Peer reviewing modelled

Decision making in scientific peer review unravelled with mathematical modelling

Overworked and stressed out? Look on the bright side.

Some stress is good for you

Six Keys to Being Excellent at Anything

We are what we repeatedly do

Auger recombination the culprit

Auger recombination confirmed as being responsible for the LED droop phenomenon

LEDs go big on Si

Plessey has announced the commercial availability of GaN/Si LEDs manufactured using 6 inch GaN substrates

Feel to hear

Nickel based shape memory alloys are materials that ‘remember’ their cold-forged shape; returning to its pre-deformed shape when heated. Work is underway to use this technology to produce a Braille smartphone for the blind. The screen uses a  grid of alloy pins, which expand and contract sufficiently to be felt by the fingertips, and thus create Braille characters or letters as a touchable pattern

A fist full of neurons

According to a paper from Montclair State University, clenching your right hand may help form a stronger memory of an event or action, and clenching your left may help you recollect the memory later. Based on people memorising and recalling words from a list of 72 words, the findings suggest that some simple body movements, by temporarily changing the way the brain functions, can improve memory. Clenching the right fist may activate a brain region that is involved in storing memories, while squeezing the left hand may trigger an area dealing with retrieving information. So why don’t boxers never forget?

What, no Higgs?

Carl Hagen has recently joined in the discussion as to whether the Higgs Boson should be renamed in order to acknowledge the contributions of the co-workers. It may also be apposite to note that a maximum of three (living) individuals can be named as joint winners of a Nobel Prize. Six theorists are connected with developing the theory of the Higgs with five still living. Professor Hagen, one of this group, suggests that it be called the Standard Model Scalar Meson, or SM Squared. I personally like the suggestion to name it: The Particle (formerly known as Higgs). 

A good read?

The sale, for $6 million, of Francis Crick’s 1953 handwritten letter to his son describing the model for the structure of DNA is remarkable. Leaving aside the money element, the simplicity and clarity of the prose is truly beautiful. As an undergraduate I remember reading key papers written by Rutherford and Thomson on atomic physics and marvelling how comprehensible they made their ideas. I find that delving into the current, leading edge, scientific publications is sadly not so straightforward or enjoyable. Does the peer review process place sufficient emphasis on the notion that as well as scientific relevance someone might actually prefer to enjoy reading it?