Author Archives: curiouscat

Engineers in the Workplace

Vivek Wadhwa again addresses the question: Engineering Gap? Fact and Fiction. This is a question that deserves a continued look – I still believe we do need more focus on educating more engineers:

Additionally, the positive macro-economic effects of a strong scientific, engineering and technology community to an economy are not necessarily directly correlated to high salaries for those workers. That is one positive factor, but even if those salaries were not high the other benefits of innovation, manufacturing leadership, invention, etc. would still benefit the economy. So a country that is investing in the future could sensible target investments in science and engineering education even without increasing salaries pointing out that the supply and demand in the market was indicating a shortage of those workers.

From Vivek Wadhwa’s most recent article:
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Semiconductor Paint

Paint-on semiconductor outperforms chips

Researchers at the University of Toronto have created a semiconductor device that outperforms today’s conventional chips — and they made it simply by painting a liquid onto a piece of glass.

The finding, which represents the first time a so-called “wet” semiconductor device has bested traditional, more costly grown-crystal semiconductor devices, is reported in the July 13 issue of the journal Nature.

Like so much advance research funding by government, in this case the Canadian government, is crucial:
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CERN Tour webcast

Tour the underground accelerator at CERN – webcast led by the scientists who work there.

Featuring interviews with physicists Brian Cox (University of Manchester), Jon Butterworth (University College London) and Albert de Roeck (Antwerp University), Lords of the Ring explains why so many scientists are pinning their hopes on this experiment’s potential to answer some of the biggest questions in science.

More science and engineering webcast posts.

Lucrative college degrees

Lucrative college degrees, CNN article on NACE’s latest quarterly salary survey of recent college graduates.

Once again Engineering is very well represented with average starting salaries for:

Chemical engineering: $56,335
Computer engineering: $53,651
Electrical engineering: $53,552
Mechanical engineering: $51,732

The article lists no other degrees with an average above $50,000. Engineering education continues to pay off well.

Food Health Policy Blog

Rudd Sound Bites is a new blog (May 2006) on obesity research from the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity.

This is a great example of pursuing a role to educate the public and create a public discussion of important issues. From what I see so far I think this will be a great way to do what they entend: “encourage global discussion of front burner news and the most critical issues regarding food policy and obesity.”

This is just the begining. They have not achieved much yet, that I can see. But they are on a path that will get them what they seek, I believe.

Good job.

Bacteria Living in Glacier

photo of sulfur stained snow in the Artic

Arctic Expedition lead by the Arctic Institute of North America to explore bacteria living in an artic glacier. The photo shows sulfur site with living bacteria.

More information on the study:

Grasby also sent some of the water and mineral samples to specialized laboratories to investigate whether bacteria or other microbes may have been involved in the precipitation of native sulfur and vaterite. Cell counts and DNA analyses confirm that cold-loving bacteria are present in the spring system. It appears that complex communities of bacteria live within the ice system, and that microbially mediated sulfate reduction is probably widespread.

NASA took interest in this evidence of life in extreme conditions.

Following publication of a first article describing the new discovery, astrophysicists and planetary scientists associated with NASA expressed the views that this unique example of life in an extreme ecosystem (bacteria living within or beneath a glacier and performing mineral transformation on Ellesmere Island is an extreme ecosystem) may actually be a perfect analogue to what life may look like on another planetary body of our Solar System – Europa – a moon of Jupiter.

China Builds a Better Internet

China Builds a Better Internet (site broke the link so I removed it)

China is looking to become a scientific leader, with projects like China’s Next Generation Internet, to strengthen their economy by creating

its own scientific and technological breakthroughs—using a new and improved version of today’s dominant innovation platform, the Internet. “CNGI is the culmination of this revolutionary plan” to turn China into the world’s innovation capital, says Wu Hequan, vice president of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.
…
The United States’ reluctance to invest in IPv6 makes it more likely that China will be in a position to gain the first-mover advantage it seeks. A draft version of a January 2006 report by the Department of Commerce on IPv6 contained a section on competitiveness that highlighted several threats to U.S. Internet leadership, including a further shift of high-tech R&D and product innovation eastward and less available investment capital because of the higher costs of maintaining IPv4 networks. What remains to be seen is whether China can develop the services that take advantage of the next-generation Internet. But China’s researchers are already working on it. At the IPv6 Global Summit in April, China’s major telecommunications and Internet companies got up on stage one by one and told the audience that they have research facilities dedicated to developing these services.

IPv6 is coming, in fact it is already here, though in a limited way. The work started in 1994 when the IPv6 working group was established and proposed standard adopted by the Internet Engineering Steering Group.

IEEE-USA chief calls for IPv6 adoption:

Adoption of a next-generation Internet Protocol by China, Japan and South Korea and other Asian countries should raised questions about U.S. innovation policy, the president of IEEE-USA told an IPv6 conference here Friday

Bacteria Sprout Conducting Nanowires

photo of Bacteria with Conducting Nanowires

Bacteria made to sprout conducting nanowires by Mason Inman

Bacteria that use sugars and sewage as fuel are being investigated as a pollution-free source of electricity. They feed by plucking electrons from atoms in their fuel and dumping them onto the oxygen or metal atoms in the mixture. The transfer of the electrons creates a current, and connecting the bacteria to an electrode in a microbial fuel cell will generate electricity, although not necessarily very efficiently.

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Genetically Engineered Machines Competition

Princeton Center for Innovation in Engineering Education post on Genetic Machines Competition.

Find up to date information on the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition:

We believe in the possibility of engineered biological systems, but the only way to test such an engineering hypothesis is to try it practically. The iGEM competition facilitates this by asking students to design and build genetic machines. This generates practical data on the feasibility of engineering biology, and also on best practices. It also provides a powerful educational experience for the students working to overcome the many technical challenges.

This seems like an effort that is properly focused and is applying sensible management and technology to achieve the goals. A very nice things to find.

Previous post on 2005 intercollegiate Genetically Engineered Machine competition – looking at Davidson College students, where I graduated – John. While Dad graduated from Princeton 🙂

Teams lay BioBrick foundation for genetic engineering article from MIT.