To celebrate Recycling Week, Vanessa Young explains the essential role of nano-recycling in making the most of the tiny-scale but potentially harmful waste from batteries, circuit boards and more For most of us recycling means jars, bottles, tins (and the sprint to get the bin out as the truck comes up the street). If we … Read more
Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Dr Michelle Dickinson (Nanogirl) about how her new online learning platform and how it will work during the … Read more
Sam Brooke is a Ph.D student at Massey, who is working with the MacDiarmid Institute. He talked to Alex Braae about his research, why it matters, and how it became possible to do it in New Zealand. To be on the leading edge of science, young New Zealand students would have once had to go … Read more
Studies of nanotechnology and advanced materials are becoming ever more crucial as the world adjusts to a more sustainable way of living. Recently appointed co-director of the MacDiarmid Institute Dr. Nicola Gaston’s new role allows her to guide one of New Zealand’s top science institutes to potentially world-leading research. Rising awareness about sustainability is leading … Read more
Last week Tesla billionaire Elon Musk launched a bizarre Twitter tirade against the media, as part of which he ended up @-ing everyone from Jemaine Clement to Michelle Dickinson. Here the NZ scientist explains why she leapt to the defence of a fellow nanotechnologist Ah, Twitter, that digital echo chamber where you can keep up … Read more
Scientists hope to help asthma sufferers and others needing oxygen at home by developing ‘molecular sponges’ with nanoscale-sized pores to purify the air. There’s possibly nothing more frightening than struggling to take a breath. Something asthmatics and others with respiratory diseases know all too well. Many of these people depend on portable oxygen concentrators, small … Read more
When it comes to solar panels, the future is flexible. Vanessa Young discovers how a MacDiarmid project is unlocking the possibilities of a new generation of solar cell technology. When we imagine solar panels, we think of hard rectangle frames, sitting upright on roofs, or spread out across expanses of deserts. But imagine flexible, bendy … Read more
Scientist Dr Michelle Dickinson looks at the truth behind the scaremongering headlines over a questionable study– and the disturbing way its Australian commissioners went after her when she wrote about it. This post has been updated with responses from Friends of the Earth Australia and the New Zealand Science Media Centre. (12 July 2017) Wow Now … Read more
Fresh back from five days in Queenstown for NZ’s nanotechnology and advanced-materials science conference, Dr Ben Mallett reckons AMN8 shows that our stereotypes, of science and scientists, need a bit of nuance. What happens at a science conference? Lots of “talks” (in which scientists speak about their research, with some accompanying pictures); poster sessions; specialised … Read more
Three women at the forefront of nano science discussed their work and the hurdles they faced during the AMN8 conference this week. The 11-year-old girl in the front row raised her hand. “I have a comment rather than a question,” she told the panel of three women scientists. “I’m really impressed because you followed your … Read more
As the government doubles down on trying to get good science into the marketplace, how are scientists preparing for the commercial world? Do scientists make good businesspeople? Are they able, after a lifetime of studying in institutions to learn how to become a researcher, then turn their attention to putting that research into application? Can … Read more
Bioengineer Albert Folch uses football to kick off children’s scientific curiosity. Charles Anderson watches the AMN8 guest work his magic at a Queenstown primary school. The children don’t seem terrified despite Professor Albert Folch just telling them that their planet will be vaporised. In a billion years or so, the sun will grow into a … Read more
Charles Anderson is in Queenstown for AMN8 – the advanced materials and nanotechnology conference hosted by The MacDiarmid Institute. In his first blog from the event, he enjoys a heaven-sent introduction to the field from Ben Mallett on the flight south. The flight from Christchurch to Queenstown is full, says the cabin attendant. But as … Read more
The unique properties of Perovskite provide hope for a wholly sustainable future, ‘propelling the next stage of human advancement’, says Henry Snaith, a guest at next week’s AMN8 conference in Queenstown. Professor Henry Snaith has a vision of the future. Ever growing cities are powered cleanly and efficiently. Third world countries have easy access to … Read more
First discovered in atomic bomb testing, nanodiamonds could prove crucial to a range of technologies that change, if not save, lives. Charles Anderson talks to nanoscientist Amanda Barnard, a guest at the AMN8 conference in Queenstown The Soviet scientists were blowing things up. It was 1963, at the height of the Cold War, and nuclear … Read more
For Italian scientist Silvia Giordani, the battle against cancer cells takes place at a scale 50,000 times thinner than a human hair. A guest at February’s AMN8 conference in Queenstown, she talks to Charles Anderson Onions and tubes. It was almost a decade ago that Silvia Giordani started thinking seriously about the difference between them. … Read more
Smaller than a pinhead, the machines in Professor David A Leigh’s lab are created by chemistry that manipulates the properties of tiny elements to create motion. Leigh, who is coming to NZ for February’s AMN8 conference, talks to Charles Anderson Think of David Leigh as a caveman chief at the beginnings of civilisation. Think of … Read more
Ahead of February’s AMN8 conference, Charles Anderson talks to some of the scientists at the vanguard of nanomaterial innovation and entrepreneurship in New Zealand. Look closely at the letters on this screen. Zero in on this full stop, right here. It’s small – to the human eye, at least. But that full stop still has … Read more