Tag Archives: University of London

Beautiful eggs and their nanoscale cone strucutre

I think these eggs are gorgeous,

Caption: Guillemots are famous for the egg shapes -- when knocked or rocked, they go around in a perfect circle on their own axis, so they don't roll off the cliff. Credit: Steven Portugal

Caption: Guillemots are famous for the egg shapes — when knocked or rocked, they go around in a perfect circle on their own axis, so they don’t roll off the cliff. Credit: Steven Portugal

Plus, they have some very interesting properties at the nanoscale according to Steven Portugal’s presentation at the Society for Experimental Biology meeting in Valencia, July 3 – 6, 2013. From a July 5, 2013 news item on Azonano,

The team of researchers headed Dr Steven Portugal (Royal Veterinary College, University of London) discovered the nano-scale cone-like structures.

Dr Steven Portugal explained: “This work was started by accident. A water spillage over an egg collection revealed how differently water droplets acted on the guillemot eggshells in comparison to other species. The water droplets stayed as a sphere on the eggs, typically an indication of a hydrophobic surface.”

The researchers identified that these structures are unique to guillemot eggshells in a comparative study of over 400 species in total, including those nesting in similar environments, and those closely related to the guillemots.

They performed engineering tests on the eggshells and found that those of the guillemot have several unique proprieties due to these nano -structures: higher water contact angle (which means they were more hydrophobic), rougher surface (which helps prevent the egg from falling off the cliff or the parents feet) and higher rate of gaseous exchange (which helps them cope with the high salt content from the sea spray).

Other analogous hydrophobic nano-structures have been identified in the Lotus Leaf, and have been mimicked in industry. The researchers expect this finding will also have important uses in the emerging field of biomimetics.

While i find the hydrophobic qualities interesting, it’s the egg’s ability to go around in a perfect circle (as per the photo caption) so it doesn’t roll over the cliff (where the birds leave their eggs) that I find the most interesting. You can find out more about Steven Portugal and his work here.

EVP (electronic voice phenomena), recording the dead, visual art, and the Rorschach Audio research project (2007 – 2012): two talks

The British Library Sound Archive (London, England) is featuring a June 28, 2013 lunchtime talk (Note: It is free and sold out as of June 24, 2013 2:30 pm PDT) according to a June 23, 2013 Disinformation PR (public relations) announcement (from the June 4, 2013 Rorschach Audio blog posting, which originated the announcement),

Writing in “Playback: The Bulletin of the British Library Sound Archive”, Toby Oakes observed that the archive “deals with the voices of the dead every day, but our subjects tend to have been alive at the time of recording”. “Mortality was no impediment” however, in the case of tapes recorded by parapsychologist Konstantin Raudive, who claimed that Galileo, Goethe and Hitler communicated with him through the medium of radio. Raudive was the most famous exponent of Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP), as it is known, and the British Library holds a collection of 60 of his unedited tapes. Rather than dismissing the claims of EVP researchers out-of-hand, author Joe Banks demonstrates a number of highly entertaining audio-visual illusions, which show how the mind can misinterpret recordings of sound and of stray communications chatter, in a similar way to how viewers project imaginary images onto the random visual forms of the psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach’s famous ink-blot tests. The talk stresses the important role that intelligent guesswork plays in normal perception, and discusses descriptions of sound phenomena by Leonardo da Vinci, and the work of the BBC Monitoring Service, emphasizing the influence that wartime intelligence work with sound had on one of the most important works of visual arts theory every published. [sic]

[from the British Library Rorschach Audio event page: The talk stresses the important role that intelligent guesswork plays in normal perception, and discusses descriptions of sound phenomena by Leonardo da Vinci, and the work of the BBC Monitoring Service, emphasizing the influence that wartime intelligence work with sound had on one of the most important works of visual arts theory – Art & Illusion by (wartime radio monitor and post-war art historian) E.H. Gombrich.]

The talk starts at 12:30 (however the library is a bit of a labyrinth so arrive 10 minutes early to make sure you find the scriptorium on time). Admission is free and refreshments are provided. To attend please e-mail your name to summer-scholars@bl.uk.

Rorschach Audio – Ghost Voices, Art, Illusions and Sonic Archives” [emphasis mine]
12:30 lunch-time, 28 June 2013
The British Library
96 Euston Road
London NW1 2DB

This talk is part of the British Library’s Summer Scholars programme –
http://www.bl.uk/whatson/events/event147624.html

There is a second chance at finding out about this project at a Café Scientifique in Leamington Spa, from the June 4, 2013 posting,

After the British Library talk, the next “Rorschach Audio” demonstration will be for Café Scientifique in Leamington Spa – upstairs at St Patrick’s Irish Club, Riverside Walk (off Adelaide Road), Leamington CV32 5AH, 7pm, Monday 15 July 2013…

http://www.cafescientifique.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=221:leamington-spa

I like the Café Scientifique in Leamington Spa description of the July 15, 2013 event,

Monday 15th July 2013

Electronic Voice Phenomena: ghost voice recordings and illusions of science

Joe Banks

Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) refers to a movement – not unlike the UFO scene – whose supporters contend that misheard recordings of stray communications and radio chatter constitute scientific proof of the existence of ghosts. Rather than dismissing ghost-voice recordings out of hand, Joe will show how EVP researchers misunderstand the mind’s capacity to interpret sound, similar to the way we see illusory images in the random visual forms of the famous Rorschach ink-blot tests. Joe will demonstrate the formation of such perceptions using a number of entertaining and sometimes bizarre audio-visual illusions.

Joe Banks is a former Honorary Visiting Fellow in the School of Informatics at City University, London, and former AHRC-sponsored Research Fellow in the Department of Computing at Goldsmiths College and the Department of English, Linguistics & Cultural Studies at The University of Westminster. One of his “Rorschach Audio” research papers was published in a scholarly journal by The MIT Press, his recently-published book Rorschach Audio was featured on BBC Radio 4 and he has given talks about “Rorschach Audio” at the London Science Museum’s Dana Centre and the British Library.

Joe lives in London, near the set of traffic lights that inspired physicist Leo Szilard to conceive the theory of the thermonuclear chain reaction.

For those of us who can’t get to the British Library or Leamington Spa, here’s a video featuring the Rorschach Audio project, from Joe Banks’s webpage on the Goldsmiths College website,


I think it might be necessary to attend the talk in order to make sense of this video although perhaps you’ll find this image included with the publicity helpful,

Rorschach Audio visual image [downloaded from http://rorschachaudio.wordpress.com/2013/06/04/british-library-sonic-archives/]

Rorschach Audio visual image [downloaded from http://rorschachaudio.wordpress.com/2013/06/04/british-library-sonic-archives/]

Another day, another graphene centre in the UK as the Graphene flagship consortium’s countdown begins

The University of Cambridge has announced a Cambridge Graphene Centre due to open by the end of 2013 according to a Jan. 24, 2012 news item on Nanowerk,

The Cambridge Graphene Centre will start its activities on February 1st 2013, with a dedicated facility due to open at the end of the year. Its objective is to take graphene to the next level, bridging the gap between academia and industry. It will also be a shared research facility with state-of-the-art equipment, which any scientist researching graphene will have the opportunity to use.

The University of Cambridge Jan. 24, 2013 news release, which originated the news item, describes the plans for graphene research and commercialization,

The first job for those working in the Cambridge Graphene Centre will be to find ways of manufacturing and optimising graphene films, dispersions and inks so that it can be used to good effect.

Professor Andrea Ferrari, who will be the Centre’s Director, said: “We are now in the second phase of graphene research, following the award of the Nobel Prize to Geim and Novoselov. That means we are targeting applications and manufacturing processes, and broadening research to other two-dimensional materials and hybrid systems. The integration of these new materials could bring a new dimension to future technologies, creating faster, thinner, stronger, more flexible broadband devices.”

One such project, led by Dr Stephan Hofmann, a Reader and specialist in nanotechnology, will look specifically at the manufacturability of graphene and other, layered, 2D materials. At the moment, sheets of graphene that are just one atom thick are difficult to grow in a controllable manner, manipulate, or connect with other materials.

Dr Hofmann’s research team will focus on a growth method called chemical vapour deposition (CVD), which has already opened up other materials, such as diamond, carbon nanotubes and gallium nitride, to industrial scale production.

“The process technology will open up new horizons for nanomaterials, built layer by layer, which means that it could lead to an amazing range of future devices and applications,” Dr Hofmann said.

The Government funding for the Centre is complemented by strong industrial support, worth an additional £13 million, from over 20 partners, including Nokia, Dyson, Plastic Logic, Philips and BaE systems. A further £11M of European Research Council funding will support activities with the Graphene Institute in Manchester, and Lancaster University. [emphasis mine]

Its work will focus on taking graphene from a state of raw potential to a point where it can revolutionise flexible, wearable and transparent electronics. The Centre will target the manufacture of graphene on an industrial scale, and applications in the areas of flexible electronics, energy, connectivity and optoelectronics.

Professor Yang Hao, of Queen Mary, University of London, will lead Centre activities targeting connectivity, so that graphene can be integrated into networked devices, with the ultimate vision of creating an “internet of things”.

Professor Clare Grey, from Cambridge’s Department of Chemistry, will lead the activities targeting the use of graphene in super-capacitors and batteries for energy storage. The research could, ultimately, provide a more effective energy storage for electric vehicles, storage on the grid, as well as boosting the energy storage possibilities of personal devices such as MP3 players and mobile phones.

The announcement of a National Graphene Institute in Manchester was mentioned in my Jan. 14, 2013 posting and both the University of Manchester and the Lancaster University are part of the Graphene Flagship consortium along with the University of Cambridge and Sweden’s Chalmers University, which is the lead institution, and others competing against three other Flagship projects for one of two 1B Euro prizes.

These two announcements (Cambridge Graphene Centre and National Graphene Institute come at an interesting time, the decision as to which two projects will receive 1B Euros for research is being announced Jan. 28, 2013 in Brussels, Belgium. The Jan. 15, 2013 article by Frank Jordans on the R&D website provides a few more details,

Teams of scientists from across the continent [Europe] are vying for a funding bonanza that could see two of them receive up to €1 billion ($1.33 billion) over 10 years to keep Europe at the cutting edge of technology.

The contest began with 26 proposals that were whittled down to six last year. Just four have made it to the final round.

They include a plan to develop digital guardian angels that would keep people safe from harm; a massive data-crunching machine to simulate social, economic and technological change on our planet; an effort to craft the most accurate computer model of the human brain to date; and a team working to find better ways to produce and employ graphene—an ultra-thin material that could revolutionize manufacturing of everything from airplanes to computer chips.

Jordans’ article goes on to further explain the reasoning for this extraordinary contest. All four groups must be highly focused on Monday’s (Jan. 28, 2013) announcement from EU (European Union) officials, after all, two prizes and four competitors means that the odds of winning are 50/50. Good luck!

Making sounds with gestures

It’s kind of haptic; it’s kind of gestural; and it’s all about the sound, Mogees. Here’s the video,

Mogees – Gesture recognition with contact-microphones from bruno zamborlin on Vimeo.

In case what you’ve just seen interests you, here are some more details from the Jan. 5, 2012 article by Nancy Owano for physorg.com,

 The Mogees is a project that stems from the department of computing at Goldsmiths, University of London, where researcher Bruno Zamborlin collaborates with a team at IRCAM [Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique] in Paris to experiment with new methods for “gestural interaction” in coming up with novel ways of making sounds. … The video shows the use of a contact microphone and audio processing software to construct a gesture-recognizing touch interface from assorted surfaces—a tree trunk, a balloon, a glass panel at a bus stage, and an inflated balloon. Also, different gestures control different sounds.

As to how that microphone and audio processing software work, here’s an explanation from Sebastian Anthony’s Jan. 4, 2012 article for ExtremeTech,

First of all, that little silver nugget — which seems to utilize some kind of suction cup — contains multiple microphones to create a stereo image of the sounds it hears. Second, that black cable connects to a PC of some kind; probably a laptop, considering the guy plays music on a tree and a bus shelter. On the PC, the vibrations of your fingers tapping on the surface are analyzed and converted into gestures, and then MaxMSP — a visual programming language for creating music and other multimedia experiences — turns the gestures into sounds.

You can get more information about Bruno Zamborlin at his website and you can find more about Mogees here at Goldsmith’s. I highly recommend reading the two articles mentioned.