q
A theoretical possibility has been proven by an international team including researchers from the Université de Montréal (University of Montreal) according to a March 27, 2024 news item on phys.org,
For years, C130 fullertubes—molecules made up of 130 carbon atoms—have existed only in theory. Now, leading an international team of scientists, a UdeM doctoral student in physics has successfully shown them in real life—and even managed to capture some in a photograph.
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Illustration of the discovery of the C130-D5h molecule, published on the cover page of the prestigious “Journal of the American Chemical Society” last December. Credit: JACS
This feat in the realm of basic research has led Emmanuel Bourret to have a cover-page illustration of his discovery in a prestigious scientific journal, the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
First published online last October [2023], the discovery was made by Bourret as lead scientist of an inter-university team that also included researchers from Purdue University, Virginia Tech and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, in Tennessee.
A fullertube is basically an assembly of carbon atoms arranged to form a closed tubular cage. It is related to fullerenes, molecules that are represented as cages of interconnected hexagons and pentagons, and come in a wide variety of sizes and shapes.
For example, a C60 fullerene is made up of 60 carbon atoms and is shaped like a soccer ball. It is relatively small, spherical and very abundant. C120 fullerenes are less common. They are longer and shaped like a tube capped at either ends with the two halves of a C60 fullerene.
Found in soot
The C130 fullertube (or C130-D5h, its full scientific name) is more elongated than the C120 and even rarer. To isolate it, Bourret and his team generated an electric arc between two graphite electrodes to produce soot containing fullerene and fullertube molecules. The electronic structure of these molecules was then calculated using density functional theory (DFT).
“Drawing on principles of quantum mechanics, DFT enables us to calculate electronic structures and predict the properties of a molecule using the fundamental rules of physics,” explained Bourret’s thesis supervisor, UdeM physics professor Michel Côté, a researcher at the university’s Institut Courtois.
Using special software, Bourret was able to describe the structure of the C130 molecule: it is a tube with two hemispheres at the ends, making it look like a microscopic capsule. It measures just under 2 nanometres long by 1 nm wide (a nanometre is one billionth of a metre).
“The structure of the tube is basically made up of atoms arranged in hexagons,” said Bourret. “At the two ends, these hexagons are linked by pentagons, giving them their rounded shape.”
Bourret began doing theoretical work on fullertubes in 2014 under his then-supervisor Jiri Patera, an UdeM mathematics professor. After Patera passed away in January 2022, Bourret then approached Côté, who became his new supervisor.
Existence shown in 2020
Two years before that, Bourret had read an article by Purdue University at Fort Wayne professor Steven Stevenson, who described the experimental isolation of certain fullertubes, demonstrating their existence but not identifying all of them.
Under Côté’s guidance, Bourret set to work advancing knowledge on the topic.
“Emmanuel had a strong background in abstract mathematics,” Bourret recalled, “and he added an interesting dimension to my research group, which focuses on more computational approaches.”
Are any possible future applications in the offing?
“It’s hard to say at this stage, but one possibility might be the production of hydrogen,” said Côté. “Currently, what’s used is a catalyst made of platinum and rubidium, both of which are rare and expensive. Replacing them with carbon structures such as C130 would make it possible to produce hydrogen in a ‘greener’ way.”
Last year, Bourret’s groundbreaking work earned him an invitation to deliver a paper at the annual meeting of the U.S. Electrochemical Society (ECS), in Boston. This May [2024], he’ll chair a panel on fullerenes and fullertubes at the ECS annual meeting in San Francisco.
The Eagle Nebula (also known as M16 or the Pillars of Creation) was one of the 3 cosmic objects sonified and used in the study. Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/INAF/M.Guarcello et al.; Optical: NASA/STScI [downloaded from https://www.frontiersin.org/news/2024/03/25/communication-nasa-scientists-space-data-sounds]
Apparently, it’s all about communication or so a March 24, 2024 Frontiers news release (also on EurekAlert but published March 25, 2024) by Kim Arcand and Megan Watzke suggests, Note: Links have been removed,
Images from telescopes like the James Webb Space Telescope have expanded the way we see space. But what if you can’t see? Can stars be turned into sounds instead? In this guest editorial, NASA [US National Aeronautics and Space Administration] scientists and science communicators Dr Kimberly Arcand and Megan Watzke explain how and why they and their colleagues transformed telescope data into soundscapes to share space science with the whole world. To learn more, read their new research published in Frontiers in Communication.
When you travel somewhere where they speak a language you can’t understand, it’s usually important to find a way to translate what’s being communicated to you. In some ways, the same can be said about scientific data collected from cosmic objects. A telescope like NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory captures X-rays, which are invisible to the human eye, from sources across the cosmos. Similarly, the James Webb Space Telescope captures infrared light, also invisible to the human eye. These different kinds of light are transmitted down to Earth packed up in the form of ones and zeroes. From there, the data are transformed into a variety of formats — from plots to spectra to images.
This last category — images — is arguably what telescopes are best known for. For most of astronomy’s long history, however, most people who are blind or low vision (BLV) have not been able to fully experience the data that these telescopes have captured. NASA’s Universe of Sound data sonification program, with NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and NASA’s Universe of Learning, translates visual data of objects in space into sonified data. All telescopes — including Chandra, Webb, the Hubble Space Telescope, plus dozens of others — in space need to send the data they collect back to Earth as binary code, or digital signals. Typically, astronomers and others turn these digital data into images, which are often spectacular and make their way into everything from websites to pillowcases.
The music of the spheres
By taking these data through another step, however, experts on this project mathematically map the information into sound. This data-driven process is not a reimagining of what the telescopes have observed, it is yet another kind of translation. Instead of a translation from French to Mandarin, it’s a translation from visual to sound. Releases from the Universe of Sound sonification project have been immensely popular with non-experts, from viral news stories with over two billion people potentially reached according to press metrics, to triple the usual Chandra.si.edu website traffic.
But how are such data sonifications perceived by people, particularly members of the BLV community? How do data sonifications affect participant learning, enjoyment, and exploration of astronomy? Can translating scientific data into sound help enable trust or investment, emotionally or intellectually, in scientific data? Can such sonifications help improve awareness of accessibility needs that others might have?
Listening closely
This study used our sonified NASA data of three astronomical objects. We surveyed blind or low-vision and sighted individuals to better understand participant experiences of the sonifications, relating to their enjoyment, understanding, and trust of the scientific data. Data analyses from 3,184 sighted or blind or low-vision participants yielded significant self-reported learning gains and positive experiential responses.
The results showed that astrophysical data engaging multiple senses like the sonifications could establish additional avenues of trust, increase access, and promote awareness of accessibility in sighted and blind or low-vision communities. In short, sonifications helped people access and engage with the Universe.
Sonification is an evolving and collaborative field. It is a project not only done for the BLV community, but with BLV partnerships. A new documentary available on NASA’s free streaming platform NASA+ explores how these sonifications are made and the team behind them. The hope is that sonifications can help communicate the scientific discoveries from our Universe with more audiences, and open the door to the cosmos just a little wider for everyone.
Who hasn’t had dingy walls? It seems there may be a solution at some point in the future according to a March 25, 2024 news item on ScienceDaily,
Typically, beautiful white wall paint does not stay beautiful and white forever. Often, various substances from the air accumulate on its surface. This can be a desired effect because it makes the air cleaner for a while — but over time, the colour changes and needs to be renewed.
A research team from TU Wien [Vienna University of Technology] and the Università Politecnica delle Marche (Italy) has now succeeded in developing special titanium oxide nanoparticles that can be added to ordinary, commercially available wall paint to establish self-cleaning power: The nanoparticles are photocatalytically active, they can use sunlight not only to bind substances from the air, but also to decompose them afterwards. The wall makes the air cleaner — and cleans itself at the same time. Waste was used as the raw material for the new wall paint: metal scrap, which would otherwise have to be discarded, and dried fallen leaves.
A wide variety of pollutants occur in indoor air – from residues of cleaning agents and hygiene products to molecules that are produced during cooking or that are emitted by materials such as leather. In some cases, this can lead to health issues, which is then referred to as “sick building syndrome”.
“For years, people have been trying to use customized wall paints to clean the air,” says Prof. Günther Rupprechter from the Institute of Materials Chemistry at TU Wien. “Titanium oxide nanoparticles are particularly interesting in this context. They can bind and break down a wide range of pollutants.”
However, simply adding ordinary titanium oxide nanoparticles to the paint will affect the durability of the paint: just as pollutants are degraded by the nanoparticles, they can also make the paint itself unstable and create cracks. In the worst case, volatile organic compounds can even be released, which in turn can be harmful to health. After a certain time, the paint layer becomes gray and tinted, finally it has to be renewed.
Self-cleaning by light
However, the nanoparticles can clean themselves if they are irradiated with UV light. Titanium oxide is a so-called photocatalyst – a material that enables chemical reactions when exposed to suitable light. The UV radiation creates free charge carriers in the particles, which induce decomposition of the trapped pollutants from air into small parts and their release. In this way, the pollutants are rendered harmless, but do not remain permanently attached to the wall paint. The wall colour remains stable in the long term.
In practice, however, this is of little use – after all, it would be tedious to repeatedly irradiate the wall with intense UV light in order to drive the self-cleaning process. “Our goal was therefore to modify these particles in such a way that the photocatalytic effect can also be induced by ordinary sunlight,” explains Günther Rupprechter.
This is achieved by adding certain additional atoms to the titanium oxide nanoparticles, such as phosphorus, nitrogen, and carbon. As a result, the light frequencies that can be harvested by the particles change, and instead of just UV light, photocatalysis is then also triggered by ordinary visible light.
96% pollutant removal
“We have now investigated this phenomenon in great detail using a variety of different surface and nanoparticle analysis methods,” says Qaisar Maqbool, the first author of the study. “In this way, we were able to show exactly how these particles behave, before and after they were added to the wall paint.”
The research team mixed the modified titanium oxide nanoparticles with ordinary, commercially available wall paint and rinsed a painted surface with a solution containing pollutants. Subsequently, 96% of the pollutants could be degraded by natural sunlight. The colour itself does not change – because the pollutants are not only bound, but also broken down with the help of sunlight.
Waste as a raw material
For the commercial success of such paints, it is also important to avoid expensive raw materials . “In catalysis, for example, precious metals such as platinum or gold are used. In our case, however, elements that are readily available from everywhere are sufficient: To obtain phosphorus, nitrogen and carbon, we have used dried fallen leaves from olive trees, and the titanium for the titanium oxide nanoparticles was obtained from metal waste, which is normally simply thrown away,” says Günther Rupprechter.
This new type of wall paint combines several advantages at the same time: it removes pollutants from the air, it lasts longer than other paints – and it is even more resource-saving in production as it can be obtained from recycled materials. Further experiments are being carried out, and commercialisation of the wall paint is intended.
Graphene, heralded for its biocompatibility, features in a March 22, 2024 news item on ScienceDaily about research about biosensing and a mesh system that can grow,
A team of engineers has recently built a tissue-like bioelectronic mesh system integrated with an array of atom-thin graphene sensors that can simultaneously measure both the electrical signal and the physical movement of cells in lab-grown human cardiac tissue. This tissue-like mesh can grow along with the cardiac cells, allowing researchers to observe how the heart’s mechanical and electrical functions change during the developmental process. The new device is a boon for those studying cardiac disease as well as those studying the potentially toxic side-effects of many common drug therapies.
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Caption: A bioelectronic mesh, studded with graphene sensors (red), can measure the electrical signal and movement of cardiac tissue (purple and green) at the same time. Credit: Gao et al., 10.1038/s41467-024-46636-7
Cardiac disease is the leading cause of human morbidity and mortality across the world. The heart is also very sensitive to therapeutic drugs, and the pharmaceutical industry spends millions of dollars in testing to make sure that its products are safe. However, ways to effectively monitor living cardiac tissue are extremely limited.
In part, this is because it is very risky to implant sensors in a living heart, but also because the heart is a complex kind of muscle with more than one thing that needs monitoring. “Cardiac tissue is very special,” says Jun Yao, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering in UMass Amherst’s College of Engineering and the paper’s senior author. “It has a mechanical activity—the contractions and relaxations that pump blood through our body—coupled to an electrical signal that controls that activity.”
But today’s sensors can typically only measure one characteristic at a time, and a two-sensor device that could measure both charge and movement would be so bulky as to impede the cardiac tissue’s function. Until now, there was no single sensor capable of measuring the heart’s dual properties without interfering with its functioning.
The new device is built of two critical components, explains lead author Hongyan Gao, who is pursuing his Ph.D. in electrical engineering at UMass Amherst. The first is a three-dimensional cardiac microtissue (CMT), grown in a lab from human stem cells under the guidance of co-author Yubing Sun, associate professor of mechanical and industrial engineering at UMass Amherst. CMT has become the preferred model for in vitro testing because it is the closest analog yet to a full-size, living human heart. However, because CMT is grown in a test tube, it has to mature, a process that takes time and can be easily disrupted by a clumsy sensor.
The second critical component involves graphene—a pure-carbon substance only one atom thick. Graphene has a few surprising quirks to its nature that make it perfect for a cardiac sensor. Graphene is electrically conductive, and so it can sense the electrical charges shooting through cardiac tissue. It is also piezoresistive, which means that as it is stretched—say, by the beating of a heart—its electrical resistance increases. And because graphene is impossibly thin, it can register even the tiniest flutter of muscle contraction or relaxation and can do so without impeding the heart’s function, all through the maturation process. Co-author Jing Kong, professor of electrical engineering at MIT, and her group supplied this critical graphene material.
“Although there have already been many applications for graphene, it is wonderful to see that it can be used in this critical need, which takes advantage of graphene’s different characteristics,” says Kong.
Gao, Yao and their colleagues then embedded a series of graphene sensors in a soft, stretchable porous mesh scaffold they developed that has close structural and mechanical properties to human tissue and which can be applied non-invasively to cardiac tissue.
“No one has ever done this before,” says Gao. “Graphene can survive in a biological environment without degrading for a very long time and not lose its conductivity, so we can monitor the CMT across its entire maturation process.”
“This is crucial for a number of reasons,” adds Yao. “Our sensor can give real-time feedback to scientists and drug researchers, and it can do so in a cost-effective way. We take pride in using the insights of electrical engineering to help build tools that can be useful to a wide range of researchers.”
In the future, Gao says, he hopes to be able to adapt his sensor to grander scales, even to in vivo monitoring, which would provide the best-possible data to help solve cardiac disease.
This research was supported by the Army Research Office, the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. National Science Foundation, the Semiconductor Research Corporation, and the Link Foundation, as well as the Institute for Applied Life Sciences at UMass Amherst.
Studio, STACKT Market 28 Bathurst Street Toronto, ON, M5V 0C6 Canada (map)
General knowledge, current events and pop culture get a fun, sciencey twist at this trivia night unlike any other. Bring your friends or fly solo, form a team, and prepare for an evening filled with laughter, friendly competition, and maybe even a few “Eureka!” moments. You don’t need a PhD to have Ph-un–just some healthy skepticism!
Rounds include:
Music Round, featuring pop songs with references to science
Is it Sci-Fi, Science or Both?
Some Questionable News: Is this science-related headline real or fake?
Pop songs with references to science? Wish I could be there. For those who can be there, enjoy!
Should you be unfamiliar with the Royal Canadian Institute for Science (RCIS), there’s this from the organization’s Our History webpage,
A hotbed of scientific exchange, the Royal Canadian Institute was formed in Toronto in 1849 by an enthusiastic group of engineers, surveyors and entrepreneurs, led by Sir Sandford Fleming who believed it would, “do great good to my adopted country.”
Charged with the “encouragement and general advancement of the Physical Sciences, the Arts and Manufactures” and to work to, “promote the purposes of Science and the general interests of society” the Institute opened its membership in 1850 to anyone “whose pursuits or studies were of a kindred character.” Since then, we have worked towards a goal of an informed public that embraces science to build a stronger Canada.
Members gave and heard papers on a wide range of subjects. Selected papers and abstracts were published in the Canadian Journal, later the Proceedings and then the Transactions of the Royal Canadian Institute. These scientific journals (1852-1969) were the first in Canada to be widely distributed internationally, and are still in demand as primary scientific sources.
If you haven’t come across the RCIS before, I encourage to take a look at the organization’s homepage where it lists upcoming events and videos from previous events, from the Recent Highlights subsection on the homepage,
Chemists react to Lessons in Chemistry
Fresh off the success of Emmy-nominated, book-turned-TV show, chemists Dr. Rebecca Yardley and Celia Du react to Brie Larson’s latest hit Lessons In Chemistry.
The (Polar) Bear Necessities
Do polar bears have blue tongues? Can they breed with other bear species? We sat down with polar bear researcher Dylan McCart to answer your questions for International Polar Bear Day!
The Secret Life of Pets
Why do dogs get the zoomies? Why do cats love cardboard boxes? And can dogs really use those buttons to communicate with us? Animal-obsessed psychology professor Dr. Suzanne MacDonald has the answers!
The Last of Us
Explore the science behind hit television show and video game The Last of Us in this AMA with mycologist and molecular biologist Jessie MacAlpine! (*Contains spoilers up to Season 1, Episode 5)
