The recent fatal crash of a Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft is forcing officials to take a closer look at the airplanes safety system. The accident—which happened just minutes after takeoff, killing all 157 passengers aboard the Ethiopian Airline—is suspected of being a result of a faulty sensory system built to stabilize the aircraft in flight, known as Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS), according to USA Today.

Why was the MCAS added?

Boeing had originally added the MCAS after redesigning its 737 platform for the Max, changing the placement and size of the aircraft’s engines, consequently altering how the jet handled in flight. As a result, the Max tended to raise its nose in flight; a movement called pitch. If a plane pitches too high, it could lead to crashing or stalling of the aircraft—something the MCAS was installed to detect and prevent. (more…)

The urgency for open access publishing has been felt for some time. The strain of paywalls and expensive scholarly publishing business models have limited access to academic papers and research, causing some to take matters into their own hands.

The Electrochemical Society is one of those to take action. Each year, ECS participates in International Open Access Week by taking down paywalls to the entire ECS Digital Library, giving the world a preview of what complete open access to peer-reviewed scientific research will look like. ECS is also the founder of the Free the Science initiative, which aims to make the Society’s high quality, peer-reviewed research free for everyone to read and free for authors to publish. In addition, in honor of Free the Science, the Society also offers another paywall-free week to the ECS Digital Library. This year marking the Society’s 3rd annual Free the Science Week, taking place April 1-7, where thousands of scientific articles and abstracts will become free to access.

And, it looks like ECS is far from alone in these efforts. (more…)

Credit: Ma et al./Current Biology

Hollywood has long toyed with the idea of superhuman powers, as seen in the 2013 science fiction thriller movie Riddick, where the lead character uses his extraordinary night vision to survive a hostile world. It is one supernatural ability that may be closer to becoming a reality.

According to ScienceDaily, scientists have now made it possible for mice to pick up infrared light with the help of nanotechnology, creating the ability for night vision.

The procedure

It works with a single injection of photoreceptor-binding particles that is inserted into the mice’s eyes, converting photons to high-energy forms that allow the mice to develop infrared vision for up to 10 weeks. The procedure results in minimal side effects and causes no changes to normal vision. (more…)

Young students entering the science field take on a significant amount of new material and learning in the classrooms, but that doesn’t mean we can’t learn just as much from them, too! ECS student chapters, ran and created by students themselves, inspire us every day. Their remarkable accomplishments and contributions to the Society not only help guide and encourage talented scientists and engineers around them but also contribute to the future and growth of the sciences.

That’s why in 2012, the Society established the ECS Outstanding Student Chapter Award to recognize distinguished student chapters that demonstrate active participation in ECS’s technical activities. That means chapters that have initiated outreach activities, coordinated community events, and created and maintained a robust membership base.

Does this sound like your student chapter? We want to award you for your hard work!

Application deadline: April 15, 2019

(more…)

Juho Lehmusto, enjoying his Bose QuietComfort35 wireless headphones II.

Thank you to all of those who participated in The Electrochemical Society’s survey! Your feedback helps shape the future of ECS, including the direction of open access, the membership program, and ECS’s quarterly magazine, Interface. Your input is valuable in achieving the Society’s mission to advance theory and practice at the forefront of electrochemical and solid state science and technology, and allied subjects.

Because ECS values your thoughts, the Society has awarded three survey participants for their contributions. The awards feature a pair of Bose QuietComfort35 wireless headphones II, a $350 prize; a complimentary five-year membership to ECS; and a complimentary registration to attend one ECS 2019 biannual meeting. (more…)

According to some scientists, humans are born with an innate sixth sense. And no, it’s not the ability to see ghosts like in the 1999 horror film. It’s the sense of proprioception: the perception or awareness of the position and movement of the body. This sense is what helps us coordinate our movements. For example, if you close your eyes, there remains a sense of awareness of where your muscles and body parts are located, the distance between them, and the perception of how they’re moving relative to one another, according to SingularityHub.

This complex sense is one that is difficult to recreate in robots, as solid state sensors traditionally used in robotics are unable to capture the high-dimensional deformations of soft systems. However, embedded soft resistive sensors have the potential to address this challenge. Using this approach, scientists are getting closer to overcoming the challenge with new techniques that involve an array of sensory material and machine-learning algorithms. (more…)

Hydrogen gas: it’s storable, can refuel a car in minutes (versus batteries which can take hours to recharge), and its waste product is water. It is the holy grail of clean-energy advocates.

The only problem is that the electrolyzers that make hydrogen from renewable energy are quite expensive. But, that soon may change, according to Ars Technica.

According to a new paper in Nature Energy, researchers from universities in Germany and at Stanford University have created a financial model for a wind farm connected to a hydrogen electrolyzer. (more…)

Shirley Meng

Inspired by her father, motivated by curiosity, and driven by her passion for connecting people, Shirley Meng, a professor of nanoengineering at the University of California, San Diego, discovered her love for science.

Although, she had originally thought her interests would lead her to pursue another path, a career in law.

However, because of the instability of the law system in China, where Meng is originally from, her father encouraged Meng to pursue other opportunities. That’s when she began considering a career in the sciences. (more…)

Chuanfang (John) Zhang, Valeria Nicolosi, and Sang-Hoon Park. Credit: Naoise Culhane

Have you ever wished you could increase your cellphone battery life? Well, that technology may very well already be here.

Researchers from AMBER, the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Advanced Materials and BioEngineering, at Trinity College Dublin, have announced the development of a new material which offers the potential to improve battery life in everyday electronics, like smartphones, according to Irish Tech News.

The discovery could mean that the average phone battery life, roughly 10 hours of talk time, could increase to 30-40 hours.

MXenes, an ink-based nanomaterial, not only significantly improves battery life, but it also offers its batteries the flexibility to become smaller in size, without losing performance. (more…)

A researcher at Georgia Tech holds a perovskite-based solar cell. Credit: Rob Felt, Georgia Tech

Perovskite-based solar cells are all around great. They offer energy efficiencies similar to those of traditional silicon-based cells, are lightweight, simple and cheap to produce, and offer physical flexibility that could unlock a wide new range of installation methods and places, according to Georgia Teach Research Horizons.

The only problem: figuring out how to produce perovskite-based energy devices that last longer than a couple of months.

Researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology, University of California San Diego, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology may be closer to solving that problem. (more…)