Dear
SVC Stakeholder. Please recognize that the SVC does not sell
attendance lists nor do we engage in any third party contracts to book
hotel rooms at our conferences for attendees. If you encounter
either of these “situations” please (and hopefully politely) terminate
the contact immediately!
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Grape Balls of Fire: Making Sparks in the Kitchen
Physicists figured out why grapes and water-filled beads make sparks in the microwave.
Putting
two grape halves inside a kitchen appliance may not sound like a good
setup for a parlor trick. But irradiating the pieces of fruit inside a
microwave oven can generates sparks -- and even
YouTube videos
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Now scientists have discovered the secret behind how this effect
generates plasma, the state of matter found in lightning and
stars.
READ FULL ARTICLE.
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The 'Quantum Vampire' Effect Is Spookier Than Ever
New research finds the optical effect previously produced using strictly quantum techniques may have broader applications.
Legends
and folklores often bend the laws of physics, but every once in a
while, reality is equally fantastical. Three years ago, a group of
scientists from Russia and Canada discovered that they could manipulate
light without changing it in the way they expected. They compared this
phenomenon to the way some vampires don’t cast shadows, and coined it
the "quantum vampire" effect.
READ FULL ARTICLE.
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The Weird Ways Animals Use Roads, Buildings and Power Lines to Their Advantage
Animals are often able to adapt to their human-influenced surroundings with remarkable ease.
In
2012 and 2013, Bill Bateman, a zoologist based in Perth, Australia,
began to notice something interesting about how animals were navigating
the bush: When mining companies created small paths through the
previously tangled environment to install seismic lines, animals started
preferentially using those trails to move from one place to
another.
READ FULL ARTICLE.
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Robot Helps Scientists Study How Prehistoric Animals Moved
New
research suggests the ancestors of reptiles, birds and mammals might
have walked more efficiently on land than previously thought.
A
robot mimicking a prehistoric fossil suggests the ancestors of
reptiles, birds and mammals might have walked more efficiently on land
than previously thought. Nowadays, the most widespread tetrapods, or
four-limbed animals, are the amniotes -- creatures that lay eggs on land
or give birth to live young, rather than laying eggs in water as
amphibians typically do. Previous research suggested the freedom that
amniotes had to move on land helped support the evolution of a more
energy-efficient upright walk that lifted their bodies off the ground.
However, the details regarding the development of this more advanced
locomotion have proven uncertain due to the scarcity of fossils from
that era.
READ FULL ARTICLE.
Image credits
: Tomislav Horvat (EPFL Lausanne), Kamilo Melo (EPFL Lausanne)
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The Science of Dismantling a Nuclear Bomb
Once the tricky political agreements have been reached, how do nations take apart their nuclear weapons?
There
are enough nuclear weapons in the world to cause atomic Armageddon many
times over, according to scientists, who estimate that
no country could fire more than 100 nuclear warheads
without wreaking such devastation that their own citizens back home would be killed.
READ FULL ARTICLE.
Image credits:
TSgt. Boyd Belcher,
USAF
Rights information:
Public domain
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New Technique Improves Transparent Wood
Researchers use a more environmentally friendly approach to make larger see-through wood panels than before.
Inspired
by a technique first developed by botanists during the 1990s, materials
scientists in the past few years have been making an almost
oxymoronic-sounding material: transparent wood. While the biologists,
who were studying the structure of wood, needed only small pieces,
materials scientists have proposed applications like load-bearing
windows and have focused on scaling up the technique.
READ FULL ARTICLE.
Image credits
:
Courtesy of Rongbo Zheng
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Astronomers Spot a Pudgy Dragon in the Orion Nebula
The dragon's large belly holds clues about how stars form -- and how the process stops.
Since ancient times, people gazing up at the night sky have seen
animals, gods and goddesses, and other entities in the patterns of
stars. Now scientists, using modern technology to peer heavenward, have
spotted a new celestial object: a somewhat pudgy dragon lurking in the
clouds of the Orion Nebula. The dragon's fat shape holds clues about how
stars form -- and how the process stops.
READ FULL ARTICLE.
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Computer Voice Recognition Still Learning to Detect Who’s Talking
A better understanding of how humans detect different voices may help design better voice recognition software.
If
your phone rings and you answer it without looking at the caller ID,
it's quite possible that before the person from the other end finishes
saying “hello,” you would already know that it was your mother. You
could also tell within a second whether she was happy, sad, angry or
concerned.
READ FULL ARTICLE.
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Tortoise-Shaped Pill Injects Insulin Into Stomach Lining
Pill uses a dissolving spring-loaded needle to spare people with diabetes from normal injections.
A
pill shaped like a tortoise could one day help deliver insulin to
people with diabetes, a new study finds. Researchers have long sought
ways to deliver insulin using pills instead of unpleasant injections.
However, many medications are vulnerable to the acidity and digestive
enzymes found in the digestive tract.
READ FULL ARTICLE.
Image credits
: Felice Frankel
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Interactive Map Shows Where Your City is Going, Climatically Speaking
Researchers match recent and future climates to show what American cities will be like in 60 years.
In
60 years, the climate of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, will feel kind of
like a contemporary Jonesboro, Arkansas, with higher temperatures and
more winter precipitation, according to a new study. That's assuming
fossil fuel emissions continue to rise; if instead we succeed in curbing
emissions, Pittsburgh will instead become more like Madison, Indiana.
READ FULL ARTICLE.
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AIMCAL R2R Asia Conference 2019
Roll to Roll Web Coating and Finishing
May 28 – 30, 2019, Daejeon, South Korea
AIMCAL,
the Association of International Metallizers, Coaters and Laminators
will partner with KRICT, the Korean Research Institute of Chemical
Technology to organize the first AIMCAL Asia Roll to Roll Conference on
28 – 30 May, 2019 in Daejeon, Korea.
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Society of Vacuum Coaters Foundation
Founding
Principle: The Society of Vacuum Coaters recognizes that in order
to sustain its growth, it is important to attract young, well trained
individuals to the field of Vacuum Coatings.
The
SVC Foundation pursues this principle by providing scholarships to
well qualified students planning to enter fields related to vacuum
coatings, and/or providing stipends for travel expenses to attend the
annual SVC Technical Conference, usually to present technical papers.
The Society of Vacuum Coaters (SVC), the SVCF's founder, and AIMCAL, an
organization committed to advancing vacuum roll-coating technology, and
their members, provides support for the Foundation to pursue these
goals.
Since
its inception in 2002, the SVCF has awarded more than 70 scholarships
and travel awards totaling over $250,000 to students from 18 countries.
Our support can really have an impact in the life of these students;
quoting a recent award recipient:
"Not
only does the scholarship give the gift of financial support and the
possibility to continue learning, it also gives those that have a
passion for vacuum coating the blessing of attending such a wonderful
program [SVC TechCon] to network and further their knowledge."
Inviting
scholarship recipients to the SVC TechCon is an important element of
the overall strategy for attracting new talent to our industry.
Scholarship beneficiaries carry a special identification on the TechCon
badge and we encourage you to meet them and make them feel welcome.
Scholarship Applications must be postmarked by November 30th of each year.
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Society of Vacuum Coaters | PO Box 10628, Albuquerque, NM 87184
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