A September 5, 2025 announcement (received via email) from Toronto’s ArtSci Salon highlights three upcoming events. In date order, from the online version of the September 5, 2025 announcement, Note: The online version is on mailchi.mp and is time limited,
Book Launch To Place a Rabbit by Madhur Anand in conversation with Shyam Selvadurai
Tuesday, Sept. 9 2025 7:00 pm [ 7 – 8:30 pm ET] Another Story Bookstore 315 Roncesvalles avenue Toronto
I found more information about the book launch on its eventbrite RSVP page, Note: Links have been removed,
ABOUT THE BOOK
This delightfully clever, artfully layered novel begins when a scientist who has written a popular book of non-fiction attends a literary festival, where she strikes up a friendship with a charismatic novelist. The novelist reveals that her new work is an experiment: a novella she wrote in English only to have it translated and published solely in French—a language the novelist cannot read. Moreover, she has lost her original English manuscript of this work. Hearing this, the scientist, who is fluent in French, impulsively offers to retranslate the novella back into English for the novelist.As she embarks on this task, the scientist finds herself haunted by vivid memories and distracting questions—particularly about a passionate affair from her own life with a French lover. These insert themselves into her translation process, troubling it, then disrupting it entirely. She desperately tries to complete her task before losing control of both the work and her well-organized existence—but soon the novelist and the French lover reappear in the present, further complicating both life and art.Here is sparkling, irresistible debut fiction from one of our most consistently inventive voices, the award-winning and multi-talented Madhur Anand.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Madhur Anand’s debut book of creative non-fiction This Red Line Goes Straight to Your Heart (2020) won the Governor General’s Literary Award for Nonfiction. Her debut collection of poems A New Index for Predicting Catastrophes (2015) was a finalist for the Trillium Book Award for Poetry and named one of 10 all-time “trailblazing” poetry collections by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Her second collection of poems Parasitic Oscillations (2022) was also a finalist for the Trillium Book Award for Poetry and named a Globe and Mail Top 100 Book. To Place a Rabbit is her first novel. Anand is a professor and the director of the Global Ecological Change and Sustainability Laboratory at the University of Guelph, Ontario.
ABOUT THE MODERATOR
Shyam Selvadurai was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Funny Boy, his first novel, won the W.H. Smith/ Books in Canada First Novel Award and the Lambda Literary Award in the US. He is the author of Cinnamon Gardens and Swimming in the Monsoon Sea, and the editor of an anthology, Story-wallah! A Celebration of South Asian Fiction. His books have been published in the US, the UK and India, and published in translation in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Turkey and Israel. His latest novel, The Hungry Ghosts, was published April 2, 2013 in Canada, India and Sri Lanka. Shyam co- wrote the screenplay for his first novel Funny Boy, for which he won the Canadian Screen Award and the New York Cinema Independent Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Shyam’s new novel Mansions of the Moon is a historical novel about the Buddha’s wife, Yasodhara. In 2016, Shyam had the interesting honour of having a spider named after him: Brignolia shyami, a small goblin spider.
Call for Proposals: RE:SciComm February 19-20, 2026 Oakham House, Toronto Metropolitan University, 55 Gould Street, Toronto
RE:SciComm (formerly SciCommTO) — a dynamic, in-person conference exploring the art, science, and strategy of science communication in Canada. The conference will attract science communicators, researchers, journalists, graduate students, and outreach professionals from across the GTHA [Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area] and beyond.
The RE:ScieComm conference website offers a clue as to why it was mentioned in ArtSci Salon announcements,
Join us for a dynamic conference exploring the art, science, and strategy of science communication in Canada.
Whether you’re behind the mic, in front of a classroom, or crafting stories for the screen, RE:SciComm is the place to build your skills, grow your network, and join the national conversation on science engagement and communication.
In an era shaped by climate change, public health crises, and rapid advances in AI, the need for effective science communication has never been clearer. Science impacts all of us — but how we talk about it, and who gets heard, matters more than ever. RE:SciComm will dive into the challenges and opportunities of today’s engagement landscape, from tackling misinformation to reaching communities historically excluded from science conversations.
Why RE:SciComm?
Formerly known as SciCommTO, the original 2020 conference drew wide praise for its collaborative spirit and practical focus. Now we’re rebooting with fresh energy, a broader scope, and a renewed commitment to advancing inclusive and effective science communication.
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Call for Proposals Now Open ◐
We’re looking for bold, practical, and thought-provoking session proposals that explore the future of science communication. Workshops, panel discussions, interactive sessions, debates, or something unexpected — if you’ve got an idea that could inspire or empower fellow communicators, we want to hear from you.
*Speakers and Conference Program will be released in October 2025. Registration will open October 2025.
DEADLINE Monday, September 15, 2025 at 11:59 PM ET
Conference Themes
Re:framing
What does inclusive, community-first science communication look like? This theme is about democratizing science and shifting perspectives—getting research out of the lab, beyond academic journals and conferences, and into public spaces where it can be shared, shaped, and understood by all. It’s about centering equity, decolonization, and Indigenous ways of knowing in how we communicate science. Whether it’s through co-creation, storytelling, art, language, or lived experience, we’re looking for sessions that challenge the status quo and open up new possibilities. Let’s explore fresh frameworks, participatory approaches, and best practices that make STEMM [science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine] more accessible, responsive, and representative of the world we live in.
Re:building
As we navigate a rapidly changing world, how do we rebuild public trust in STEMM, and reimagine science communication for today’s reality in Canada? This theme explores emerging challenges and opportunities—from misinformation and AI to science policy and education. We invite sessions that tackle the unique contexts of science engagement in Canada, offering insight into how science communicators can meet the moment with integrity, creativity, and care. Let’s reshape the narrative and design strategies that help STEMM thrive across diverse communities.
Re:igniting
Let’s get inspired. This theme is all about renewal—of relationships, collaborations, ideas, and purpose. What fuels your passion for science communication, and how can we grow the field together? We’re looking for sessions that celebrate creativity, connection, and momentum—whether through innovative formats, bold new projects, or reflections on what keeps us going. Together, we’ll build a more vibrant, interconnected, and future-focused science communication community across Canada.
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Conference Co-Hosts
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The Royal Canadian Institute for Science (RCIScience) is Canada’s oldest scientific society, celebrating its 175th year of science engagement. Through award-winning events and programs, RCIScience sparks curiosity and builds a stronger science culture across Canada.
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SciXchange at Toronto Metropolitan University is dedicated to making science accessible, engaging, and inclusive for all. From hands-on outreach to science communication training, SciXchange brings science to life for communities across the GTHA.
I very much appreciate the visual puns used to illustrate and ‘illuminate’ the conference themes.
This next and last event is more typical of the ArtSci Salon’s offerings, although the more accessible (IMO) description for the event and the artist was on this University of Toronto Jackman Humanities Institute event page,
Description
Join us for a series of events running through September 25 to October 16 that include an opening reception, additional tour and two panel discussions. Together, these events aim to raise awareness about the challenges posed by dyscalculia with educators, fellow mathematicians, and parents while normalizing its existence, leading to early detection and augmented support. It will also explore more broadly on the role and significance of mathematics and math education in today’s shifting socio-cultural and economic contexts.
“i don’t do math” is a photographic series exploring dyscalculia, a learning difference that affects a person’s ability to understand and work with number-based information. While dyslexia (difficulty with language) has become widely recognized thanks to years of advocacy and early detection, dyscalculia remains largely unknown. Research estimates that 3–7% of children, adolescents, and adults are affected (Haberstroh & Schulte-Körne 2019), though the actual numbers may be higher, as only a small fraction of those who struggle with math are ever screened (Sparks 2023).
Despite its prevalence, dyscalculia is often misunderstood—dismissed as a lack of education or mistaken for a personality trait. Left unrecognized, it can impact many aspects of daily life. It is also frequently confused with math anxiety, a sense of apprehension that interferes with math performance and while the two are not the same, dyscalculia can contribute to the development of math anxiety.
Photographer Ann Piché approaches this project both as an artist and an advocate, documenting the experiences of people affected by dyscalculia while engaging educators, learners, and parents in conversations about its effects and possible supports. Her exhibition presents abstract images paired with mathematical formulae, visually translating unfamiliar equations into recognizable photographic forms. The pairing of images and formulas conveys the frustration many with dyscalculia feel when navigating a number-centric world, while accompanying text-based panels guide viewers through the assumptions and challenges that shape these experiences.
The series consists of 15 photographs and 5 text-based panels, including works created during fieldwork visits in courses taught by University of Toronto, Department of Math, Professors Amenda Chow and Sarah Mayes-Tang of Calculus and Symmetry and Professor Pam Sargent of Business Calculus, Professor Ada Chan of Pre-Calculus at York University, and Dr. Pamela Brittain of K–12 Curriculum Education from the Fields Institute.
Ann Piché is a photo-based artist in Ottawa, Canada. Working in technology since the early 1990’s, Ann was the first female electronic technician hired by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). Experiencing the disconnect that can exist between science and the arts she constructs visual links to build those connections, creating accessible entry points for conversations about the less familiar.
A graduate of the School of the Photographic Arts: Ottawa (SPAO), Ann’s work has been presented in solo exhibitions in Canada and in group exhibitions internationally. Her collaborations include the Department of Mathematics at the University of Toronto and the Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences. A recipient of grants from the Jackman Humanities Institute at the University of Toronto, the City of Ottawa and the Ontario Arts Council, Ann has been published in North American magazines such as SHOTS and PhotoED.
Ann’s images are not software generated. Working primarily in digital photography, she stages her images using real and constructed landscapes with custom-built sets. Her work explores photographic abstraction and experimental camera techniques, a visual acknowledgement of the anxiety we can feel when facing the unfamiliar.
This initiative is supported by JHI Program for the Arts, the ArtSci Salon & the Fields Institute, and New College. Many thanks to the Departments of Mathematics at the University of Toronto and York University for their collaboration.
ABOUT “I don’t do math” is a photographic series referencing dyscalculia, a learning difference affecting a person’s ability to understand and manipulate number-based information.
This initiative seeks to raise awareness about the challenges posed by dyscalculia with educators, fellow mathematicians, and parents, and to normalize its existence, leading to early detection and augmented support. In addition, it seeks to reflect on and question broader issues and assumptions about the role and significance of Mathematics and Math education in today’s changing socio-cultural and economic contexts.
The exhibition will contain pedagogical information and activities for visitors and students. The artist will also address the extensive research that led to the exhibition. The exhibition will feature two panel discussions following the opening and to conclude the exhibition.
Photographer Ann Piché is using her artistic practice both to document the struggles experienced by people affected by dyscalculia, and to educate math educators, students, and parents about its effects and potential support strategies.The series consists of 15 photographs and 5 text-based panels, including work produced during fieldwork visits in Prof. Amenda Chow and Prof. Sarah Mayes-Tang’s Calculus and Symmetry classes; Prof. Pam Sargent’s business calculus class (all three professors are from the dept. of Math.); Prof. Ada Chan’s pre-calculus class (dept. of Math., York University); and Dr.Pamela Brittain’s K-12 and curriculum education program (Fields Institute).
Opening: Thursday September 25, 5:00 pm [ET] Tour: Saturday September 27, [2025] 2:00 pm [ET] (meet us at the Fields Institute, Atrium 2nd floor) —- Panel Discussion: Monday, September 29, 4:00 pm [ET] Ann Piché (independent artist) Daniel Ansari (Department of Psychology and Education, Western University) Darja Barr (Department of Mathematics, University of Winnipeg) room 230, the Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences 222 College Street, Toronto —- Stay tuned for the Final Panel Discussion on October 16, 10:00 am with Andrew Fiss (Professional & Technical Communication, Michigan Technological University Humanities Department) and other panelists
All panels will be recorded and posted on our Youtube channel
That is a silent video depicting the research. For anyone who may be puzzled, there’s an Aug. 8, 2016 news item on Nanowerk featuring the research announcement from Michigan Technological University (Note: A link has been removed),
Researchers at the University of Maryland and Michigan Technological University have operated a tiny proposed satellite ion rocket under a microscope to see how it works (Nanotechnology, “Radiation-induced solidification of ionic liquid under extreme electric field”).
The rocket, called an electrospray thruster, is a drop of molten salt. When electricity is applied, it creates a field on the tip of the droplet, until ions begin streaming off the end. The force created by the rocket is less than the weight of a human hair, but in the vacuum of space it is enough to push a small object forward with a constant acceleration. Many of these tiny thrusters packed together could propel a spacecraft over great distances, maybe even to the nearest exoplanet, and they are particularly useful for Earth-orbiting nanosatellites, which can be as small as a shoe box. These thrusters are currently being tested on the European Space Agency’s LISA Pathfinder, which hopes to poise objects in space so precisely that they would only be disturbed by gravitational waves.
these droplet engines have a problem: sometimes they form needle-like spikes that disrupt the way the thruster works – they get in the way of the ions flowing outward and turn the liquid to a gel. Lyon B. King and Kurt Terhune, mechanical engineers at Michigan Tech, wanted to find out how this actually happens.
“The challenge is making measurements of features as small as a few molecules in the presence of a strong electric field, which is why we turned to John Cumings at the University of Maryland,” King says, explaining Cumings is known for his work with challenging materials and that they needed to look for a needle in a haystack. “Getting a close look at these droplets is like looking through a straw to find a penny somewhere on the floor of a room–and if that penny moves out of view, like the tip of the molten salt needles do–then you have to start searching for it all over again.”
At the Advanced Imaging and Microscopy Lab at the University of Maryland, Cumings put the tiny thruster in a transmission electron microscope – an advanced scope that can see things down to millionths of a meter. They watched as the droplet elongated and sharpened to a point, and then started emitting ions. Then the tree-like defects began to appear.
The researchers say that figuring out why these branched structures grow could help prevent them from forming. The problem occurs when high-energy electrons, like those used in the microscope’s imaging beam, impact the fluid causing damage to the molecules that they strike. This damages the molten salt’s molecular structure, so it thickens into a gel and no longer flows properly.
“We were able to watch the dendritic structures accumulate in real time,” says Kurt Terhune, a mechanical engineering graduate student and the study’s lead author. “The specific mechanism still needs to be investigated, but this could have importance for spacecraft in high-radiation environments.”
He adds that the microscope’s electron beam is more powerful than natural settings, but the gelling effect could affect the lifetime of electrospray thrusters in low-Earth and geosynchronous orbit.
A team at Michigan Technological University (Michigan Tech) has developed a simple technique for clearing nanoparticles from water according to a Dec. 10, 2015 news item on Nanotechnology Now,
Nano implies small—and that’s great for use in medical devices, beauty products and smartphones—but it’s also a problem. The tiny nanoparticles, nanowires, nanotubes and other nanomaterials that make up our technology eventually find their way into water. The Environmental Protection Agency says more 1,300 commercial products use some kind of nanomaterial. And we just don’t know the full impact on health and the environment.
“Look at plastic,” says Yoke Khin Yap, a professor of physics at Michigan Technological University. “These materials changed the world over the past decades—but can we clean up all the plastic in the ocean? We struggle to clean up meter-scale plastics, so what happens when we need to clean on the nano-scale?”
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The method sounds like a salad dressing recipe: take water, sprinkle in nanomaterials, add oil and shake.
Water and oil don’t mix, of course, but shaking them together is what makes salad dressing so great. Only instead of emulsifying and capturing bits of shitake or basil in tiny olive oil bubbles, this mixture grabs nanomaterials.
Dongyan Zhang, a research professor of physics at Michigan Tech, led the experiments, which covered tests on carbon nanotubes, graphene, boron nitride nanotubes, boron nitride nanosheets and zinc oxide nanowires. Those are used in everything from carbon fiber golf clubs to sunscreen.
“These materials are very, very tiny, and that means if you try to remove them and clean them out of contaminated water, that it’s quite difficult,” Zhang says, adding that techniques like filter paper or meshes often don’t work.
What makes shaking work is the shape of one- and two-dimensional nanomaterials. As the oil and water separate after some rigorous shaking, the wires, tubes and sheets settle at the bottom of the oil, just above the water. The oils trap them. However, zero-dimensional nanomaterials, such as nanospheres do not get trapped.
The researchers, according to the news release, are attempting to anticipate the potential contamination of our water supply by nanomaterials and provide a solution before it happens,
We don’t have to wait until the final vote is in on whether nanomaterials have a positive or negative impact on people’s health and environmental health. With the simplicity of this technique, and how prolific nanomaterials are becoming, removing nanomaterials makes sense. Also, finding ways to effectively remove nanomaterials sooner rather than later could improve the technology’s market potential.
“Ideally for a new technology to be successfully implemented, it needs to be shown that the technology does not cause adverse effects to the environment,” Yap, Zhang and their co-authors write. “Therefore, unless the potential risks of introducing nanomaterials into the environment are properly addressed, it will hinder the industrialization of products incorporating nanotechnology.”
Purifying water and greening nanotechnology could be as simple as shaking a vial of water and oil.
Here’s a video about the research supplied by Michigan Tech,
I have combined two 3D printing items here. The first is an announcement from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars about an upcoming panel discussion (from the Nov. 25, 2013 announcement),
The Environmental Impacts of 3D Printing
3D printing allows for cheaper and quicker production of complex and novel items. The technology has been used by industry to build prototypes and specialized parts since the 1980s, but interest in desktop applications of the technology has increased in recent years as prices for the machines have dropped.
Proponents of the technology often cite the environmental benefits of 3D printing, though fundamental questions remain: What technologies are involved in 3D printing? How efficient are these technologies in the use of materials and energy? Does the design of printed objects reduce end-of-life options? Does more localized production reduce the carbon footprint? Will simplicity and ubiquity cause us to overprint things, just as we do with paper?
Robert Olson explored some of these questions in his article “3D Printing: A Boon or a Bane?” in the November/December 2013 issue of the Environmental Forum. The article discusses the enormous potential of 3D printing and examines the paucity of research on the environmental impacts of the technology.
Join us at the Wilson Center on Dec. 13 for an event looking at the growth of additive manufacturing and the potential environmental implications of the technology.
When: Dec. 13, 2013 from 9 a.m. – 11 a.m. EST
Who:
Robert Olson, Senior Fellow, Institute for Alternative Futures
David Rejeski, Director, Science and Technology Innovation Program, Wilson Center
John Pendergrass, Senior Attorney & Director of the State Center, Environmental Law Institute
OK, so maybe you aren’t interested in making your own toys, cellphone cases, or glow-in-the-dark Christmas decorations. How about a brake drum?
Until now, 3D printing has been a polymer affair, with most people in the maker community using the machines to make all manner of plastic consumer goods, from tent stakes to chess sets. A new low-cost 3D printer developed by Michigan Technological University’s Joshua Pearce and his team could add hammers to that list. The detailed plans, software and firmware are all freely available and open-source, meaning anyone can use them to make their own metal 3D printer.
This open access technology is being made accessible to the maker community, preferably to the highly skilled and experienced members, (from the news release),
Pearce is the first to admit that his new printer is a work in progress. So far, the products he and his team have produced are no more intricate than a sprocket. But that’s because the technology is so raw. “Similar to the incredible churn in innovation witnessed with open-sourcing of the first RepRap plastic 3D printers, I anticipate rapid progress when the maker community gets their hands on it,” says Pearce, an associate professor of materials science and engineering/electrical and computer engineering. “Within a month, somebody will make one that’s better than ours, I guarantee it.”
Using under $1,500 worth of materials, including a small commercial MIG welder and an open-source microcontroller, Pearce’s team built a 3D metal printer than can lay down thin layers of steel to form complex geometric objects. Commercial metal printers are available, but they cost over half a million dollars.
His make-it-yourself metal printer is less expensive than off-the-shelf commercial plastic 3D printers and is affordable enough for home use, he said. However, because of safety concerns, Pearce suggests that for now it would be better off in the hands of a shop, garage or skilled DIYer, since it requires more safety gear and fire protection equipment than the typical plastic 3D printer.
While metal 3D printing opens new vistas, it also raises anew the specter of homemade firearms. Some people have already made guns with both commercial metal and plastic 3D printers, with mixed results. While Pearce admits to some sleepless nights as they developed the metal printer, he also believes that the good to come from all types of distributed manufacturing with 3D printing will far outweigh the dangers.
In previous work, his group has already shown that making products at home with a 3D printer is cheaper for the average American and that printing goods at home is greener than buying commercial goods.
In particular, expanded 3D printing would benefit people in the developing world, who have limited access to manufactured goods, and researchers, who can radically cut costs of scientific equipment to further their science, Pearce said. “Small and medium-sized enterprises would be able to build parts and equipment quickly and easily using downloadable, free and open-source designs, which could revolutionize the economy for the benefit of the many.”
“I really don’t know if we are mature enough to handle it,” he added cautiously, “but I think that with open-source approach, we are within reach of a Star Trek-like, post-scarcity society, in which ‘replicators’ can create a vast array of objects on demand, resulting in wealth for everyone at very little cost. Pretty soon, we’ll be able to make almost anything.”
There is a paper and here’s a citation,of sorts,
“A Low-Cost, Open-Source Metal 3-D Printer,” to be published Nov. 25 in IEEE Access (DOI: 10.1109/ACCESS.2013.2293018)
