Author Archives: curiouscat

Taiwan as Technology Innovator

Taiwan towers as tech innovator by John Boudreau, Mercury News (pointy haired bosses broke the link so I removed it):

Taiwanese companies produce three-quarters of the world’s notebook computers, two-thirds of its personal digital assistants and nearly 70 percent of its liquid crystal display monitors, according to Taiwan government statistics.
…
`Innovation is the key to survival,” said Yen-Shiang Shih, a deputy minister with Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs.

GPS – Science Economy

Many cool products result from scientific and engineering research and development. One class of such products are the global positioning system devices. One example of those devices is the Garmin Nuvi 350 Pocket or Vehicle GPS Navigator Viewer (buy from Amazon) – in photo.

Europe, is exploring putting their own GPS satellite system in orbit to remove their current dependence of the system using United States military satellites. Sat-nav looks to smart ideas:

Analysts believe the value of the Galileo-enhanced business – equipment and services – could be worth well in excess of 10 billion euros a year by 2020, as sat-nav functionality wheedles its way into every corner of modern life.

Some applications are obvious: consumer mobiles which not only allow you to phone ahead and book that pizza restaurant but also show you on-screen how to get there and tell you where the nearest cashpoint is located.

Other applications will stretch the imagination and ingenuity of Europe’s smartest technologists.

Soil Could Shed Light on Antibiotic Resistance

Soil Could Shed Light on Antibiotic Resistance, Science Friday podcast (7 minutes) from NPR. The podcast is an interview with Gerry Wright, McMaster University, Canada.

“New research points to drug resistance in soil-dwelling bacteria. Scientists say studying bacteria in the soil can help in understanding how the bacteria in humans develop resistance.”

Posts relating to antibiotics
Overuse of anitbiotics articles
Curious Cat McMaster University Alumni Connections

Africa Scientific

Africa Scientific by Dr. Mohamed H.A. Hassan, Seed:

in Nigeria, the malaria group at the University of Ibadan is conducting research on a local disease problem, as is the Federal University of Technology-Minna, which has developed a typhoid vaccine for their own population. Makerere University’s Medical Biotechnology Laboratories in Kampala, Uganda, has an extensive molecular biology research and training program; among its most noteworthy efforts are studies of alternative treatments of river blindness, a fly-borne parasitic disease that just a decade ago afflicted one out of every three villagers in parts of Burkina Faso, Ghana, Nigeria and other nations.

I lived in Nigeria for a year, when I was a child, while my father taught chemical engineering as a Fulbright scholar. I still remember visiting factories, that I believe he was consulting for, as we traveled around West Africa. I returned to Africa in the 1990s to revisit Kenya and visit Egypt. See my travel photos from Kenya and a travel photo essay from Egypt.

John Hunter

Children’s view of Scientists in England

Science ‘not for normal people’, BBC News

The Science Learning Centre in London asked 11,000 pupils for their views on science and scientists.

Around 70% of the 11-15 year olds questioned said they did not picture scientists as “normal young and attractive men and women”.

For those, like me, that believe our future will be better with more scientists and engineers some of the findings are less than ideal:

Among those who said they would not like to be scientists, reasons included: “Because you would constantly be depressed and tired and not have time for family”, and “because they all wear big glasses and white coats and I am female”.

Some of the findings were positive:

They found around 80% of pupils thought scientists did “very important work” and 70% thought they worked “creatively and imaginatively”.

A related article from BBC News provides another look at the views of students: Science seen under the right conditions by Dr Daniel Glaser.

Another article on the BBC site talks about one way to encourage more student interest in science, Science ‘must teach experiments’. To interest students in learning about science it is important to have them engaged in physical experiments. We also need to continue to show the connection between science and engineering and the students lives. Providing examples of scientists and engineer that the student relate to (and can see as a friend or a future self) would also help.

The Naval Research Enterprise Intern Program

The Naval Research Enterprise Intern Program (NREIP), provides students the opportunity to participate in research at a Department of Navy (DoN) laboratory during summer breaks. Apply for NREIP online; the application deadline is 17 February 2006.

The goals of the NREIP are to encourage participating students to pursue science and engineering careers, to further education via mentoring by laboratory personnel and their participation in research, and to make them aware of DoN research and technology efforts, which can lead to employment within the DoN.

NREIP provides competitive research internships to approximately 230 college students (175 undergraduate students and 55 graduate students) each year. Participating students typically spend ten weeks during the summer doing research at approximately 12 DoN laboratories. To participate, a student must be enrolled at an eligible college/university (comprising approximately 160 institutions; eligibility is determined by the Office of Naval Research) and have completed at least their sophomore year before beginning the internship.

Microbes

photo of T4 bacteriophage

Photo: T4 bacteriophage, middle, is a virus that invades bacterial cells. Courtesy of the MicrobeLibrary.org

The MicrobeWorld web site includes an introduction to microbes – Microbes: what they are and what they do:

Microbes are single-cell organisms so tiny that millions can fit into the eye of a needle.

They are the oldest form of life on earth. Microbe fossils date back more than 3.5 billion years to a time when the Earth was covered with oceans that regularly reached the boiling point, hundreds of millions of years before dinosaurs roamed the earth.

Microbes types:

Archaea
These bacteria look-alikes are living fossils that are providing clues to the earliest forms of life on Earth.

Bacteria
Often dismissed as “germs” that cause illness, bacteria help us do an amazing array of useful things, like make vitamins, break down some types of garbage, and maintain our atmosphere.

Fungi
From a single-celled yeast to a 3.5-mile-wide mushroom, fungi do everything from helping to bake bread to recycling to decomposing waste.

Protista
Plant-like algae produce much of the oxygen we breathe; animal-like protozoa (including the famous amoeba) help maintain the balance of microbial life.

Viruses
Unable to do much of anything on their own, viruses go into host cells to reproduce, often wreaking havoc and causing disease. Their ability to move genetic information from one cell to another makes them useful for cloning DNA and could provide a way to deliver gene therapy.

Benjamin Franklin 300

Benjamin Franklin portrait

Benjamin Franklin was born 300 years ago today. In his life he took on many rolls: scientist, politician, businessman, publisher, author and diplomat. He was one of only two to sign both the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution.

Scientist, Diplomat And Wit: Franklin’s Birth Merits a Toast by Hillel Italie, Washington Post:

Herschbach, a Harvard University professor who has lectured frequently on Franklin, says: “Franklin’s scientific curiosity extended far beyond his adventures with electricity. He made important discoveries and observations concerning the motion of storms, heat conduction, the path of the Gulf Stream, bioluminescence, the spreading of oil films, and also advanced prescient ideas about conservation of matter and the wave nature of light.”

A look at what made Franklin tick by Polly Ross Hughes, Houston Chronicle:

Franklin actually benefited from having so little formal schooling. He had to educate himself. For precisely this reason, he didn’t know what he didn’t have to know, so he assumed he needed to know everything. He was incessantly curious. He simply wanted to know how the world works. He was formulating questions in his own mind about natural phenomena like lightning, like waves in the ocean or the Gulf Stream. I don’t know if most people know that Franklin was responsible for the lightning rod. Franklin’s bifocals have made life a lot easier for all sorts of people of middle age and older.

Benjamin Franklin and Lightning Rods by E. Philip Krider, Physics Today:

Franklin Institute in Philadelphia.

Benjamin Franklin was truly an amazing individual.

Gordon Engineering Education Prize

Jens E. Jorgensen, John S. Lamancusa, Lueny Morell, Allen L. Soyster, and JosÃ© Zayas-Castro will receive the Bernard M. Gordon Prize “for creating the Learning Factory, where multidisciplinary student teams develop engineering leadership skills by working with industry to solve real-world problems.” The Gordon Prize is an annual award from the National Academy of Engineering that recognizes innovation in engineering and technology education: the award includes a $500,000 payment.

The Gordon Prize was established in 2001 as a prize recognizing new modalities and experiments in education that develop effective engineering leaders. Recognizing the potential to spur a revolution in engineering education.

The Learning Factory was developed to produce engineering graduates who could easily translate engineering theory into practice and manage projects independently. In this innovative undergraduate program, students tackle real problems from industry, such as designing a collapsible crutch, turning coal ash into a pavement, and making the mechanism that adjusts the position of car seatbacks safer. Multidisciplinary teams of students define and characterize the problem, build a solution prototype, write a business proposal, and make presentations about their idea. “Learning Factory students see firsthand the importance of teamwork, effective communication, and engineering ethics,” says NAE President Wm. A. Wulf. “Mastering such qualities is essential for engineers to become leaders in a dynamic workplace.”

The Learning Factory originated from a coalition between three universities, Sandia National Laboratories, and 36 industrial partners that shared a desire to give students firsthand experience in design, manufacturing, and business. A 1994 National Science Foundation/Advanced Research Projects Agency grant funded the creation of the Learning Factory as a Manufacturing Engineering Education Partnership (MEEP).

Within three years, the university partners — Pennsylvania State University, the University of Puerto Rico-MayagÃ¼ez (UPRM), and the University of Washington (UW) — successfully integrated the Learning Factory into their institutions and curricula. Since then, Learning Factory concepts and course materials have spread to other departments within these institutions, and to other universities in the U.S. and Latin America. More than 10,000 students have created over 1,200 Learning Factory design projects involving more than 200 industry partners.

Contraption Engineering Fair

Photo from Contraption Engineering Fair

Contraption Invention Fair is lots of fun by Shirley Briggs, Special to the Arizona Daily Star

The 51st Southern Arizona Regional Science and Engineering Fair will be held March 20-25 at the Tucson Convention Center. The 300th anniversary of Benjamin Franklin’s birth will be celebrated.

Once again, SARSEF has been approved to take up to six high school projects to the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. Grants and awards (worth more than $15,000) are being awarded to this year’s high school and middle school participants.

Science and Engineering Fair Directory