#Alivisatos

[msclaritea]

"On Monday, UChicago’s president defended my right to say low IQ is why black people are murdering and mugging my classmates.

Today, UChicago announced that someone has anonymously donated $100 million to support free speech.

Wow!" Daniel Schmidt, a Jewish 'student' at the University of Chicago

Armand Paul Alivisatos (born November 12, 1959) is a Greek-American etymologist, chemist and academic administrator who has served as the 14th president of the University of Chicago since September 2021. He is a pioneer in nanomaterials development and an authority on the fabrication of nanocrystals and their use in biomedical and renewable energy applications. He was ranked fifth among the world's top 100 chemists for the period 2000–2010 in the list released by Thomson Reuters.

On September 1, 2021, Alivisatos became the 14th president of the University of Chicago, where he also holds a faculty appointment as the John D. MacArthur Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Chemistry, the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, and the College; and serves as the Chair of the Board of Governors of Argonne National Laboratory and Chair of the Board of Directors of Fermi Research Alliance LLC, the operator of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory

Prior to joining the University of Chicago, Alivisatos was the Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost (2017–2021) of the University of California, Berkeley, where he had taught since 1988. He previously served as the Director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (2009–2016), and as Berkeley’s interim Vice Chancellor for Research (2016–2017). He held a number of faculty appointments at Berkeley, including the Samsung Distinguished Professor in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Research and Professor of Chemistry and Materials Science & Engineering. Alivisatos was also the Founding Director of the Kavli Energy Nanosciences Institute (ENSI), an institute on the Berkeley campus launched by the Kavli Foundation to explore the application of nanoscience to sustainable energy technologies.

Early life and education

Paul Alivisatos was born in Chicago, Illinois, to a Greek family, where he lived until the age of 10, when his family moved to Athens, Greece. Alivisatos has said of his years in Greece that it was a great experience for him because he had to learn the Greek language and culture then catch up with the more advanced students. "When I found something very interesting it was sometimes a struggle for me to understand it the very best that I could," he has said of that experience. "That need to work harder became an important motivator for me." Alivisatos returned to the United States to attend the University of Chicago in the late 1970s.

In 1981, Alivisatos earned a B.A. with honors in chemistry from the University of Chicago. In 1986, he received a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, where he worked under Charles Harris. His Ph.D. thesis concerned the photophysics of electronically excited molecules near metal and semiconductor surfaces. He then joined AT&T Bell Labs working with Louis E. Brus, and began research in the field of nanotechnology.

Alivisatos returned to Berkeley in 1988 as an assistant professor of chemistry, becoming associate professor in 1993 and professor in 1995. He served as Chancellor's Professor from 1998 to 2001, and added an appointment as a professor of materials science and engineering in 1999.

Alivisatos' affiliation with Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (or Berkeley Lab) began in 1991 when he joined the staff of the Materials Sciences Division. From 2005 to 2007 Alivisatos served as Berkeley Lab's Associate Laboratory Director for the Physical Sciences area. In 2008, he served as Deputy Lab Director under Berkeley Lab Director Steven Chu, and then as interim director when Chu stepped down to become the Secretary of Energy. He was named the seventh Director of Berkeley Lab on November 19, 2009, by the University of California Board of Regents on the recommendation of UC President Mark Yudof and with the concurrence of the U.S. Department of Energy. He played a critical role in the establishment of the Molecular Foundry, a U.S. Department of Energy's Nanoscale Science Research Center; and was the facility's founding director.

Energy Secretary, Nobel laureate, and fellow Berkeley alumnus Steven Chu noted that Alivisatos is "an incredible scientist with incredible judgment on a variety of issues. He's level-headed and calm, and he has an ability to inspire people…[and he can] take projects from material science to real-world applications."

Why in hell is a Jewish student at the University of Chicago, cosplaying as white, stoking racial hatred on social media, and getting rewarded for it, from JB Pritzker and first generation American, Alivisatos, the president of University of Chicago?

Alivisatos also just happens to be a Nanotech expert. This man has spent a lot of time at CIA-linked, Berkeley, and has ties to Pritzker, a Transhumanist. Are we really supposed to believe that $100 million dollar donation was anything other than money laundering? Or that the Leftist teacher Schmidt railed against wasn't hired by the very people pretending to be upset?

I know, now why Jews have so much hatred towards Black Americans. It's because they know who we really are.

[readingsquotes]

...“Disruption becomes greater the longer the encampment persists,” Alivisatos warned. “With a 24-hour presence, day after day, we must for example divert police resources away from public safety for our campus and our community.”

This one remark compresses decades of history into a crystalline lens on the self-conception of powerful universities today. Like many of its peers, UChicago imagines itself as an institution that has been, since long before the first Palestinian solidarity tent went up, under siege. The university is a “community” whose safety is in jeopardy, and it must be defended by armed police officers. The crime of the encampment is to draw this force inward, when it must be ceaselessly projected outward, securing the border between UChicago and its perilous environs. ...

.... According to students on the ground, UChicago police began to distribute leaflets to protesters about an hour and a half after the raid began, demanding they vacate the quad on penalty of suspension, eviction, and bans from campus. The order of operations here was bizarre. Presumably once someone was ripped from their sleeping bag by a riot cop, they would have already absorbed the message that they were being encouraged to leave. When such notices are distributed, it typically happens before raids, in order to give police legal grounds to make arrests for criminal trespassing, which may have been the original plan at UChicago. But if the students are correct that the flyers were passed out even after they no longer had any legal value, it would suggest that UCPD viewed the distribution as an end in itself, part of the whole pageantry of the operation. You put on your body armor, load up your military-caliber firearms, prepare for battle against the undesirable population in need of removal — and print leaflets warning everyone to hit the road. That’s just how it’s done. It’s how it was done at Dartmouth and the University of New Mexico, both of which distributed warning notices shortly before arrests commenced. The University of Pennsylvania waited nearly two weeks after circulating threatening flyers to send police in riot gear to clear its encampment. Columbia suspended students who refused to heed ultimatum leaflets in late April. There were other theatrics, too: snipers (Indiana University), a ladder-equipped armored vehicle (Columbia), surveillance drones (Columbia again), security checkpoints (Harvard, where I teach). Whole student populations punished in retaliation for a minority’s actions, as when the City College of New York shut down its food pantry in response to the encampment there, or when the University of Minnesota allegedly ordered the water supply to its student union building shut off overnight after protests began. It’s almost as if, in trying to squash students’ outrage at the Israel Defense Forces, universities have simultaneously adopted a twisted pastiche of its tactics.

Activists have long decried the prevalence of exchange programs that send American police officers to Israel for instruction. The practice began in the aftermath of 9/11, and some university cops have even gotten in on the action.

[jcmarchi]

Nancy Kanwisher, Robert Langer, and Sara Seager named Kavli Prize Laureates

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/nancy-kanwisher-robert-langer-and-sara-seager-named-kavli-prize-laureates/

Nancy Kanwisher, Robert Langer, and Sara Seager named Kavli Prize Laureates

MIT faculty members Nancy Kanwisher, Robert Langer, and Sara Seager are among eight researchers worldwide to receive this year’s Kavli Prizes.

A partnership among the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research, and the Kavli Foundation, the Kavli Prizes are awarded every two years to “honor scientists for breakthroughs in astrophysics, nanoscience and neuroscience that transform our understanding of the big, the small and the complex.” The laureates in each field will share $1 million.

Understanding recognition of faces

Nancy Kanwisher, the Walter A Rosenblith Professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and McGovern Institute for Brain Research investigator, has been awarded the 2024 Kavli Prize in Neuroscience with Doris Tsao, professor in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California at Berkeley, and Winrich Freiwald, the Denise A. and Eugene W. Chinery Professor at the Rockefeller University.

Kanwisher, Tsao, and Freiwald discovered a specialized system within the brain to recognize faces. Their discoveries have provided basic principles of neural organization and made the starting point for further research on how the processing of visual information is integrated with other cognitive functions.

Kanwisher was the first to prove that a specific area in the human neocortex is dedicated to recognizing faces, now called the fusiform face area. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, she found individual differences in the location of this area and devised an analysis technique to effectively localize specialized functional regions in the brain. This technique is now widely used and applied to domains beyond the face recognition system. 

Integrating nanomaterials for biomedical advances

Robert Langer, the David H. Koch Institute Professor, has been awarded the 2024 Kavli Prize in Nanoscience with Paul Alivisatos, president of the University of Chicago and John D. MacArthur Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Chemistry, and Chad Mirkin, professor of chemistry at Northwestern University.

Langer, Alivisatos, and Mirkin each revolutionized the field of nanomedicine by demonstrating how engineering at the nano scale can advance biomedical research and application. Their discoveries contributed foundationally to the development of therapeutics, vaccines, bioimaging, and diagnostics.

Langer was the first to develop nanoengineered materials that enabled the controlled release, or regular flow, of drug molecules. This capability has had an immense impact for the treatment of a range of diseases, such as aggressive brain cancer, prostate cancer, and schizophrenia. His work also showed that tiny particles, containing protein antigens, can be used in vaccination, and was instrumental in the development of the delivery of messenger RNA vaccines. 

Searching for life beyond Earth

Sara Seager, the Class of 1941 Professor of Planetary Sciences in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences and a professor in the departments of Physics and of Aeronautics and Astronautics, has been awarded the 2024 Kavli Prize in Astrophysics along with David Charbonneau, the Fred Kavli Professor of Astrophysics at Harvard University.

Seager and Charbonneau are recognized for discoveries of exoplanets and the characterization of their atmospheres. They pioneered methods for the detection of atomic species in planetary atmospheres and the measurement of their thermal infrared emission, setting the stage for finding the molecular fingerprints of atmospheres around both giant and rocky planets. Their contributions have been key to the enormous progress seen in the last 20 years in the exploration of myriad exoplanets. 

Kanwisher, Langer, and Seager bring the number of all-time MIT faculty recipients of the Kavli Prize to eight. Prior winners include Rainer Weiss in astrophysics (2016), Alan Guth in astrophysics (2014), Mildred Dresselhaus in nanoscience (2012), Ann Graybiel in neuroscience (2012), and Jane Luu in astrophysics (2012).

[bananaft]

Human brain mapping project obama

Our "effort-tree" is still growing, and we hope the current and future fruits will promote open-science and contribute to neuroscience research of marmosets. Via this website, we would like to share all of our fruits, including raw data, to the research community. These efforts resulted in useful atlases and tools for the marmoset research and valuable MRI data that can be of interests to researchers who are in the MRI research field. We are making significant progress during these years, not only in developing atlases for mapping the marmoset brain, but also in pushing the resolution limit of non-human primate MRI. David Leopold's lab (NIMH/NIH): David Leopold, and Frank Ye Afonso Silva's lab (NINDS/NIH): Afonso Silva, John Newman, Cecil Yen, Diego Szczupak, and Xiaoguang Tian With supports and helps from multiple labs and teams, including Marmoset brain atlases and tools to facilitate neuroimaging and translational studies. With a better understanding of those connections, he says, "perhaps we can identify interventions that would stop that spreading.The Marmoset Brain Mapping Project was launched in Nov. The BRAIN initiative also could lead to a better understanding of Alzheimer's disease and perhaps new treatments, says Guy Eakin, vice president for scientific affairs at the BrightFocus Foundation, which supports research on Alzheimer's disease, macular degeneration and glaucoma.įor example, Eakin says, some research indicates that Alzheimer's spreads from cell to cell in the brain, using the connections between cells. outlined a variety of specific experimental techniques that might be used to achieve what they termed a 'functional. In a 2012 scientific commentary outlining experimental plans for a more limited project, Alivisatos et al. "But if we really understood the brain's language, the brain's code, we could potentially recreate everything you do with your own arm." News reports said the research would map the dynamics of neuron activity in mice and other animals and eventually the tens of billions of neurons in the human brain. "We know enough to get crude approximations," he says. Five years from now it will seem like we waited too late to take advantage of the opportunity.ĭonoghue says the ability to do that would make a big difference in his own efforts to allow paralyzed people to control a robotic arm as if it were their own. The project will be carried out by both public and private. And you have to pick them up so you can hear each conversation very clearly."įive years ago, this might have seemed out of reach. President Obama said initiatives like the Human Genome Project had transformed genetics now he wants to do the same with the brain. "So the tools we need are the ability to pick up many, many cells at the same time. "What's going on in the brain is like a conversation between thousands of neurons all at once," says John Donoghue, director of the Brown Institute for Brain Science at Brown University. Scientists involved in creating the BRAIN initiative say it could provide some really helpful research tools even if it falls short of some goals. But he says it is likely that researchers will be able to monitor smaller brains, like those found in fruit flies or mice. But with human brains, he says, "the differences are vastly greater."Īnd trying to keep track of every one of the brain's nearly 100 billion neurons may be unrealistic, says Van Essen, who is also principle investigator of the Human Connectome Project, an NIH-funded effort to map connections in the human brain. People are remarkably similar genetically, so researchers can learn a lot about all people by looking at the genetic sequences of just a few, says David Van Essen of Washington University in St. Joe's Big Idea Wanna Play? Computer Gamers Help Push Frontier Of Brain Research "Five years from now it will seem like we waited too late to take advantage of the opportunity." "Five years ago, this might have seemed out of reach," he says. The technologies that allow scientists to watch the brain at work are advancing with amazing speed, Collins says, so he thinks it's the right time to take a chance. "It's the most complicated structure in the known universe." "To understand how the human brain works is about the most audacious scientific project you can imagine," he says. It's an amazingly ambitious idea, says Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health. The Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative would accomplish this by developing tools that would allow researchers to monitor millions or even billions of individual neurons as they interact to form thoughts or create memories. In a speech Tuesday, Obama said he will ask Congress for $100 million in 2014 to "better understand how we think and how we learn and how we remember." Other goals include finding new treatments for Alzheimer's disease, epilepsy and traumatic brain injury. President Obama has announced an ambitious plan to explore the mysteries of the human brain. Tom Barrick, Chris Clark, SGHMS /Science Source A colored 3-D MRI scan of the brain's white matter pathways traces connections between cells in the cerebrum and the brainstem.

[materialsscienceandengineering]

Near-perfect performance in low-cost semiconductors

Tiny, easy-to-produce particles, called quantum dots, may soon take the place of more expensive single crystal semiconductors in advanced electronics found in solar panels, camera sensors and medical imaging tools. Although quantum dots have begun to break into the consumer market -- in the form of quantum dot TVs -- they have been hampered by long-standing uncertainties about their quality. Now, a new measurement technique developed by researchers at Stanford University may finally dissolve those doubts.

"Traditional semiconductors are single crystals, grown in vacuum under special conditions. These we can make in large numbers, in flask, in a lab and we've shown they are as good as the best single crystals," said David Hanifi, graduate student in chemistry at Stanford and co-lead author of the paper written about this work, published March 15 in Science.

The researchers focused on how efficiently quantum dots reemit the light they absorb, one telltale measure of semiconductor quality. While previous attempts to figure out quantum dot efficiency hinted at high performance, this is the first measurement method to confidently show they could compete with single crystals.

This work is the result of a collaboration between the labs of Alberto Salleo, professor of materials science and engineering at Stanford, and Paul Alivisatos, the Samsung Distinguished Professor of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology at the University of California, Berkeley, who is a pioneer in quantum dot research and senior author of the paper. Alivisatos emphasized how the measurement technique could lead to the development of new technologies and materials that require knowing the efficiency of our semiconductors to a painstaking degree.

Read more.

[vivimetalliun]

Novo pigmento azul desenvolvido por cientistas traz mais vida a criações artísticas

Novo pigmento azul desenvolvido por cientistas traz mais vida a criações artísticas

Quando você achava que o mundo já tinha todas as cores que precisava, vêm os cientistas e criam um novo pigmento: o “Quantum Blue“.

Trata-se de um azul vivo feito de pontos quânticos que absorvem a luz azul.

Tudo começou como uma ideia da pintora Olga Alexopoulou, encarada como um desafio pelo Prof. Paul Alivisatos, uma das maiores autoridades na fabricação de nanocristais.

Com a ajuda…

[reportwire]

UChicago Medicine names new leader

UChicago Medicine names new leader

Polonsky announced earlier this year that he would step down at the end of September. He first came to the university for an endocrinology fellowship in 1978. Polonsky will remain on faculty and serve as a senior adviser to University of Chicago President Paul Alivisatos. Anderson is director of the department of medicine at Johns Hopkins, the William Osler Professor of Medicine and…

[chicagochinesenews]

驚!芝加哥大學又發生持槍搶劫案

（芝加哥時報/快訊）芝加哥大學最近連遭暴力事件，校內一再發生武裝搶劫事件，在中國留學生碩士鄭少雄(Shaoxiong Dennis Zheng) 於海德公園一條街道上遭槍擊身亡兩天之後，又發生持槍搶劫案,該校一名大學工作人員又被持槍搶劫,芝加哥論壇報報道，芝加哥大學領導人表示目前已經加強校園安全的措施。 在最新發生的校內搶劫事件中,學校的安全警報顯示，兩名襲擊者從一輛小型黑色SUV中跳出來，與這名工作人員對峙，當時這名工作人員正在查賓大廳(Chapin Hall)外走着。在一名襲擊者拔出槍並要求其交出財物後，此人交出了自己的手機，兩人回到SUV上並向東逃跑。該校發言人表示，沒有跡象表明這起搶劫案與剛畢業的大學生鄭少雄的死亡有關。鄭少雄於11月9日下午在校園附近東54街900號被槍殺。 芝加哥大學的領導們，包括校長Paul Alivisatos，華裔教務長李嘉儀(Ka Yee C.…

[biotechworld]

Paul Alivisatos and Michael Grätzel win the Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Basic Sciences

Paul Alivisatos and Michael Grätzel win the Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Basic Sciences

The award has gone in this thirteenth edition to the two scientists who developed new nanomaterials with applications in solar energy and cutting-edge electronics Credit: BBVA FOUNDATION The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Basic Sciences category has gone in this thirteenth edition to Paul Alivisatos (University of California, Berkeley, United States) and Michael Grätzel…

[schraubd]

I'm Sick of Smug-Takes on Berkeley Offering "Counseling"

Former Breitbart editor Ben Shapiro is coming to campus this week. Shapiro will be followed this month by Ann Coulter, Steve Bannon, and Milo Yiannopoulos, as part of a Berkeley "free speech week". In a long email outlining the various campus policies that would be in place to facilitate all these speeches (and as I've consistently argued, having been invited by authorized community members they do have a right to speak free of censorship or material disruption, though of course not from non-intrusive protest or criticism), Executive Vice Chancellor Paul Alivisatos mentioned that, among other things, counseling services were available for any students who felt "threatened or harassed simply because of who they are or for what they believe." And the internet went wild. I don't need to collect links -- here's an example, but they're not hard to find. Across the entire political spectrum of the mainstream media -- you know, center-left to hard-right -- there was near-uniform glee in dumping on coddling Berkeley administrators and infantile Berkeley students who need counseling just because they're hearing "ideas they disagree with." I cannot tell you how sick I am of hearing this. It's lazy, it's a cheap shot, it's intellectually incoherent, and above all it's mean-spirited. Berkeley isn't wrong here. And it's detractors are showing more about what's missing in their character than the most stereotypical Golden Bear hipster. For starters, Berkeley is a big place. It's total enrollment is over 40,000 students. These young people come from a range of backgrounds, and at any given time across that 40,000 there will be persons who are struggling, or experiencing crises, or feeling threatened, or any other permutation of personal circumstance and emotional troubles you can imagine. I've already written recently about how all of us -- self-satisfied declarations notwithstanding -- intuitively understand how certain speech can truly wound deeply, in a manner which we can all empathize with. That doesn't mean we ban it (and offering counseling doesn't "ban" anything), but it does mean that there's a genuine phenomena that we can and should attempt to address So let's be empathic. Let's imagine, amongst Berkeley's 40,000 students, that there is a student who is struggling. Maybe he's away from home for the first time and having difficulty adjusting. Maybe she feels in over her head in classes, finding that work that got her an A in high school is barely scraping a C at Berkeley. And then let's add more to it -- maybe he's just found out that he's now at imminent risk of deportation from the only country he's ever truly known. Maybe she's found out that, though she proudly served her country and is a veteran of the American armed forces, the President of the United States publicly declared her to be a burden on the US military who should never have been allowed to wear the uniform. Now let's remember who Ben Shapiro is.

Ben Shapiro thinks that trans individuals suffer from a "mental illness" and gratuitously misgenders them for the primary purpose of causing offense. He refers to DACA as President Obama's "executive amnesty". Pretty much the only reason his isn't an avowed member of the alt-right is that they happen to hate him too. He's not an intellectual. He's not one the great thinkers of the right. His oeuvre, his raison d'etre, is to be a hurtful provocateur. That's what he brings to the table.

And let's be clear: this, the above, was why Ben Shapiro was invited to Berkeley. It wasn't because he offered "a different view." And it certainly wasn't because of the intellectual candlepower he has on offer. The people who invited Ben Shapiro to UC-Berkeley did so because of, not in spite of, the hurt he will dish out to already-vulnerable members of the community. The students I outlined above -- already struggling, buffeted by political dynamics which very much are designed to dehumanize them -- now have to reckon with the reality that a non-negligible chunk of their colleagues are glad they're feeling that way. They actively want to accelerate the process. They'll go out of their way to invite speakers to reiterate and emphasize the point.

Honestly, I don't blame them if they could use a venue to talk out their feelings a bit. It strikes me as spectacularly uncharitable, a colossal failure of basic empathy, to think otherwise. Then again, what is our polity going through now but a colossal failure of basic empathy?

After the election, I made a similar comment (which I cannot find) when people again made fun of college kids who expressed deep hurt and fear upon the election of Donald Trump. This, too, was attributed to fragile millennial snowflakes who don't know how to tolerate hardship. And I remarked that the man now faced with being expelled from the country is not scared because he's frail, and the woman who was the victim of a sexual assault is not despondent because she's weak-willed. We've seemingly moved past "don't punch people who think you're subhuman" (okay) to "don't be sad that people think you're subhuman" (really?). Some are arguing that the real problem with offering counseling is that it doesn't teach the kids "resilience". First of all, I wonder what they think goes on in counseling sessions -- my strong suspicion is that they are precisely about fostering resiliency so that students are better able to cope with such annoying trivialities like "I may be torn from the only home I've ever known at any moment and a sizeable portion of what I thought was my community will cheer as they drag me off." The objection here isn't so much to lack of resilience as to the university having the temerity to try and teach it -- like objecting to wilderness training because shouldn't real men already know how to survive outdoors? Second, it is hard not to hear in this objection a deep resentment at the fact that today, even now, some people still do proactively care about the feelings of others. The argument seems to be that "fifty years ago if someone felt marginalized on a college campus nobody gave a shit. Today, some people -- including a few holding administrative positions -- do care, and for some reason that's a step backwards for society." One can hear more than a little of the typical mockery associated with using therapy of any sort -- though I admit I hadn't heard it manifest this overtly in some time -- which suggests that only persons of pathologically fragile mental composition could ever need something as lily-livered as counseling. Again, I find this argument hard to relate to, seeing as its genealogy is so thoroughly bound up in nothing more complicated than pure cruelty. Shorn of the feelings of superiority it generates, can anyone actually defend this? Others complain that students shouldn't be going to therapy in response to such speech, they should be responding in other ways -- debate, protest, donations, activism, any thing else. Of all the objections, this is the one that is the most difficult to credit. Does anyone think that the only way Berkeley students will respond to Ben Shapiro's speech is by going to counseling sessions? That Friday morning, all 40,000 of us will march into whatever center houses our mental health professionals and demand to be soothed? Of course not. Of course there will be debate, and protest, and donations, and activism. And you can bet that however such actions manifest, people will still find a way to denounce the entire response tout court -- unjustified actions like violence, yes, but also silent protest, but also waving signs, but also pure condemnatory speech (especially if that speech dares use the dreaded -ism or -phobic suffixes). Finally, let's dispense with the notion that this is all being triggered by students who can't tolerate "ideas they disagree with." For starters, it's notable that while Alivisatos' email does not in fact refer to any speakers in particular, everybody simultaneously assumed they were talking about Ben Shapiro while at the same time being aghast at how anyone could possibly need counseling after hearing Ben Shapiro. Me thinks they protest to much. But more to the point: Berkeley regularly hosts speakers who will present ideas many on campus will disagree with. This week, David Hirsh is giving a talk on "Contemporary Left Antisemitism" -- surely, many on campus would resist his conclusions. Later this term, National Review editor Reihan Salam will be speaking on immigration policy -- with no known objections or protests planned. So the problem isn't ideas people disagree with. The problem is Ben Shapiro, and Ann Coulter, and Milo Yiannopoulos. One doesn't invite them to campus because they're presenting important ideas which need to be reckoned with. There are plenty of conservatives who fit the bill, and when those conservatives show up they are typically met with little fanfare. But if you're inviting this contingent, you're doing it because you like hurting people. That's their comparative advantage, that's the thing they can offer over and above all of their competitors. It neither bothers me, nor surprises me, nor offends me, that this offends certain students. If some portion of those students are in an emotional place right now where they feel like they need counseling, I encourage them to get it. If others want to protest the speech, I support their right to do so within the parameters of the law. If still others want to attend the speech, or subject Shapiro to harsh questioning, or pen scathing op-eds in the Daily Cal, I applaud them all for it. And each of these options got pride of place in Alivistos' email. All of these are valid responses. None of them are worthy of scorn, none of them signal any deficiency in our student body. What is far more worrisome is the reaction of the so-called "adults" in the media, who have grown so fond of bashing kids-these-days that they've seemingly forgotten the need to reason, much less to empathize. via The Debate Link http://ift.tt/2xjwwVY

[gamma-xi-delta]

You can also watch this event live on the UC Berkeley Facebook page.

At this time of unprecedented challenge, Chancellor Carol Christ and Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Paul Alivisatos will discuss and take questions about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on campus operations and activities; how the campus has responded and adopted innovative approaches; and planning underway for a variety of possible scenarios.

[fumpkins]

Researchers measure near-perfect performance in low-cost semiconductors

A close-up artist’s making of quantum dots giving off light they have actually taken in. Credit: Ella Marushchenko

Tiny, easy-to-produce particles, called quantum dots, might quickly replace more costly single crystal semiconductors in advanced electronic devices discovered in photovoltaic panels, cam sensing units and medical imaging tools. Although quantum dots have actually started to get into the customer market—in the kind of quantum dot Televisions—they have actually been hindered by enduring unpredictabilities about their quality. Now, a brand-new measurement method established by researchers at Stanford University might lastly liquify those doubts.

“Traditional semiconductors are single crystals, grown in vacuum under special conditions. These we can make in large numbers, in flask, in a lab and we’ve shown they are as good as the best single crystals,” stated David Hanifi, college student in chemistry at Stanford and co-lead author of the paper blogged about this work, released March 15 in Science.

The researchers concentrated on how effectively quantum dots reemit the light they take in, one obvious measure of semiconductor quality. While previous efforts to find out quantum dot performance meant high performance, this is the very first measurement technique to with confidence reveal they might take on single crystals.

This work is the outcome of a partnership in between the laboratories of Alberto Salleo, teacher of products science and engineering at Stanford, and Paul Alivisatos, the Samsung Distinguished Teacher of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology at the University of California, Berkeley, who is a leader in quantum dot research study and senior author of the paper. Alivisatos highlighted how the measurement method might cause the advancement of brand-new innovations and products that need understanding the performance of our semiconductors to a painstaking degree.

“These materials are so efficient that existing measurements were not capable of quantifying just how good they are. This is a giant leap forward,” stated Alivisatos. “It may someday enable applications that require materials with luminescence efficiency well above 99 percent, most of which haven’t been invented yet.”

In Between 99 and 100

Having the ability to bypass the requirement for costly fabrication devices isn’t the only benefit of quantum dots. Even prior to this work, there were indications that quantum dots might approach or exceed the performance of a few of the very best crystals. They are likewise extremely adjustable. Altering their size alters the wavelength of light they release, a useful function for color-based applications such as tagging biological samples, Televisions or computer system displays.

Regardless of these favorable qualities, the little size of quantum dots implies that it might take billions of them to do the work of one big, best single crystal. Making many of these quantum dots implies more possibilities for something to grow improperly, more possibilities for a problem that can obstruct performance. Methods that measure the quality of other semiconductors formerly recommended quantum dots release over 99 percent of the light they take in however that was insufficient to address concerns about their capacity for problems. To do this, the researchers required a measurement method much better matched to exactly assessing these particles.

“We want to measure emission efficiencies in the realm of 99.9 to 99.999 percent because, if semiconductors are able to reemit as light every photon they absorb, you can do really fun science and make devices that haven’t existed before,” stated Hanifi.

The researchers’ method included looking for excess heat produced by stimulated quantum dots, instead of just evaluating light emission since excess heat is a signature of ineffective emission. This method, frequently utilized for other products, had actually never ever been used to measure quantum dots in in this manner and it was 100 times more exact than what others have actually utilized in the past. They discovered that groups of quantum dots dependably released about 99.6 percent of the light they soaked up (with a possible mistake of 0.2 percent in either instructions), which is equivalent to the very best single-crystal emissions.

“It was surprising that a film with many potential defects is as good as the most perfect semiconductor you can make,” stated Salleo, who is co-author of the paper.

Contrary to issues, the outcomes recommend that the quantum dots are noticeably defect-tolerant. The measurement method is likewise the very first to strongly deal with how various quantum dot structures compare to each other—quantum dots with exactly 8 atomic layers of an unique finishing product released light the fastest, a sign of exceptional quality. The shape of those dots need to assist the style for brand-new light-emitting products, stated Alivisatos.

Totally brand-new innovations

This research study becomes part of a collection of jobs within a Department of Energy-funded Energy Frontier Proving ground, called Photonics at Thermodynamic Limits. Led by Jennifer Dionne, associate teacher of products science and engineering at Stanford, the center’s objective is to produce optical products—products that impact the circulation of light—with the greatest possible performances.

A next action in this task is establishing much more exact measurements. If the researchers can figure out that these products reach performances at or above 99.999 percent, that opens the possibility for innovations we have actually never ever seen prior to. These might consist of brand-new radiant dyes to improve our capability to take a look at biology at the atomic scale, luminous cooling and luminous solar concentrators, which enable a reasonably little set of solar batteries to take in energy from a big location of solar radiation. All this being stated, the measurements they have actually currently developed are a turning point of their own, most likely to motivate a more instant increase in quantum dot research study and applications.

“People working on these quantum dot materials have thought for more than a decade that dots could be as efficient as single crystal materials,” stated Hanifi,” and now we finally have proof.”

Check Out even more: More steady light originates from purposefully ‘compressed’ quantum dots

More details: David A. Hanifi et al, Redefining near-unity luminescence in quantum dots with photothermal limit quantum yield, Science (2019). DOI: 10.1126/science.aat3803

Journal recommendation: Science

Supplied by: Stanford University

New post published on: https://www.livescience.tech/2019/03/16/researchers-measure-near-perfect-performance-in-low-cost-semiconductors/

[justyournewsworld]

HUGE pushback on science paywalls – University of California cancels Elsevier subscription Breaking: UC terminates subscriptions with Elsevier in push for open access to publicly funded research Library Communications February 28, 2019 TO: The UC Berkeley academic community FROM: Paul Alivisatos, Executive Vice Chancellor and ProvostBarbara Spackman, Chair, Academic Senate – Berkeley DivisionJeff MacKie-Mason, University Librarian and Professor RE: Outcome of UC Negotiations with Elsevier Thursday, February 28,…

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Harvard professor among three charged with lying about Chinese government ties

Harvard professor among three charged with lying about Chinese government ties

A Harvard University professor and two other Chinese nationals were federally indicted in three separate cases for allegedly lying to the US about their involvement with China’s government, the US attorney for the district of Massachusetts announced Tuesday.

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Quantum dots are just as awesome as we’d hoped

A new measurement technique may finally dissolve doubts about the quality of quantum dots.

Quantum dots—tiny, easy-to-produce particles—may soon take the place of more expensive single crystal semiconductors in advanced electronics found in solar panels, camera sensors, and medical imaging tools.

Although quantum dots have begun to break into the consumer market—in the form of quantum dot TVs—long-standing uncertainties about their quality have hampered their adoption.

“Traditional semiconductors are single crystals, grown in vacuum under special conditions. These we can make in large numbers, in flask, in a lab and we’ve shown they are as good as the best single crystals,” says co-lead author David Hanifi, a graduate student in chemistry at Stanford University.

The researchers focused on how efficiently quantum dots reemit the light they absorb, one telltale measure of semiconductor quality. While previous attempts to figure out quantum dot efficiency hinted at high performance, this is the first measurement method to confidently show they could compete with single crystals.

‘Giant leap’

The measurement technique could lead to the development of new technologies and materials that require knowing the efficiency of our semiconductors to a painstaking degree, says Paul Alivisatos, professor of nanoscience and nanotechnology at the University of California, Berkeley.

“We want to measure emission efficiencies in the realm of 99.9 to 99.999 percent…”

“These materials are so efficient that existing measurements were not capable of quantifying just how good they are. This is a giant leap forward,” says Alivisatos.

“It may someday enable applications that require materials with luminescence efficiency well above 99 percent, most of which haven’t been invented yet.”

Being able to forego the need for pricey fabrication equipment isn’t the only advantage of quantum dots. Even prior to this work, there were signs that quantum dots could approach or surpass the performance of some of the best crystals.

They are also highly customizable. Changing their size changes the wavelength of light they emit, a useful feature for color-based applications such as tagging biological samples, TVs, or computer monitors.

Defect check

Despite these positive qualities, the small size of quantum dots means that it may take billions of them to do the work of one large, perfect single crystal. Making so many of these quantum dots means more chances for something to grow incorrectly, more chances for a defect that can hamper performance.

Techniques that measure the quality of other semiconductors previously suggested quantum dots emit over 99 percent of the light they absorb but that was not enough to answer questions about their potential for defects. To do this, the researchers needed a measurement technique better suited to precisely evaluating these particles.

“We want to measure emission efficiencies in the realm of 99.9 to 99.999 percent because, if semiconductors are able to reemit as light every photon they absorb, you can do really fun science and make devices that haven’t existed before,” says Hanifi.

The researchers’ technique involved checking for excess heat produced by energized quantum dots, rather than only assessing light emission because excess heat is a signature of inefficient emission. This technique, commonly used for other materials, had never been applied to measure quantum dots in this way and it was 100 times more precise than what others have used in the past. They found that groups of quantum dots reliably emitted about 99.6 percent of the light they absorbed (with a potential error of 0.2 percent in either direction), which is comparable to the best single-crystal emissions.

“It was surprising that a film with many potential defects is as good as the most perfect semiconductor you can make,” says co-senior author Alberto Salleo, professor of materials science and engineering.

Contrary to concerns, the results suggest that the quantum dots are strikingly defect-tolerant. The measurement technique is also the first to firmly resolve how different quantum dot structures compare to each other—quantum dots with precisely eight atomic layers of a special coating material emitted light the fastest, an indicator of superior quality. The shape of those dots should guide the design for new light-emitting materials, says Alivisatos.

Proof of efficiency

A next step in this project is developing even more precise measurements. If the researchers can determine that these materials reach efficiencies at or above 99.999 percent, that opens up the possibility for technologies we’ve never seen before. These could include new glowing dyes to enhance our ability to look at biology at the atomic scale, luminescent cooling, and luminescent solar concentrators, which allow a relatively small set of solar cells to take in energy from a large area of solar radiation.

All this being said, the measurements they’ve already established are a milestone of their own, likely to encourage a more immediate boost in quantum dot research and applications.

“People working on these quantum dot materials have thought for more than a decade that dots could be as efficient as single crystal materials,” says Hanifi, “and now we finally have proof.”

The research appears in Science. Additional coauthors are from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, UC Berkeley, JXTG Nippon Oil & Energy Corporation in Japan, Hasselt University in Belgium, and Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands. The Department of Energy, the European Research Council, and JXTG Nippon Oil & Energy funded this work.

Source: Stanford University

The post Quantum dots are just as awesome as we’d hoped appeared first on Futurity.

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HUGE pushback on science paywalls – University of California cancels Elsevier subscription

Breaking: UC terminates subscriptions with Elsevier in push for open access to publicly funded research Library Communications February 28, 2019 TO: The UC Berkeley academic community FROM: Paul Alivisatos, Executive Vice Chancellor and ProvostBarbara Spackman, Chair, Academic Senate – Berkeley DivisionJeff MacKie-Mason, University Librarian and Professor RE: Outcome of UC Negotiations with Elsevier Thursday, February 28,… HUGE pushback on science paywalls – University of California cancels Elsevier subscription published first on https://triviaqaweb.tumblr.com/