It may well already be 2013 and naturally here at E&T Towers we’re all tremendously future facing, relentlessly pursuing the new and strange, but we can still find time to honour and celebrate the top scientific achievements of 2012 with this natty infographic. God particles, DNA, genomes, X-rays, Martian landings and robot hands – hats off to you all, boffins!
Click on the graphic for an expanded view.
Top scientific achievements 2012
When it comes to your passions, your intellectual proclivities, there’s nothing like wearing your heart on your sleeve. Proclaim to the world what makes you tick, what drives you on, what gets you out of bed in the morning.
One effective way to transmit to the universe the depth of your feelings on any given subject is via the medium of the T-shirt. This one made us laugh out loud here at E&T HQ earlier this week, but we should warn you that it does contain language that we all hope never to hear our own children using. We’re all grown ups here, though, right? We can’t be held responsible for the content on other websites, OK? OK.
With that caveat firmly in mind, enjoy this Imaginary Foundation Bonkers Collection T-shirt. Bad font, great picture!
New Scientist's new spin-off Arc
Bearing a suitably technical-sounding moniker, Arc 1.1 is the inaugural issue of New Scientist magazine’s bimonthly spin-off focussed on investigating the intersection of science and technology with culture and society at large. With the slightly ominous-sounding subtitle ‘The Future Always Wins’, the magazine is a collection of essays and think pieces interspersed with several pieces of short fiction, all loosely themed around the future, futurism and futurology.
The articles range from slightly creepy, sci-fi writer China Mieville’s visit to a marine biology lab, to slightly gloomy, Paul Graham Raven on the Dark Mountain Festival and the collapse of Western civilisation, to utterly surreal, Simon Ings on the extraordinary hidden lives of shipping containers.
Elsewhere New Scientist editor Sumit Paul-Choudury makes an admirable stab at convincing readers that low budget 2004 Sundance winner Primer is the greatest time travel movie ever made, Simon Pummell investigates the possibilities for museum displays opened up by augmented reality and Adam Roberts attempts to explain the very essence of science fiction.
The fiction side of things is similarly eclectic with newer, emerging talents such as Finland’s Hannu Rajaniemi featured alongside veterans such as Margaret Atwood and M John Harrison.
In keeping with its generally forward-thinking outlook the magazine is available as a multiplatform release for iPhone, iPad, Kindle and Android accompanied by a collectable print edition for those readers who still prefer the smell of printers’ ink and the texture of paper between their fingers. Design-wise the magazine has a slick, clean sci-fi look and is liberally hyperlinked allowing readers of the electronic versions to delve further into the issues under discussion.
Arc 1.1 is available for download now. Visit www.newscientist.com/arc for more information.
Adrian Mankovecký and Henrik Otto
Slovakian student Adrian Mankovecký has won first place in the 2011 Electrolux Design Lab competition finals at the Room Home Intelligence Conference, held this week at London’s Business Design Centre.
Mankovecký, who studies at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava, Slovakia, took the top prize with his design concept the Portable Spot Cleaner, after beating 1,300 entrants from over 50 countries.
The jury, which included Danish designer Cecilie Manz, award winning architects Hayes and James Slade, and Henrik Otto, senior vice president of Global Design at Electrolux, was impressed by his concept and praised his “creative and insightful thinking”.
“The Portable spot cleaner is built on a very solid consumer insight and it is highly relevant,” they said in a statement.
“It is an instant laundry device that has a positive impact on the environment by reducing consumption. Its usage and interaction are very intuitive. We all want one.”
The design is a small spot cleaner, powered by a sugar crystal battery, that refreshes clothing and removes stains using negative ions and steam.
Portable Spot Cleaner
Students were invited to create home appliances for preparing food, cleaning and doing dishes, along the competition’s theme of ‘Intelligent Mobility’.
They were briefed that the appliances should not only physically be more portable, but also provide flexible control to free people from being at home, while reflect Scandinavian design values of being sensitive to the environment, providing intuitive ease of use and aesthetic appeal.
Henrik Otto at Electrolux, said he liked how the Portable Spot Cleaner was similar to the Ergorapido being “a new fresh way of tackling a clothing care problem on the go, and with consideration for sensitive materials”.
He added that he was looking forward to welcoming Mankovecký when he starts his internship at the Electrolux Design Centre in Stockholm, part of his prize.
Second prize went to Australian student Enzo Kocak’s Ribbon which was praised by the jury as “incredible simplicity in form and application and its usage is highly intuitive. The concept is very familiar and easy to recognize yet different enough to be truly innovative”.
Third prize went to New Zealand student Roseanne de Briun’s Smoobo blender, described as “a very refreshing concept, especially with its social aspect it expands much beyond today’s usage of home appliances,” while People’s Choice Award went to Matthew Schwartz’s Onda Portable Microwave.
The concept models will tour worldwide and will be displayed at design fairs, and participation in Electrolux Design Lab has led directly to jobs and business opportunities in the design field for many of the contestants.
Several finalists are currently employed in one of the Electrolux Global Design centres and last year’s winner is doing his 6-month internship.
An ultra-thin electronic device that attaches to the skin like a stick-on tattoo has been developed. The electronic “skin” can monitor electrical activity from the heart, brain waves and other vital signs.
Click on the graphic for an expanded view.
Electronic skin
The new galleries open on 29 July
The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh reopens on 29 July 2011 after a massive refurbishment that has created new galleries housing thousands of exhibits. For its latest issue, E&T picked its ten favourite from the many illustrating Scotland’s contributions to scientific and technological innovation. Find out , what they are and listen to managing editor Dominic Lenton talking to the museum’s keeper of science and technology, Alexander Hayward, about them in E&T podcast 7.5.
Judging by the interview I heard on Radio 2 last night, Professor Andre Geim is one reluctant science star. Recalcitrant would be one word for his level of engagement. Still, being one of them gold-plated egghead boffins, he should have realised that you can’t go around discovering the thinnest material ever, giving it a snappy name like graphene and then winning Nobel prizes on account of this without someone wanting to come round and have a word. As it happens, E&T did just that two years ago – check out our interview with Prof Geim from the E&T archive.
Yes, yes, I invented graphene, now get out of my laboratory
E&T is the IET's magazine covering science, engineering and technology.
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