News and Views from OPDX
kirby urner
they're building nano "tetrapods" (caltrops) of mere thousands (or
less?) of atoms.
If I understood correctly they use ABCABC CCP packing for a nuclear
and then introduce ABABAB HCP packings which form the four legs off
the body -- or maybe this happens spontaneously?
A lot of the talk was about creating directionality or a gradient for
electrical channeling in hopes of someday developing a photosynthetic
quasi-biological quasi-crystalline substance. Roll it out and collect
juice.
When I say "quasi-crystalline" I mean sort of like a crystal, not
talking about locally 5-fold symmetric and which I say "juice" I mean
electricity.
Another part of his talk was comparing and contrasting nanotube /
bucky ball Nobel Prize winning research with graphene, also Nobel
Prize winning.
Graphene is actually easy to make cheaply (Samsung?) whereas nanotubes
are still hard to roll with control for chirality / helicity i.e. how
much of a spiral if any. That hodge podges their properties.
Graphene seems to be where it's at. The articles I remember seeing at
Glenn's pad suggested it as like a motherboard substrate on which
various nano things could be embedded or attached.
Our speaker, Dr. Paul Alvisatos, had been in on "quantum dots" which
are crystalline patches only a few atoms across that change color with
size.
The caltrops (up top) likewise emit at different wavelengths as a
function of the stress they're under.
So an idea is to use tetrapods as sensors such as when detecting the
nano-newtons of pressure one cell membrane exerts on another.
"Quantum dots" faithfully reflect light for decades whereas color dies
tend to fade. The ability to permanently and sharply colorize
biological samples has made a real difference.
* * *
In other news, related in that micro-engineering is at the basis of
all of this, I have recently returned from PyCon 2012, more
technically the US Pycon of that year, but which will be moving to
Montreal in 2014, so North American more than just US.
Brazil and Argentina have their own Pycons. Chairman Steve, my close
neighbor in Portland, was at both of those in 2011. I need new
passport pictures if I'm to be going anywhere far away like that.
David Koski, our list owner, phoned me around the time he was getting
these most excellent shots of the TC Howard dome in Ohio.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/17157315@N00/6834704198/in/set-72157629206299498
I was in the meantime sparring (in a friendly way) with the ESRI guy
about why we'd call the Fuller Map "crazy" (he had it on screen) when
as geeks we're always gawking at how big Greenland really isn't.
This was during Q&A in a well attended session on the basics of GIS.
I'd heard similar content at a Portland Barcamp, and also at Metro
(Food Not Bombs on my nametag).
http://pyvideo.org/video/887/a-gentle-introduction-to-gis (start
around 26 minutes to get the background leading up to my question -- I
come in at 29 mins 10 secs or so, to 30 mins 30 secs).
Portlanders are fairly adept with these tools.
I've tied Pycon back to Occupy in the sense that both have shared
roots in not thinking of "Wall Street" as especially relevant or
powerful, given it's Asia-Pacific and we have our own green field
development machinery.
Don't need no filthy riches from back east, so often tainted with the
smell of rotting corpses if ya know what I mean. War profiteers need
stronger perfumes, to which many have an allergic reaction.
http://controlroom.blogspot.com/2012/03/occupy-silicon-valley.html
Interesting to join two memberships back to back, an old Quaker
mainstay in Philadelphia versus a bright new shiny thing with
marketing snake oil rubbed in (a quality brand), and some great
philosophy (Monty Python, Beatles...).
Both are non-profits and yet their maneuvers affect the business
landscape. Movers and shakers, these memberships.
I am privileged to have such oversight -- a privilege I do not
associate with any particular "race" by the way (said the Asian in a
gringo suit).
Back to the no beer diet for awhile (gringo suit too much a gorilla suit).
They're slow with the girl scout math camps in Oregon, but not really
our fault. DC is still working hard to stink up the place with its
"media".
Selective viewing ala Youtube is the death knell for "push news" I
think. A Wild West net means sharing the road more, even if you're
"royalty".
Some "urgency vehicles" just aren't used to being seen as so ordinary,
as if money weren't so tantamount.
Some "special needs" just ain't so special in this citizens' band.
Kirby