Blogs - JMS Network

Mildred Dresselhaus on Carbon Nanotubes

Here is a link to a presentation Mildred Dresselhaus gave in November 2008. Runs as a Flash presentation. Continue

Added by Scott Epstein on January 12, 2010 at 5:51pm — No Comments

Happy Holidays

Happy holidays and Happy New Year to everyone out there. Continue

Added by Scott Epstein on December 23, 2009 at 9:55am — No Comments

Avatar--"Unobtanium" As a Material

If anyone has seen Avatar yet—or even the trailer—one of the McGuffins is a material called "unobtanium." (Which looked like a chunk of mica to me...:)) It is a material that is apparently cheaper to transport several light years rather than synthesize. Anyone care to speculate on what sort of material that could be? (We would have to assume that it is a compound, not some sort of new element, since a new heavy element would probably be unstable and radioactive, and we aren't told that t… Continue

Added by Scott Epstein on December 21, 2009 at 9:59am — No Comments

Red Dwarf, High-Pressure Water World

A little off-topic, but still really cool. Nature is reporting that researchers have found an exoplanet around a red dwarf that they believe is covered with water and ice VII. These results were reported by the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. The planet is the smallest and most Earth-like exoplanet found so far. It's larger than Earth, with high atmospheric pressure greater than 16 Bar, meaning that even though the surface temperature is about 200C, liquid water would exist at the… Continue

Added by Scott Epstein on December 17, 2009 at 9:58am — No Comments

VirginGalactic

So, here's the thing—from the materials science POV, anyway—about SpaceShipTwo. Which is that this kind of tourist plane-launched suborbital craft is only possible with—advanced composite materials... Continue

Added by Scott Epstein on December 8, 2009 at 10:29am — No Comments

Winding Down

1 hour left in the exhibition... Been a busy three days! Continue

Added by Scott Epstein on December 3, 2009 at 12:38pm — No Comments

MRS Fall 2009: Thursday morning

Well, Networkers, I'm annoyed with myself. I had been looking forward to Robert Hamers' talk this morning in Symposium SS on his (photochemical) grafting work (he's got his materials going on just about everything, including diamond). Clearly, I'm wearing out a bit as the week comes to a close. Either that, or too much sake last night at Koreana. One word I've been hearing more and more lately is "nanodiamond". (Is this the leading edge of the next trend, or have I been living in a cave outside… Continue

Added by Christopher Blanford on December 3, 2009 at 12:01pm — No Comments

Busy Reception

Wine and cheese (and jazz band!) reception in the exhibit hall right now. Quite busy. Lots of interesting conversations going on all around us. Quite a party! Congratulations to the MRS for a successful event! Continue

Added by Scott Epstein on December 2, 2009 at 6:00pm — No Comments

MRS meetings: shorter and sweeter?

So today, we're purportedly just over halfway through the MRS meeting, but there's been the predictable drop in attendees. There's always a peak on Monday (and it's still very well attended on Tuesday), but by Wednesday a lot of folks have apparently gone home or are doing other things. The quality of the speakers in still high and there are still important and entertaining invited speakers, but there are fewer people listening. By tomorrow, the packed rooms I commented on earlier will have an e… Continue

Added by Christopher Blanford on December 2, 2009 at 3:56pm — No Comments

MRS Fall 2009: Wednesday afternoon

Afternoon. The next talk features a former co-worker from Andreas Stein's group on the author list. I'm only having a look at a couple before I head to do other work here. Y7.1 "Designing Electrocatalytic Nanarchitechtures in 3D" Debra Rolison (US NRL) Here they're using aerogels for their interconnected 3D architectures. These have huge surface-volume ratios (slilca aerogels are ~10⁶ cm^–… Continue

Added by Christopher Blanford on December 2, 2009 at 2:17pm — No Comments

MRS Fall 2009: Wednesday morning

I've been to a half-dozen talks this morning in SS & Y (in the single letters!), but I wanted to focus on my favourite. SS6.1 "Bioinspired immobilization chemistries for surface modification & biointerfacial control" Phillip Messersmith (Northwestern) I've been following the work from the group of Northwestern's Phillip Messersmith since they published information about their "geckle" adhesive… Continue

Added by Christopher Blanford on December 2, 2009 at 11:43am — No Comments

Day 2

Very busy day today in the exhibit hall. Lots going on. Lots of interesting people coming by the booth. Lots of questions about the new edition of Transmission Electron Microscopy. Some questions about journals from other publishers. Always good to be able to help point people in the right direction. Also found the Safe Cracking contest going on at the Nature booth to be quite interesting--drew quite a crowd this morning, too. Continue

Added by Scott Epstein on December 1, 2009 at 7:57pm — No Comments

MRS Fall 2009: Tuesday morning, part 2

I'm back in Symposium UU (Molecular biomimetics and materials design) for the rest of the morning, then off to the Exhibition in the afternoon. One of my top wishes for these packed sessions is that people around me wouldn't have extended (and often loud) conversations. Then again, they probably are annoyed with me typing continually during the talks. I'm particularly interested in the next talk, from Prof. Carole Perry. I had a lab nex… Continue

Added by Christopher Blanford on December 1, 2009 at 11:59am — No Comments

MRS Fall 2009: Tuesday morning, part 1

UU1.1 "Crystallization of complex molecules on SAMs: Toward the general mechanism of oriented nucleation on organic monolayers" Joanna Aizenberg (Harvard) Now, this could be very interesting for me and my group. I joined session UU (still in the double letter world) this morning was because I was curious whether their results could apply to my crystallisation work and protein-on-surface work. She and her group want to c… Continue

Added by Christopher Blanford on December 1, 2009 at 9:42am — No Comments

MRS Fall 2009: Monday evening, the growth of materials, and a keynote that was anything but flat

Well, as I sit in the Sheraton Grand Ballroom this Monday evening, I'm not a bit surprised to learn that this is the biggest MRS meeting ever. The rooms are packed. I'm a big fan of the MRS -- I find the meetings so useful that I attend even when I'm not presenting anything, like this year. What I hope to learn this evening at the student mixer is how I can start up (restart? invigorate?) a student chapter in Oxford. Materials in the USA is thriving. I was shocked when I first saw materials dep… Continue

Added by Christopher Blanford on November 30, 2009 at 9:58pm — No Comments

We're Ready!

Finally, the booth is finished and ready to open tomorrow! Anyone reading this--and this is not going to be widely known--ask about the gingerbread cookies! (You can also get a free DVD copy of GAITHER'S DICTIONARY OF SCIENTIFIC QUOTATIONS, too.) Continue

Added by Scott Epstein on November 30, 2009 at 6:52pm — No Comments

MRS Fall 2009: Monday afternoon, part 2

Back in the Room 303* for Symposium AA til the end... I'm still surprised there aren't more people here. I think the potential of this work is enormous, and I expected more than the two dozen in the audience. AA2.5 "Recyclable biocatalysts: enzyme immobilisation on magnetic nanoparticles cellulose hydrolysis" Patrick A. Johnson (Univ. Wyoming) As the speaker notes, he's in an interesting position, working on bioethanol in the Chemical and Petroleum Engineering part of the university.,,… Continue

Added by Christopher Blanford on November 30, 2009 at 4:28pm — No Comments

MRS Fall 2009: Monday afternoon, part 1

SS2.1 "Biosurface science" George Whitesides (Harvard) His title changed slightly... Specifically looking at quantitation in biology through three examples: mammalian cells, worms, and "cells in gels". Taking from his earlier work on SAMs patterned by microcontact printing. Real cells look very different from dead cells on surfaces: how do cells sense things and move on surfaces? Why do they take on their stretched form? With mini arrays, an electrochemical pulse releases a stimulant,… Continue

Added by Christopher Blanford on November 30, 2009 at 2:55pm — No Comments

MRS Fall 2009: Lunch

So, every lunch break near they Hynes, we're faced with a question: where to eat. I usually avoid the crowded Pru. What's everyone's favourite? For me, it's Daisy Buchanan's on the corner of Newbury and Fairfield. I haven't been there this year, but I'm a fan of their meatball sub. Plus, I won't say no to a cold beer... I've also been told that the Thai place near the Apple store is supposed to be good. Any suggestions? Continue

Added by Christopher Blanford on November 30, 2009 at 2:39pm — 2 Comments

Keeping it interesting, and keeping to time

So, expanding from my earlier comment on keeping talks sharp and to time, one of my colleagues suggested we need to think of these economically. If you have a room full of productive researchers and group leaders, they essentially giving you the cost of their time plus, at conferences, a share in the cost of travel, accommodation, registration, etc. So, say you've got a room of 30 people listening to your 15 minute talk, and their time costs, on average $30/hour. Your talk had better be worth o… Continue

Added by Christopher Blanford on November 30, 2009 at 1:32pm — No Comments

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