By: Jane A. Flegal, University of California, Berkeley and Andrew Maynard, Arizona State University

Hollywood’s latest disaster flick, “Geostorm,” is premised on the idea that humans have figured out how to control the Earth’s climate. A powerful satellite-based technology allows users to fine-tune the weather, overcoming the ravages of climate change. Everyone, everywhere can quite literally “have a nice day,” until – spoiler alert! – things do not go as planned.

Admittedly, the movie is a fantasy set in a deeply unrealistic near-future. But coming on the heels of one of the most extreme hurricane seasons in recent history, it’s tempting to imagine a world where we could regulate the weather. Despite a long history of interest in weather modification, controlling the climate is, to be frank, unattainable with current technology. But underneath the frippery of “Geostorm,” is there a valid message about the promises and perils of planetary management?

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In a recently conducted survey of corresponding authors, ECS found that 58.3% of the 132 responders had registered for an ORCID iD. Over 31% had not registered, and 10.6% were not sure if they registered; of these individuals, 49% did not know about ORCID.

ECS believes all researchers should be aware of the benefits of registering for an ORCID iD—a free, persistent digital identifier which allows for automated linkages between you, your publications, and your professional enterprises.

Why should you register? Your ORCID iD:

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Each year, the ECS San Francisco Section assists a deserving student in Northern California in pursuing a career in the physical sciences or engineering through the Daniel Cubicciotti Student Award. The award was created in 1994 in honor of Daniel Cubicciotti: spirited researcher and innovator. Recipients receive an etched metal plaque and a $2,000 prize.

Tianyu Liu received his B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Science and Technology in Beijing, China in 2012, and joined Prof. Yat Li’s group at the University of California, Santa Cruz thereafter. He obtained his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry in 2017. His research focuses on development of functional materials for electrochemical energy harvesting, conversion and storage. Applications include supercapacitors, microbial fuel cells and photo-electrochemical water splitting. He is a reviewer for several peer-reviewed international journals including Journal of Materials Chemistry A, Nanoscale, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, Carbon, The Journal of Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry Communications. His achievements are recognized by a number of awards including the Chancellor’s Dissertation-Year Fellowship and the Materials Research Society Graduate Student Silver Award. More details can be found on his website: http://liutianyuresearch.weebly.com/.

The San Francisco Section held the Cubicciotti award ceremony on July 13, 2017 on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley where Liu presented “Five Years in University of California-Santa Cruz: From In-lab Researches to Off-campus Activities.”

The annual nomination deadline for the San Francisco Section Daniel Cubicciotti Student Award is in the spring.

Five German scientists have stepped down from their editorial positions with Elsevier journals in an effort to push for nationwide open access. This is the latest move in the battle between German open access advocates and the for-profit publisher.

Earlier this year, German libraries, universities, and academic leaders came to the table to support an initiative called Projekt DEAL, aimed at changing the landscape of scholarly publishing by foregoing the subscription-based academic publishing model in lieu of a “publish and read” agreement. Essentially, Projekt DEAL pushes for an agreement where German institutions pay a lump sum that covers publication costs for all papers whose first authors are associated with German institutions, those papers are then published as open access, and in return the institutions receive access to all Elsevier-published journals.

Publishing giant Elsevier has been resistant to the deal, stating that they will continue to publish open access papers if authors or instructions pay the processing charge, but that the institutions should not expect that amount to give them full access to all Elsevier journals.

As Elsevier continues to resist, more German institutions are choosing to not renew subscriptions.

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Engineers have developed a flexible sensor “skin” that can stretch over any part of a robot’s body or prosthetic to accurately convey information about shear forces and vibration—information critical to grasping and manipulating objects.

If a robot sets out to disable a roadside bomb—or delicately handle an egg while cooking you an omelet—it needs to be able to sense when objects are slipping out of its grasp. Yet, to date, it’s been difficult or impossible for most robotic and prosthetic hands to accurately sense the vibrations and shear forces that occur, for example, when a finger is sliding along a tabletop or when an object begins to fall.

To solve that issue, the bio-inspired robot sensor skin mimics the way a human finger experiences tension and compression as it slides along a surface or distinguishes among different textures. It measures this tactile information with similar precision and sensitivity as human skin, and could vastly improve the ability of robots to perform everything from surgical and industrial procedures to cleaning a kitchen.

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Topic Close-up #2

Symposium C02: High Temperature Corrosion and Materials Chemistry 13

Symposium Focus: On thermodynamic and kinetic aspects of high temperature oxidation and corrosion, as well as other chemical reactions involving inorganic materials at high temperatures. Studies on materials interactions in high temperature processing or power, propulsion, and energy applications are welcome. Both theoretical and experimental papers are accepted, and contributions from industry and students are especially encouraged.

Featured Invited Speakers: Include Prof. David Young, University of New South Wales, “Preventing high temperature corrosion of chromia-forming alloys by CO2”, Dr. Valerie Wiesner, NASA Glenn Research Center, “Developing Environmental Barrier Coatings Resistant to Molten CMAS”, Prof. Laurence Latu-Romain, Grenoble Alpes University, “Chromia semiconducting properties study: a textbook case?”, and Prof. Yury Gogotsi, Drexel University, “High-temperature behaviors of MXenes”

On the latest episode of the Science Vs podcast, host Wendy Zukerman takes a look at renewable energy in the United States. Through research and interviews with scientists across the board, Zukerman poses the ultimate question: Can the U.S. go 100 percent renewable by 2050?

Listen to Mark Delucchi, Christopher Clack, and David Connolly as they navigate the renewable energy debate and discuss the role of renewables.

PS: Want more science podcasts? Check out the nearly 70 epiosdes of the ECS Podcast!

Topic Close-up #1

Symposium L06: Nanoporous Materials

Symposium Highlights: Nanoporous materials have unique surface, structural, and bulk properties that enable their applications in electrochemical sensing, catalysis, environmental remediation, photoelectrochemistry, and energy storage. The development of nanoporous materials requires specialized design, synthesis, and characterization methods that tailor pore structure and chemistry to achieve desired material properties. The goal of this symposium is to explore unique challenges and opportunities in the evolution and utilization of nanoporous materials.

Topics of Interest: Including but are not limited to: 1) design, simulation, and/or characterization of nanoporous materials, 2) novel synthesis methods, 3) unique applications of nanoporous materials in electrochemistry and beyond, and 4) insights into the effects of pore structure and surface functionalization on the properties and potential applications of nanoporous materials.

Using unique design and building methods, researchers have created a prototype for an ultra-thin, curving concrete roof that will also generate solar power.

The self-supporting, doubly curved shell roof has multiple layers: the heating and cooling coils and the insulation are installed over the inner concrete layer. A second, exterior layer of the concrete sandwich structure encloses the roof, onto which builders install thin-film photovoltaic cells.

Philippe Block, a professor of architecture and structures at ETH Zurich, and Arno Schlüter, a professor of architecture and building systems, led the team. They want to put the new lightweight construction to the test and combine it with intelligent and adaptive building systems.

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Our guest on this episode of the ECS Podcast is Shirley Meng, professor of NanoEngineering at the University of California, San Diego. Meng founded the Sustainable Power and Energy Center, the goal of which is solving key technical challenges in distributed energy generation, storage, and power management.

Meng is also the principal investigator of Laboratory for Energy Storage and Conversion research group. Her group is focused on functional nano and micro-scale materials for energy storage and conversion.

She talked to Rob Gerth, ECS’s director of marketing and communications.

Listen to the podcast and download this episode and others for free on Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, Podbean, or our RSS Feed. You can also find us on Stitcher and Acast.

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