Nifty Fifty

By Joe Schwarcz PhD, Author, USASEF Expo Performer, AT&T Sponsored Nifty Fifty Program Speaker The malt flavouring is gone! Celiac sufferers are no longer limited to listening to the snap, crackle and pop of Rice Krispies! They can actually eat the cereal that has been music to the ears of legions since 1928 but has been verboten for anyone with a sensitivity to gluten, the mixture of proteins found in wheat, barley and rye. Rice contains no gluten and is in general a staple for celiac sufferers. But malt flavouring, a standard ingredient in Rice Krispies, can harbour a trace of…
By Joe Schwarcz PhD, Author, USASEF Expo Performer, AT&T Sponsored Nifty Fifty Program Speaker Yellowstone National Park's iconic "Old Faithful" geyser is pretty faithful. It can be counted on to erupt every 50-90 minutes. Iceland's "Great Geysir," from which all other geysers get their name is less reliable. It was mostly dormant for sixty five years before it began semi-regular eruptions again in 2000 thanks to an earthquake. But in New Zealand, you can set your watch by the eruption of the Lady Knox Geyser, named after a former Governor of the country. At exactly 10:15 AM every…
This past December, AT&T sponsored Nifty Fifty program speaker Dr. Karen Panetta received a Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring from President Barack Obama! Dr. Panetta is a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Tufts University and Director of the Simulation Research Laboratory at Tufts University. She is also the co-founder of BA Logix Inc. and serves as the company's Chief Research Scientist. Congratulations to Dr. Panetta and read about her prestigious award here. Read about Dr. Karen Panetta's Engineering Outreach…
AT&T Sponsored Nifty Fifty Program Speaker and Surgical Roboticist Carol Reiley made the recent cover of MAKE Magazine! She is the first female engineer to make the cover of the magazine. Volume 29 of MAKE features an interview and two articles co-authored by Carol. Carol, a Ph.D. student at Johns Hopkins University's Computational Interaction and Robotics Laboratory, is at the forefront of research which is ushering in a new age of technology called teleoperated robotics in which scientists, physicians and other professionals located miles away can operate robots with great precision…
By Joe Schwarcz PhD, Author, USASEF Expo Performer, AT&T Sponsored Nifty Fifty Program SpeakerThey sold out after just four hours. And they weren't even hotcakes. They were just little capsules. But these capsules came with a nifty promise. Pop some, and wrinkles, those fearsome hallmarks of aging, would be ironed out from the inside! Cleverly named "Strength Within," the contents were the product of at least five years of research by a team of scientists at Unilever's laboratories in the UK. When word leaked out last September that the beauty pills would be test-marketed for two…
By Joe Schwarcz PhD, Author, USASEF Expo Performer, AT&T Sponsored Nifty Fifty Program SpeakerPhysicians today are unlikely to encounter "Gilder's palsy." Nor are they likely to diagnose a patient with "hatter's shakes." But prior to the twentieth century these ailments had to be considered when a patient presented with tremors, irritability, increased salivation and fatigue. In the case of the hatters, the culprit was mercury nitrate used to produce felt. Beaver and rabbit fur, the traditional materials for making felt, can be matted more easily when the pelts are first treated with…
By Joe Schwarcz PhD, Author, USASEF Expo Performer, AT&T Sponsored Nifty Fifty Program SpeakerThe "beep..beep..beep" sounded innocent enough, but it shook America to its very core. Why? Because it was coming from outer space! No, the military personnel monitoring radio signals did not pick up a transmission from aliens. This beep was coming from a transmitter placed inside a twenty-three inch diameter ball made of aluminum, titanium and magnesium. A ball that was orbiting the earth, passing over Washington DC every hour, emitting an irritating signal that sent a clear message: We are…
AT&T sponsored Nifty Fifty program speaker and Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science at Yale University Ainissa Ramirez has created a new YouTube video series entitled Material Marvels from her lab at Yale on some pretty cool materials used in space, robots and even in your mouth! Her titles to date are Space Shuttle Tiles, Shape Memory Alloys, Solar Cells and Quasicrystals. Here is the first in her series: Ainissa Ramirez is perhaps best known for discovering a universal solder that can bond metals to ceramics, glass, diamonds and the oxide materials used…
By Joe Schwarcz, Author, USASEF Expo Performer, AT&T sponsored Nifty Fifty program speaker & Director, McGill University Office for Science and Society - Montreal, QC, Canada Thanks to chemical ingenuity we lead a colourful life. Synthetic dyes have served up a feast for the eyes but they may leave us starving for good health. Our reliance on these chemicals exposes us to a host of unnatural wavelengths that can affect our body chemistry. Until about a hundred and fifty years ago we had no choice but to rely on natural dyes. If you wanted red, you had better know where to find a…
By: Joe Schwarcz PhD Author, USASEF Expo Performer and AT&T Sponsored Nifty Fifty Program Speaker Blueberries may reduce the growth of breast cancer! Apples and pears reduce the chance of stroke! I bet I have your attention now. But those are not my words, they're recent newspaper headlines. It seems that virtually every day some new study comes out touting the ability of this or that food to extend our earthly existence. Usually the researchers themselves are modest in their claims and end their discussion with the inevitable call for more research. But then the media get a sniff…
by Joe Schwarcz PhD, Author, Expo Performer and AT&T sponsored Nifty Fifty program speaker They say you can't take it with you. Actually that isn't quite true. Your earthly possessions stay behind, but there is something that you do take with you. Your body! And decisions have to be made about what is to become of it. Burial and cremation are the traditional choices, but now there is another option on the horizon. A "green" option. You can be resomated. In technical terms, your remains can be subjected to "alkaline hydrolysis." In somewhat less elegant language, you can be…
By: Joe Schwarcz PhD Author, USASEF Expo Performer and AT&T Sponsored Nifty Fifty Program Speaker "Do you have any liquids, gels or powdered fruit drinks?" Except for the powdered fruit drinks, such questions have become routine at airports. But back on July 10, 2006 I had no idea why I was being asked this bizarre question. Why would the agent be concerned about my toiletry and dietary habits? I couldn't make heads or tails of it. The only connection with flight that sprang to mind was with Tang, the orange-flavoured crystals that John Glenn took along on his orbital mission in 1962…
Even as a child Terence Boylan was a dreamer with big ideas. Collaborating in 1957 with his friend, nine-year old Terence made plans to build a rocket that could carry a mouse into the sky and bring it back safely. But Terence did not have the money to buy the aluminum they needed so he asked his father (a physician and medical researcher at the University of Buffalo), where he got his research money. Dr. Boylan told him the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to whom the boy then wrote to ask for $10 to build the rocket. The request reached the chief of NIH Grants and although the NIH…
In his prolific career of more than 30 years as an author of science books for children, Seymour Simon has penned more than 250 children's books, taking young readers on exciting, unforgettable journeys across the breadth of the scientific landscape -- from exploring outer space, its planets, earthquakes and super storms to delving into the intricate workings of the human heart and brain, the internal clocks of chrysanthemums, and the behavior and mystery of butterflies, gorillas, cats, dogs and other wonders of nature. In fact, says one book reviewer, "There is no place on, in, or around…
Jeff Goldstein is a renowned astrophysicist and director of the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education in Washington DC. But he is equally known as a first-rate science educator with a knack for creating and implementing approaches in teaching that truly engage students in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). The teacher's job, he contends, is to "immerse the students in the act of the journey by letting them do science, and acknowledging it is their journey." Dr. Jeff, (as students and colleagues like to call him), took his message recently to the National…
When biomedical engineering scientist Erin Lavik received the prestigious New Innovator Award last year from the National Institutes of Health for her work in advancing the development of synthetic (artificial) blood platelets, she was already becoming known in biomedical circles as a rising researcher. Erin's laboratory at Case Western Reserve University, where she is currently an associate professor of Biomedical Engineering, was attracting attention for its focus on developing new approaches to understand and treat hemorrhaging, spinal cord injury, glaucoma, and diseases of the retina…
To hook kids on the excitement of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) you must not only engage them via meaningful hands-on classroom experiences, but engage them early and often, says noted outreach expert and engineering educator Elizabeth Parry. With more than 15 years working in K-12 and higher education environments to inspire young learners in science and engineering, Elizabeth is coordinator of STEM Partnership Development at The Engineering Place in North Carolina State University's College of Engineering. "If you really want students to learn STEM, teach them not…
At AT&T, research scientist Alicia Abella is known as a "change agent," an innovator who is keeping her corporation on the cutting edge of developing new and better ways to help people and companies communicate with each other -- including through innovations in teleconferencing, Web-based solutions and iPhone application-based approaches that increase work efficiency and rapid-response collaboration across the globe. "We are really trying to enhance the way individuals communicate with each other over distance and time," says Alicia, Executive Director of Innovative Services Research at…
What is your impression of these jobs? --Mechanic --Welder --Electrician --Air Conditioning Technician Despite the consummate skill and training that these and similar maintenance professions require today, they often still bear the unfortunate stigma in the public's eye of being menial "grease monkey" jobs -- occupations that (unlike many white collar four-year college professions) require workers to fix things and get their hands dirty. Therein lies both the challenge and mission of Joel Leonard, a Skill TV producer and host and self-proclaimed maintenance evangelist, as he warns America of…
Joy Hakim is trying to change the way we deliver information in our schools. She says stories are the way to go; they not only charge the mind, they provide a base for remembering. So she has tackled the traditional subjects--history and science--and put their information in narrative clothing. Says Joy: "Much school learning in recent years has been fact and test driven, with no narrative base. It hasn't worked. The way cultures have traditionally passed on their ideas is through stories. The Greeks knew that, and so, too, did Mr. McGuffey, whose 'readers' taught generations of Americans."…