MXenes, Bad Science and cats authoring papers?
Surface Ventures
Not-for-profit providing world-class surface science webinars for academics and industry professionals
In partnership with JCC Coatings. JCC Coatings produces a range of coatings for applications in machining and electronics.
Hello all,?
Travelling abroad once seemed quite routine. Of course, we would customarily become annoyed with how early we have to arrive at the airport and the security checks but the thrill of travelling is still there. The reduction in travel and working remotely has both contracted our world and brought us closer together in many respects; your co-workers and friends are just a Zoom call away. I think after this long, we can safely say that we’ll keep some remote meetings but there’s no replacing meeting someone face-to-face, especially if it’s important networking. I’m both excited and nervous about my business trip next week to America. I’ve never been to Chicago or Boston before so this is sure to be an exciting adventure. I’ll be trying to pack as much sightseeing in as I can when I’m not working!
Research highlights: Highly cited
Titanium nitride is a well-known coating material favoured for its high hardness and utilised for tool coatings. However 2D materials have been showing promise such as MXenes (2D transition metal nitrides and carbonitrides). Benefits include excellent optical properties, superior electrical conductivity than the bulk material and, finally, impressive tribological properties. Urbankowski et al. present the Synthesis of two-dimensional titanium nitride Ti4N3 (MXene).
Interesting Infographics
Innovation is the lifeblood of business. If your business isn’t innovating, you can be assured that your competition is. New offerings are more than just novel physical products but also new process configurations and customer experiences. This infographic from the Visual Capitalist summarises the 10 types of Innovation commonly seen. You can read more about this here.
Productivity Resources: From the web
Everyone loses motivation now and then and aimlessly scrolling the web or bing watch TV seems like the best cure or just the distraction you need. Adam Grant is an organizational psychologist presents the key indicators of this languishing and proposes three ways to escape these feelings to start finding your flow.
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Notable and quotable
“I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something.” ―?Richard P. Feynman
What we’re reading
In Bad Science, Dr Ben Goldacre gives a witty and sarcastic take on the bad science we encounter in our everyday lives. It’s alarming the amount of incorrect and sometimes harmful information we are bombarded with on a daily basis but at least we can laugh at it.?
An app a day
As an all-in-one notetaking and task management app, Evernote is second-to-none. With automatic note syncing, you can pick up where you left off on any of your devices. It’s great not to be bound to a particular device or operating system. When I first started using a tablet for note-taking during lectures, I used Evernote extensively and it’s still a favourite to this day.?
The lighter side of research
Always take care with the grammar you use in your research articles. It may come back to bite you as it did physicist and mathematician Jack H. Hetherington. In 1975, Prof Heatherington wanted to publish in Physical Review Letters on the topic of low-temperature physics. When a colleague was reviewing the paper, it was pointed out that he had used first person plural in the manuscript and would be rejected on a paper with a sole author. Hetherington could have rewritten the paper but instead decided to invent a co-author. His cat Chester was chosen to stand in. Hetherington gave Chester the pen name F.D.C. Willard (F.D.C. after Felis domesticus Chester and Willard was Chester’s father). The paper was published in November of 1975. The ruse was finally blown in 1978 when Hetherington sent signed copies of the paper (with Chester’s paw prints!) to friends and colleagues. On April 1st 2014, the American Physical Society announced a new open-access initiative making all papers by cats freely available.
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Curated By Dr Samuel McMaster
Event Manager – Surface Ventures