Articles
Nanoparticle coating in heat pipe design for miniaturised cooling
Size reduction and increasing processing power are driving forces in the development of modern electronic devices, from portable computers to smartphones and wearable devices. In all these applications, efficient cooling of the electronic components of a device is paramount. By exploiting novel design approaches based on the use of nanoparticle layers, Prof Tomio Okawa and Ms Menglei Wang (The University […]
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The rocky road to justice for atrocities committed during the Kosovo war
The Kosovo war marked a period of unimaginable violence. The Serbian campaign of ethnic cleansing of Kosovar Albanians, overseen by then-president of Serbia, Slobodan Milošević, met with retaliatory atrocities by opposing forces, led by the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). In the years since, various tribunals and organisations have been created to deliver justice, but they have been hampered by continued […]
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Is it possible to train medical experts using Artificial Intelligence (AI) training methods?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly gaining traction in all walks of human life. Today, apps that recognise and respond to human speech and self-driving cars are no longer the stuff of science fiction but facts of life. But what if AI – more specifically, a method called deep learning that is used for training smart computers – were used to […]
New, exotic materials: Getting oxygen into yttrium hydrides
The modern world is constantly hungry for new materials with properties optimised for their applications. Designing them is no trivial task and often relies on computational modelling to test whether new material structures are feasible. Dr Aleksandr Pishtshev and Evgenii Strugovshchikov from the University of Tartu, Estonia and Dr Smagul Karazhanov from the Institute for Energy Technology, Norway have been […]
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High performing monomers and polymers from plant oils
We often think of fossils fuels as a source of energy, but one of the key uses of fossil fuels is as a starting point for the synthesis of new chemical compounds. These range from plastics to pharmaceutical products. In recent years, there has been a push to move to more sustainable chemical feedstocks. Professor Andriy Voronov at North Dakota […]
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Discovering when the first early modern humans left Africa
Previous evidence suggested that early modern humans left Africa 90,000 to 120,000 years ago, but new evidence has shown this event may have occurred much earlier. Professor Mina Weinstein-Evron (University of Haifa, Israel) and Professor Israel Hershkovitz (Tel Aviv University, Israel), together with their colleagues, have found a modern human fossil at Misliya cave in Israel, which dates to between […]
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Climate change and the rise of infectious diseases: An Arctic perspective
Animals that carry infectious microorganisms are migrating towards the North with climate-change transitions of Arctic landscapes into warmer biomes. This threatens to change societal exposure to infectious diseases and affect the OneHealth status of Arctic cultures. OneHealth takes a multidisciplinary approach to health risks and risk mitigation for humans, animals, plants and the environment with the understanding that human health […]
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Potential breakthrough in cataract treatment
Cataracts are a global economic and social burden that is increasing with our ageing population. Since surgery is currently the only treatment, preventative pharmacological interventions are needed. Antioxidants and aldose reductase inhibitors (ARIs) can tackle oxidative and osmotic stress, which are the main causes of age related and diabetic cataracts, respectively. In the veterinary market, a topical nutraceutical formulation has […]
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Going back to the drawing board: Harnessing the potential of the design process to effectively change organizational routines
Many organizations face challenges when trying to create effective and lasting strategic change. Dr Vern Glaser, Associate Professor in the Department of Strategy, Entrepreneurship and Management at the University of Alberta, studies how organizations change their routines to accomplish strategic objectives. In his paper “Design Performances: How Organizations Inscribe Artifacts to Change Routines”, Dr Glaser presents a case study of […]
Could acesulfame potassium be leaving the bittersweet taste of a toxic environment?
Our modern sewage is defined by many potential toxic threats from new chemical compounds we use in our daily lives. One potentially unexpected entrant for this phenomenon is acesulfame potassium (ACE-K), a calorie-free sweetener. As it is not digested by the body, ACE-K is excreted straight into the toilet, arriving in our wastewater and surface water. Dr Patrick Guiney, Principal […]
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