“If our small minds, for some convenience, divide this universe into parts—physics, biology, geology, astronomy, psychology, and so on—remember that nature does not know it!“
—Richard Feynman (Shout out to the Twitter Account honoring Richard Feynman.)
In this new section, the Editor’s Corner, we will be sharing a curated list of articles, videos, and social feeds we find relevant or helpful to the MNT-EC mission of helping advance the micro nano technician workforce (you can read more about our mission and goals here).
Microelectronics
If you are an educator or workforce development specialist, this upcoming workshop on February 3 may interest you: The State University of New York (SUNY), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) invite you to take part in a workshop focusing on current challenges in the education and workforce development pipeline for current and future microelectronics manufacturing and design in the U.S. Visit the MNT-EC Calendar for more info: Education and Workforce Development for U.S. Microelectronics Industry.
Social Media and Networking with Micro Nano professionals
Check out the Micro Nano Education LinkedIn page where we post new podcast episodes, job or internship info, and other relevant career and professional information. We also shared a link to the Top Nanotechnology Experts and Organizations on Twitter.
Clean Drinking Water from Air
Thanks to relatively recent materials science work scientists are finding ways to extract water from air with solar powered hydropanels.
According to Forbes, “An Arizona company, SOURCE, and its founder, Cody Friesen, a materials scientist and associate professor at Arizona State University, spent nearly seven years developing the Source Hydropanel… Pure water is mineralized with magnesium and calcium to achieve an ideal taste profile. Finally, sensors in each hydropanel monitor and optimize the water to maintain quality. The hydropanels produce an average of 3-5 liters of clean drinking water per day (or up to 1.3 gallons).”
Do-It-Yourself Microscope
Much of the micro nano world relies upon advanced microscopes. Although this simple, affordable, and fun microscope is far from advanced, it is elegant and it does make science accessible in important ways. The Foldscope is a do-it-yourself (DIY) type microscope, according to the website, Foldscope was “invented by Manu Prakash and Jim Cybulski who asked themselves: What is the best microscope you can build for under $1 in parts? Over 1.5 million of these can be found in the wild, in the hands of children, educators, and citizen scientists around the world — that’s a good thing.
Two More Educator-related Resources
If you do not already know or follow Tom Vander Ark from Getting Smart, he recently posted about Trends Shaping Education in 2022. A worthwhile read that highlights important areas to watch, New Learning Goals including Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI); Team Tools and Staffing; and Active Learning.
Speaking of DEI-related content: The Underrepresentation Curriculum (URC) is a free, flexible curriculum for STEM instructors to teach about injustice and change the culture of STEM. Using tools such as data analysis, hypothesis creation, and investigation, students look critically at science through the lenses of equity and inclusion. By comparing the general population to similar data describing scientists, students can explore issues of social justice in STEM.
May your weekend be filled with many small things that make a difference.
More information about the first post image – although it is not specifically a nano or microtechnology image, I will claim Feynman’s quote – nature does not know about our divisions of courses and fields of study, so this work may influence an area of nanotechnology at some point in the future. More so, this curation effort will feature a wide range of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) topics that you may find spurs a new idea or direction in your research or classroom.
Water droplet levitates in the Leidenfrost state
A water droplet levitates 80 microns above a hot surface heated past water’s boiling point in the Leidenfrost state. [Research supported by U.S. National Science Foundation grant DMR 1455086.] Learn more in the Emory University news story New method reveals minimum heat for levitating drops.
An earlier post about Foldscope was published at Medium.
