Nanotube Surface Engineering, Space and Satellites
Surface Ventures
Not-for-profit providing world-class surface science webinars for academics and industry professionals
In partnership with the UK Surface Analysis Forum.
Hello all,
Hope you're well and had a restful holiday break. It's been great to unplug from work, enjoy some refreshing walks, and get some good reading time in. I've been reflecting on what I would like to achieve in the new year. In terms of professional resolutions for the new year, I'm aiming for more publications and hopefully be able to peer-review more articles. Wishing you all the best for the upcoming year and see you for the next issue in 2 weeks!
Research highlights: Highly cited
With the growth in demand for portable and wearable electronics, one of the biggest challenges to be solved is developing improved flexible energy conversion and storage. Flexible solid-state capacitors have the required characteristics of long cycle life, fast discharge capability, good safety characteristics and stitchability. Read more about the surface engineering of nickel cobalt sulfide to achieve such devices in Keng et al.'s "Dual-defect surface engineering of bimetallic sulfide nanotubes towards flexible asymmetric solid-state supercapacitors".
Science Resources: Educational Video
Nanotubes are fascinating structures and it's equally intriguing to see them formed. In this video from the Applied Science YouTube channel, you can see an electron microscope animation of individual nanotubes being pulled out of a bulk structure. You can also see a vintage scanning electron microscope in action which is a delight.
Interesting Infographics
Interstellar space itself is a near vacuum but our local neighbourhood is busy with masses of particles, radiation and, of course, orbital bodies. The amount of satellites orbiting Earth alone is staggering. SatelliteXplorer is an interactive map of the satellites allowing you to view their orbital path, purpose, launch location and much more.
From our Partner
The UK Surface Analysis Forum (UKSAF) is a society for scientists from academia and industry with a common interest in the techniques and applications of surface analysis. It meets twice yearly (January and July) and the group collaborates with other scientific and industrial groups to promote and communicate the vital role played by surface analysis in both industry and academia.
Membership is open to all and participants from institutions outside the UK are encouraged. To join, simply register and attend the next meeting.
If you are interested in speaking at a future meeting, please contact the UKSAF Chair, or any committee member with an overview/abstract so this can be considered for future meetings.
The first meeting of the year is on Wednesday 10th January at Edgbaston Park Hotel, Birmingham University. Register online here.
The latest and upcoming from Surface Ventures
领英推荐
Our webinars are free to attend. Forever.
Notable and quotable
“Science is fun. Science is curiosity. We all have natural curiosity. Science is a process of investigating. It's posing questions and coming up with a method. It's delving in.”?– Sally Ride
What we’re reading
Tim Peake, the first British ESA astronaut, needs no introduction. His recent book "Space: The Human Story" is an absorbing telling of the stories of the 628 people to have left Earth. The book details the selection process, training and experiences of the remarkable astronauts and cosmonauts such as Neil Armstrong, Yuri Gagarin and Peggy Whitson.
An app a day
There are many commonly used data analysis and plotting programs. OriginPro is a common favourite among many research scientists but there is another paid app that warrants a mention. QtiPlot is easy to get to grips with allowing for 2D and 3D graphing, complex fitting and statistical analysis and Python scripting and Latex support.
The lighter side of research
I think everyone suffers from writer's block at some point. I did when writing my thesis during lockdown. Whatever the situation, you need to push through and get the motivation to write again. Dennis Upper's 'The unsuccessful self-treatment of a case of "writer's block"' is certainly not the way forward. Reviewer A's comments are fantastic though!
Keep up with Surface Ventures
You can keep up with the latest Surface Ventures events on:
You can view our previous newsletters here. If you've been forwarded this email, you can sign up to receive this newsletter here.
Thank you all for reading and please tell your friends and colleagues about us.?If you're not finding it valuable, please consider unsubscribing - no hard feelings! But if you're enjoying this newsletter, the best compliment you could pay us would be to share it with one person. Please check out our sponsor. This is the best way to support this newsletter.
For any inquiries, please email [email protected].
Curated By Dr Samuel McMaster
Event Manager – Surface Ventures