Richard P. Feynman an astounding theoretical physicist and professor
∆ Quantum mechanics & particle physics
∆ Quantum electrodynamics (QED) for which he shared a Nobel Prize
∆ Superfluidity of liquid helium
The diagram above is of a vector boson fusion producing a Higgs boson. Feynman developed this method of representing particle interactions which have been important to the understanding of work in particle accelerators such as the Large Hadron Collider.
The following is a wonderful video of Feynman talking about light
The first picture of a black hole opens a new era of astrophysics
This is what a black hole looks like.
A world-spanning network of telescopes called the Event Horizon Telescope zoomed in on the supermassive monster in the galaxy M87 to create this first-ever picture of a black hole.
“We have seen what we thought was unseeable. We have seen and taken a picture of a black hole,” Sheperd Doeleman, EHT Director and astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass., said April 10 in Washington, D.C., at one of seven concurrent news conferences. The results were also published in six papers in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
“We’ve been studying black holes so long, sometimes it’s easy to forget that none of us have actually seen one,” France Cordova, director of the National Science Foundation, said in the Washington, D.C., news conference. Seeing one “is a Herculean task,” she said.
That’s because black holes are notoriously hard to see. Their gravity is so extreme that nothing, not even light, can escape across the boundary at a black hole’s edge, known as the event horizon. But some black holes, especially supermassive ones dwelling in galaxies’ centers, stand out by voraciously accreting bright disks of gas and other material. The EHT image reveals the shadow of M87’s black hole on its accretion disk. Appearing as a fuzzy, asymmetrical ring, it unveils for the first time a dark abyss of one of the universe’s most mysterious objects.
“It’s been such a buildup,” Doeleman said. “It was just astonishment and wonder… to know that you’ve uncovered a part of the universe that was off limits to us.”
Today’s FYFD video tells a story I’ve wanted to share for a couple of years now. It’s about the life and work of Agnes Pockels, a woman born in the mid-nineteenth century who, despite a lack of formal scientific training, made major contributions to the understanding of surface tension and to the experimental apparatuses and methodologies used in surface chemistry in general. She accomplished all of this not in a scientific lab, but from her kitchen.
Pockels’ story is one of curiosity, determination, and meticulous scientific inquiry. Chances are that you’ve never heard of her, but you really should. Check out the full video below to learn more! (Image and video credit: N. Sharp)
It’s #InternationalWomensDay – here’s a set of cards featuring 100 incredible #WomenInChemistry View the full set here: bit.ly/WomenInChem2021 #IWD #IWD2021 https://ift.tt/3cfptk2
The Future of Materials summit in Luxembourg took place on 13th-14th November 2017 and examined how 3D printing, robotics, more customisation and high-performance computing will shape the future of manufacturing. But nothing will impact how things are made, and what they are capable of, more than the materials manufacturers use.
Advancements in material science are at a turning point. From programmable matter to smart polymers and self-healing concrete, the application of new materials could unlock new avenues for traditional industries to take off and possibly solve some of the greatest challenges facing our planet. But human beings are still inefficient at turning raw materials into useful ones, and useful ones in products. The road from discovery to production is long and strewn with pitfalls.
You can watch highlight videos from the summit below:
Hopping on the #girlswithtoys party this morning while doing some mechanical tests. This toy is huge, noisy, and has some powerful hydraulic components.
On this day in 1834, Michael Faraday wrote about his continued failure to isolate fluorine.
(Hey, you win some, you lose some).
The element had been identified in minerals, but as fluorine is extremely reactive and forms compounds with most other elements, it had never been isolated before.
This is what happens when fluorine gas hits coal…
Faraday experienced the problem of fluorine’s reactivity 184 years ago today, when he tried using electrolysis to disassociate fluorine from a lead fluorine compound.
Humphry Davy had previously attempted to isolate fluorine using electrolysis (which had led him to successfully isolate sodium and potassium). But Davy worked with hydrofluoric acid, which is corrosive and damaged his eyes.
Davy recovered, but many other experimenters with the dream of being the first to isolate fluorine, ended up poisoning themselves, and became known as the ‘fluorine martyrs’.
After 74 years and many chemists’ trial and error, elemental fluorine was eventually isolated via electrolysis by Henri Moissan in 1886, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1906.
Sir Tim Hunt resigns from UCL over women in science comment
One female scientist took to twitter to share her #distractinglysexy pose
The Nobel laureate faced a backlash of criticism following his comments at a recent World Conference of Science Journalists in Seoul, South Korea, he said, ‘Three things happen when they are in the lab – you fall in love with them, they fall in love with you, and when you criticise them they cry.’
UCL confirmed that Hunt had resigned on Wednesday from his position as honorary professor with the UCL Faculty of Life Sciences, following his comment.
Hunt has since apologised for any offence, saying he meant the remarks to be humorous – but added that he ‘did mean the part about having trouble with girls’.
Following Hunt’s comments, female scientist have hit back with a Twitter campaign mocking his sexist comments. The hashtag #DistractinglySexy is being used by women working in the fields of science to show exactly what their jobs entail and posting pictures to show just how “distracting” they are while doing it.
Have any of you had a #distractinglysexy moment in the lab? Tweet us @materialsworld
To find out more on materials science, packaging and engineering news, visit our website IOM3 or follow us on Twitter @MaterialsWorld for regular news updates.
MeetHeidy Cruz, polymer chemist and chemical engineer
1) What do you do?
I develop polymer-based materials tailored for nutrient recovery from domestic wastewater. Climate change, energy issues, limits in resource availability, and end of life of current infrastructures are driving a shift in societal production systems from linear to circular economy. Recovery of nutrients from used water has gained significant interest in the academic world, the water industry, and policy makers.
The goal of my research is to develop new technology for a more sustainable nitrogen recovery process from domestic wastewater– cutting back greenhouse gas emissions and providing a platform for a circular economy in the field of wastewater treatment.
2) Where do you work?
I’m in the 2nd year of my PhD at The University of Queensland in Australia. I work in two centers:
Center for Solid Waste Bioprocessing, Civil Engineering
Polymer Translational Research Group, Chemical Engineering
3) Tell us about the photos!
[Top:] At work at our laboratory at the Center for Solid Waste Bioprocessing
[Bottom:] By the lake inside campus– I always come here to relax my mind when research gets tough
4) Tell us about your academic career path so far.
HS: Statefields School Inc, Philippines (2007)
BS: University of Santo Tomas, Philippines (2012)
MS: Kongju University, South Korea (2016)
PhD: The University of Queensland, Australia (ongoing)
I’ve always wanted to pursue a research degree in another country to test my capabilities and expand my horizon. Luckily, I received a full scholarship from Kongju National University in South Korea where I did my Masters of Science in Advanced Materials Engineering. In July 2016, six months after graduation, I started my PhD. God-willing, I’ll be a doctor before I turn 30!
5) Anything else you’d like to share?
There are only a handful of us in the global arena, or at least here in Australia, but I believe that Filipino scientists are truly talented and globally competitive. I hope more Filipinos will be encouraged to pursue research and contribute the knowledge to the advancement of science and technology in the Philippines.
There is a common perception that scientists are still sitting in ivory towers– but times have changed. It’s a career that needs the same perseverance and collaboration as any other profession. The only difference is that scientists need to maintain a healthy dose of idealism that we can really change the world one data point at a time.
Henry Bessemer (1813-1893) was a prolific inventor and talented businessman. His most significant contribution to engineering was a new low-cost process for making steel. Before Bessemer’s process, cast and wrought iron were the predominant construction materials, as although steel was superior, it was too expensive.
Through his invention, Bessemer kicked off the proliferation of steel across the globe from Sheffield, UK.
Bessemer discovered that by blowing cold compressed air into molten pig iron, carbon and other impurities burned off. Central to the process is a large vat, now known as a Bessemer converter. Previously, steel was made by re-processing wrought iron. Bessemer took out a patent on the invention in 1856.
The facts
- Bessemer made his first fortune through the development of a copper powder, which could be added to paint to give it a gold-coloured sheen. He kept the manufacturing process for the powder a closely guarded secret, giving his own business a monopoly.
- One of his earlier inventions was an anti-forgery stamp developed for the Royal Mail.
- Bessemer invented a new type of spinning projectile for cannons, but the iron barrels were not strong enough to fire them. Searching for a stronger material to make the barrels was the impetus behind the discovery of his process.
- It took many years to perfect the Bessemer process. One stumbling block was that only iron that did not contain phosphorous could be used. It was Sidney Gilchrist Thomas who solved this problem around 1878, by developing a new refractory lining.
- Bessemer had more than 100 patents at the time of his death in 1898.
- A former steelmaking town in Jacksonville, Alabama, is named after Bessemer. With iron ore, coal and limestone all mined nearby, it was a prime site for making steel in the early 20th century.
The quote
‘I had an immense advantage over many others dealing with the problem inasmuch as I had no fixed ideas derived from long-established practice to control and bias my mind, and did not suffer from the general belief that whatever is, is right.’
A new alien planet-hunting tool has found no trace of a brown dwarf more than 100 light-years from Earth, despite evidence that the misfit failed star is eclipsing its partner, a team of puzzled astronomers says. European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) new SPHERE (Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet Research) on the Very Large Telescope didn’t find a sign of a brown dwarf — sometimes called a “failed star” — near the double star V471 Tauri, despite the fact that scientists were pretty sure they would find one. The scientists used the ESO observations to create a video zoom-in on the strange star system.
Tu Youyou is a Chinese medical scientist, pharmaceutical chemist, pharmacist, and educator. She is best known for discovering artemisinin (also known as qinghaosu) and dihydroartemisinin, both used to treat malaria. Her discovery saved millions of lives.
Her discovery of artemisinin and its treatment of malaria is regarded as a significant breakthrough of tropical medicine in the 20th century and health improvement for people of tropical developing countries in South Asia, Africa, and South America.
For her work, Tu received the 2011 Lasker Award in clinical medicine and the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with William C. Campbell and Satoshi Ōmura. Tu is the first Chinese Nobel laureate in physiology or medicine and the first citizen of the People’s Republic of China to receive the Nobel Prize in natural sciences, as well as the first Chinese person to receive the Lasker Award. She was born and educated and carried out research exclusively in China.
Text for today’s post was taken from Wikipedia.Please consider donating a few minutes to make a submission to Celebrate Women before the year is over.
Nina Tandon, CEO and cofounder of EpiBone, is revolutionizing medicine. Her company is the first in the world to use a patient’s stem cells to grow human bone that can then be used to repair bone defects like bone loss.
Ideally, these bones can be grown to the exact shape and size needed and are easily implanted into the body because they are made from the patient’s own cells. Tandon was named a TED senior fellow last year and she’s also one of Business Insider’s “40 under 40: People to watch in 2015.”
Text for today’s post was taken from the Business Insider piece “The 15 Most Amazing Women In Science Today”. Read even more about Nina and her company in the publication’s November 2014 profile here.
When archaeologist Katie Hunt was diagnosed with ovarian cancer at 22, it catalyzed a deeper curiosity about cancer as an ancient disease. Delving into ancient texts and analyzing ancient human remains, Hunt discovered cancer’s presence in antiquity — recorded as early as 1,500 BCE, and in skeletal remains from as early as 6,000 BCE — but no tools existed for rigorous scientific analysis.
So, with three other women in science, Casey Kirkpatrick, Jennifer Willoughby and Roselyn Campbell, Hunt launched the Paleo-Oncological Research Organization — a network of archaeologists, oncologists and cancer researchers working to develop scientific research standards and techniques — and an open source database of physical evidence of cancer from many eras and regions.
This growing field of paleo-oncology will raise interesting questions about how biology, culture and environment affect development of the disease, helping us better understand its prevention and treatment.
“Biological anthropology — a physical science in a gentle embrace with social science—happens to be a field predominantly led by women, so I have the fortune of working with brilliant woman scientists every day,” says Hunt. “While sexism still exists in our lives, I’m privileged to witness a world in which women in science is commonplace and celebrated… And science is stronger for it!”
“In DaVinci’s time when expertise in art and science had not yet matured to the polarized state in which they exist today, they coexisted naturally. Of course, science’s level of sophistication back then was quite different. But from where I sit as the president of the Rhode Island School of Design, it is clear to me that even current practices in scientific research have much to gain by involving artists in the process early and often.”
