Raymond Smith, recipient of the ECS Norman Hackerman Young Author Award

Raymond Smith was presented with the Norman Hackerman Young Author Award for his paper on “Multiphase Porous Electrode Theory” published in the Journal of The Electrochemical Society. The award recognizes the best paper published by young authors or co-authors in JES the prior year.

Smith, who holds a PhD in chemical engineering from MIT and works as a senior engineer at Tesla, said he was blown away when he heard he was nominated for the award.

“Being in the community and engaging in this way has been special,” says Smith, who was presented with the award at AiMES 2018 in Cancun, Mexico. “Coming to the meeting has provided great motivation.”

His paper aimed to unify work that his team and other teams have done in the field in order to highlight connections that weren’t obvious before.
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Dogs are special. There’s no doubt about that.

In fact, they’re so unique that scientists are looking to use what we’ve learned from our furry companions to create new biosensor technology. See, dog’s noses aren’t only good for sniffing other dog’s tails at the park; they offer information. (more…)

With the holidays around the corner, it’s time to start thinking gifts. Here are our top 8 science related gifts for the science fanatic in your life.

Women in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World
Amazon – $11.45

Introduce the world of science to your little ones and inspire the next generation of scientists with leading women and innovators of the field. (more…)

Plan S, created in a move to crack down on scholarly journals’ paywalls, is receiving pushback from scientists who call the plan “too risky for science.” According to Science Magazine, the scientists put their feelings into writing in an open letter backed by 800 signatories who say they support OA—which would make papers free and available to all—but not like this. (more…)

Join The Electrochemical Society on November 25-30, 2018 at the 2018 MRS Fall Meeting & Exhibit in Boston, MA.

The MRS meeting is a great opportunity for ECS to connect with our members and other interested scientists, researchers, and academics to discuss what’s new and exciting in the field and with ECS. This meeting allows for the exchange of technical information around materials science and the ability to network with an interdisciplinary and international audience. The annual Fall Meeting takes place at the Boston’s Hynes Convention Center and Sheraton Boston Hotel, features over 50 symposia, and is attended by as many as 6,000 researchers from every corner of the globe.

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Image: A. Lange & Söhne

A watch is often seen as a mark of elegance, power, and taste. Take Daniel Craig for example, the actor is the staple definition of suave and sleek, sporting thousands of dollars worth of Omega watches throughout the 007 franchise. But, how well do they hold up to an electrochemically built watch?

According to In Compliance Magazine, Empa scientists have created the next generation of watch springs, built to be scientifically powerful, tiny, and extremely durable. (more…)

With top academic publishers like Elsevier holding a 35-40% profit margin and for-profit academic publishers earning $25.2 billion a year, Jason Schmitt began to wonder about the consequences of paywalls on access to scientific research. His questions led to his October 2018 documentary film, Paywall: The Business of Scholarship, where he questioned publishing practices and the public’s limited access to information.

According to IMDb, while filming, Schmitt says he was struck by the global energy and enthusiasm toward open access and the strong resistance to the movement by many of the world’s top publishers. “Further, I found that the funds paid to academic publishers are heavily burdening the higher education market, contributing to the rising tuition fees at all universities, the closure of many institutions and, ultimately, limiting science and progress.” (more…)

Stuart Taylor Credit: OASPA

The Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association recently sat down with Stuart Taylor, publishing director of the Royal Society and their very own, newly appointed OASPA board member, for an interview. Taylor holds 30 years of experience in publishing and has witnessed many changes within the industry, such as the introduction of the open access model.

“I began in the commercial sector. Back then, open access wasn’t a topic I was aware of at all and the concept of open access publishing hadn’t even been invented,” says Taylor.

By the end of the 1990s, however, Taylor says the rumblings of an open access model began to make its presence within the publishing community, which at that time, “Was seen only as a threat to commercial companies. Something to be fought or at least contained.” (more…)

Credit: American Chemical Society

Pesticides, extremely effective at killing pests, can also unfortunately pass on the same harmful effects to the people who use them—most commonly farmers. To combat the problem, researchers have developed a way to detect the presence of such compounds in the field using a disposable “lab-on-a-glove,” according to Phys.

Because different types of pesticides consist of different levels of toxicity, the protective glove is of particular importance, as it can be used to determine which compounds are present more accurately and quickly.

The new wearable, flexible glove biosensor carries out the sampling and electrochemical biosensing steps on different fingers. Detection of the collected residues is performed when the thumb touches the printed enzyme-based organophosphate biosensor on the glove index finger. (more…)

Photo: UCL Interactive Architecture Lab

Few of us are lucky enough to have a green thumb. The perfect balance of sunlight, climate, and water requires a special, intuitive touch. A little too much water, a little too little, and turns into gunk or withers. A little too much sun, a little too little, and wastes away and shrivels. And, so it goes.

Well, gardening just got a little easier. According to Inhabitat, students at University College London’s Interactive Architecture Lab have designed a nomadic, self-driving, and self-cultivating garden named Hortum machina, B. Like an autonomous car, the mobile garden responds to the environment, in this case, moving towards or away from sunlight, shade, and unhealthy levels of air pollution, as needed. (more…)