Feb 21

I enjoyed the first volume of this. Proceeds to the Society of Women Engineers.

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I enjoyed the first volume of this. Proceeds to the Society of Women Engineers.

Originally shared by Mary Fan

BRAVE NEW GIRLS Cover Reveal and Story Line-Up!!

Today, I’m revealing the cover and story line-up for

BRAVE NEW GIRLS: STORIES OF GIRLS WHO SCIENCE AND SCHEME, coming August 2017!

This YA sci-fi anthology (edited by sci-fi authors Paige Daniels and Mary Fan) features

stories about girls in STEM (Science, …

Feb 21

Dangling modifiers always lose writers points with me when I’m reviewing, because they imply that the writers are…

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Dangling modifiers always lose writers points with me when I’m reviewing, because they imply that the writers are not thinking through their sentences.

I hit one the other day along these lines: “As the only young lady on board, the captain had been very solicitous of her comfort.”

Originally shared by Laura Gibbs

When they are funny, they really ARE funny:

Oozing slowly across the dish, Kevin watched the egg yolk.

[don’t you want yolk to be a verb? ha ha]

Gasping for his last breath, the professor killed the cockroach.

Grooming each other, my professor and I saw the kittens.

http://www.chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca/2017/02/20/how-dangerous-are-danglers/
Feb 20

It’s really nice to be able to share good news for once.

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Originally shared by Yonatan Zunger

It’s really nice to be able to share good news for once. A new study in JAMA Pediatrics studied the effect of same-sex marriage laws on teen suicide rates. They looked at 32 different US states which changed their laws at different times, as a way of disentangling this effect from other effects.

The net result? Legalizing same-sex marriage leads to a 7% overall drop in teen suicide attempts, and a 14% drop among LGBT teens.

It turns out that being publicly told that you’re an accepted member of society and not a pariah does make a difference in people’s lives, especially teenagers. Who woulda thunk?

But the upshot of this is: All of you who worked on this, in one way or another? You just saved some lives. Well done.

The article itself is available online: http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2604258

(NB: For clarity, that’s a 7% drop in the rate, not a seven percentage point drop drop. We should be so lucky as to have any one thing eliminate seven percentage points. As a baseline, a weighted 8.6% of all high school students, and 28.5% of LGBT high school students, attempted suicide in the year before same-sex marriage legalization. Suicide is the second most common cause of death among people aged 15-24 in the US.

For those who want technical notes: The paper seems to have done a very careful job on statistics, testing a wide variety of alternate hypotheses and ruling them out from the data. One test worth calling out: the two-year leading indicator (suicide rates two years prior to law changes) was not correlated to suicide rates, indicating that this was not triggered by general changes in the state which were also leading to this; the two-year trailing indicator (two years after), however, was correlated, with the same correlation as the immediate future, indicating a lasting effect rather than a one-off.)

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/20/drop-in-teenage-suicide-attempts-linked-to-legalisation-of-same-sex-marriage?CMP=twt_gu
Feb 20

Via Ronda Reed. A good set of self-reflective exercises and cognitive techniques to fight bias.

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Via Ronda Reed. A good set of self-reflective exercises and cognitive techniques to fight bias.

Originally shared by Rick Wayne (Author)

“Education does little to prevent polarised thinking…” Same for facts.

People think vigorous “resistance” is effective. Not true. It only tends to further polarize and entrench. All creatures defend themselves when attacked. The more violent the attack, the more vigorous the defense, which means vigorous “resistance” will actually have the opposite effect of what it intends.

(But then, people don’t do it because it’s right. They do it because it feels good.)

Rather than shaking our fists at faraway things, or agitating to change the whole kaboodle, we should be motivating for change in our own spheres of influence — starting with ourselves.

This article is hardly an exhaustive resource — in fact, it’s very brief, which is why I think it’s handy. No one wants tl;dr. And the value isn’t so much the summary as the links under each section, which can lead you (or whoever you share it with) to reflect more. The last, in particular, on practical tips for overcoming confirmation bias, is worth considering.

But it’s not enough to share. We need to engage others and to listen, which means starting from the standpoint that we could be wrong. I used this approach in a discussion with my folks yesterday, where I focused more on myself than them, and in so doing discovered an incongruity in my thinking.

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20170210-how-to-avoid-falling-for-lies-and-fake-news?ocid=global_future_rss
Feb 19

Cosplay: a nerd woman thing from the start.

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Cosplay: a nerd woman thing from the start.

Originally shared by Self-Rescuing Princess Society

“For more than 10 years Morojo and Ackerman were an inseparable, intellectually compatible dream duo, and 1939 was an especially big year for the pair: they started their first major zine together, jointly financed the publication of teenage Ray Bradbury’s first sci-fi zine, and attended the first-ever World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) wearing ‘futuristicostumes’ straight out of the 1936 H.G. Wells movie Things to Come — the FIRST FAN COSTUMES EVER WORN IN RECORDED HISTORY.

“Handsome Forrie cut a dashing figure in his giant shoulder pads and breeches, tiny Morojo’s ball gown converted into a ROMPER with a CAPE, and every other attendee who wasn’t busy hatin’ on ‘em for out-fanning the rest of the world started planning their own costumes for next year.”

I had no idea!

http://buff.ly/2m9ivS9
Feb 19

SciTech Digest – 08/2017.

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SciTech Digest – 08/2017.

Permalink here: http://www.scitechdigest.net/2017/02/mems-afm-on-chip-low-power-voice-chip.html

MEMS AFM on-chip, Low power voice chip, Wireless power, LysoSENS development, Chiral carbon nanotubes, MOF molecular looms, Molecular biology of sleep, Electrical brain interfaces, DNA computer drugs, Printable solar cells.

1. On-chip MEMS AFM

A MEMS-based atomic force microscope has been created on a single chip complete with all of the sensors and components needed to control the device http://www.utdallas.edu/news/2017/2/15-32432_Jonsson-School-Engineers-Shrink-Microscope-to-Dime_story-wide.html. The one square centimeter sized device operates an oscillating cantilever that is moved across the surface of the sample to be imaged. While it might not have the sensitivity of a high-end laboratory system such a device should make entry-level AFM applications much cheaper and more widespread – a lot more people having access to and using an AFM can only be a good thing.

2. Low Power Voice Control Chip

A low power voice-control and speech recognition chip has been developed that achieves an energy saving of between 90% – 99%, effectively running speech-recognition software for between 0.2 – 10 milliwatts instead of the usual 1 watt that a phone uses http://news.mit.edu/2017/low-power-chip-speech-recognition-electronics-0213. Such low-powered capabilities are ideally suited to internet of things applications and low-power sensors and interfaces with embedded communications. The chip itself incorporates three different hardware implementations of neural networks of varying complexity.

3. Better Wireless Power Transfer

Disney research has demonstrated a quasistatic cavity resonance device for transferring power wirelessly to receivers in devices with 40% to 95% efficiency, and can transfer 1900 watts in this way safely https://www.disneyresearch.com/publication/quasistatic-cavity-resonance-for-ubiquitous-wireless-power-transfer/. I’ve covered several different technologies attempting to do similar wireless power transfer but this latest attempt appears to significantly improve the range, power, and efficiency. Again, a mature technology would be a key enabler of internet of things devices, sensors, and applications.

4. LysoSENS Moves Towards the Clinic

Ichor Therapeutics has demonstrated very promising results in cells for clearing types of lysosomal garbage and is now seeking to complete animal studies and move into a Phase 1 human clinical trial https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2017/02/ichor-therapeutics-announces-lysoclear-sens-rejuvenation-therapy-and-series-a-fundraising-for-further-development/. The therapy comes from bacterial enzymes that can break down certain types of lysosomal garbage, and which have also been modified to be targeted to the lysosomes of target cells. In this specific, niche case the therapy breaks down the garbage and removes the accumulated damage A2E metabolic waste aggregates in retinal cells that leads to different types of macular degeneration, and so represents a good, early, embryonic rejuvenation and anti-aging therapy.

5. Catalysts for Chiral Carbon Nanotubes

New work reveals that different carbon nanotube growth catalysts can preferentially form carbon nanotubes with different chiralities – the pattern of graphene hexagons around the tube that control metallic or semiconducting properties of the carbon nanotube https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/02/170215131554.htm. Tungsten carbide produces semiconducting carbon nanotubes with 80% – 90% purity, while molybdenum carbide helps produce metallic carbon nanotubes. Meanwhile carbon nanotubes and graphene have been combined into functional 3D graphene rebar structures http://news.rice.edu/2017/02/13/graphene-foam-gets-big-and-tough/.

6. Molecular Looms from MOFs

Metal Organic Framework materials are now being used to precisely position (four-armed in this case) monomer molecules that are then cross-linked in a precise array similar to two-dimensional polymer textiles http://www.kit.edu/kit/english/pi_2017_020_metal-organic-frameworks-used-as-looms.php. This is a clever nanotechnology application for building precisely structured and formulated materials with near perfect atomic organisation. After formation the molecule-thick 2D polymer sheets are actually held together by the mechanical forces resulting from the weave pattern. A versatile platform for creating a wide variety of different, precise, 2D polymer sheets with customisable properties and structures at the atomic scale.

7. The Molecular Biology of Sleep

The molecular biology underpinning and controlling sleep is being further mapped out as part of a huge study in mice with the discovery of two new genes that play a key role in regulating sleep https://www.quantamagazine.org/20170214-sleep-control-machinery-in-the-brain/. The first, Sik3, influences the total amount of sleep needed, while the second, Nalcn, influences the amount of REM dreaming sleep that is attained. This study took years and involved mutating the genes of thousands of mice and hooking them up to brainwave monitors while they slept. With these targets identified there is further scope to rationally design interventions able to modify sleep in humans.

8. Better Electrical Brain Interfaces

In just one week we had three different improved electronic brain interfaces announced. First, a new complementary metal oxide semiconductor nanoelectrode array can image and map the changing electrical signals within a large group of living cells http://spectrum.ieee.org/nanoclast/semiconductors/devices/nanoelectrode-array-measures-electrical-signals-across-network-of-cells. Second, ultra-flexible nanoelectronic threads can act as reliable brain probes that enable scar-free integration for neural signal recording https://cns.utexas.edu/news/new-ultra-flexible-probes-form-reliable-scar-free-integration-with-the-brain. Finally, glassy-carbon electrodes transmit more robust signals to restore function in people with damaged spinal cords http://newscenter.sdsu.edu/sdsu_newscenter/news_story.aspx?sid=76593.

9. DNA Computer Smart Drugs

A new DNA computer is able to process the presence and concentration of multiple specific antibodies in the body at once in order to diagnose particular disease states https://www.tue.nl/en/university/news-and-press/news/17-02-2017-dna-computer-brings-intelligent-drugs-a-step-closer/ or see the paper http://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms14473. In this process DNA strands are designed to bind to different antibodies, and when mixed with complementary reporter DNA sequences, these sequences only release the “signal” strand when those specific antibodies are present. These output signals are then processed by a range of DNA computer and logic elements to provide information on the nature of the disease that is present. I’m impressed by how sophisticated the DNA computing and health diagnostics platform is becoming.

10. Printable Perovskite Solar Cells

A new chemical reaction allows an electron-selective solar cell layer to be grown in solution out of nanoparticles directly on top of electrodes and that also incorporate perovskite solar-power ink http://news.engineering.utoronto.ca/printable-solar-cells-just-got-little-closer/, and at much lower temperatures than was previously possible. The solar cells created with this process in the lab demonstrated an energy efficiency of 20.1%. The promise of printable solar cells is being able to cheaply produce high-efficiency panels via established printing techniques or even custom-printing onto most desired surfaces.

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