by Howard Fairbrother These days we are all familiar with the concept of recycling, which for most of us involves the weekly ritual of placing waste materials such as bottles, cans, and cardboard into oversized, …
Blogs
Celebrating National Nanotechnology Day and Indigenous Peoples Day
by Miriam Krause When I was a kid, I remember learning that “in 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue,” and that one Monday in October there was this holiday called Columbus Day that nobody seemed …
Have You Ever Heard a Lemon Sing? Music and Chemistry
by Alicia McGeachy edited by Merve Doğangün Have you ever used a poem or song to help yourself remember a complicated concept or a list that you were sure to forget? (Figure 1) As I …
Using Nanoparticles in Glazes
by Nikita Rozanov edited by Joe Buchman Did you know that when you walk through an art museum, there is a good chance that you will come across nanoparticles? Long before nanoparticles began finding applications …
Electrocuting a Pickle: Demonstrating Major Concepts in Science
by Cathy Murphy Have you ever made lightning in a pickle? I have. It involves putting two iron nails in a pickle and applying 110 volts of electricity. It’s pretty smelly, but it is worth …
Solar Eclipse 2017 – A Multi-Sensory Experience
by Caley Allen As many of you may have witnessed, on August 21st there was a total solar eclipse (where the view of the sun was entirely blocked by the moon) across much of the …
De-Jargonification of Scientific Explications (AKA How to Say Stuff More Simply)
by Miriam Krause Scientific writing is notoriously full of jargon. Jargon includes technical terms that are specific to a certain discipline, or sometimes it can be everyday words that mean something different in science than …
Royal Rife’s Universal Microscope (and Why It Can’t Exist)
by Natalie Hudson-Smith edited by Merve Doğangün In the 1930s, microscope designer Royal Rife made a splash with reports that he had designed a new microscope that could view nanoscale objects such as viruses!1 The …
Graphene Oxide: A new tool in the war against bacteria
by Laura Olenickedited by Joe Buchman Animals evolve strong defenses against predators. Predators evolve to better kill and catch their prey. Plants evolve defenses against insects. Insects evolve defenses against plants. We evolve defenses against …
Mental Health and the Diversity of Minds
by Izzy Foreman-Ortiz Did you know that over a third of graduate students experience mental health concerns?1 Graduate school and Master’s or PhD level careers in any field may naturally attract perfectionists; specifically, the strenuous …