Blue suits him better than pink

Children change the life, how very true. Not that I am less interested in Science in general, I do enjoy it! Nevertheless, somehow work seems less important these days – which maybe I should not admit openly ;-)

I received this statement,

Blue suits the lecturer better than pink

as one of the results of the lecture evaluation (Atom Physics for “Teachers to be”). Yes, I also received some other comments, most positive, some negative, all useful (including that one?;-)

Just to say that I am still amongst the living, here some bits and pieces I found during the last weeks, when time allowed.You may have heard of the rumors concerning a new efficiency record. I heard this by way of a discussion on LinkedIn, the information was also on CrunchGear. 9.2 or 9.3% is the word, made by Mitsubishi Chemical in cooperation with the University of Tokyo, probably the group of Nakamura. Not sure if this is certified, but it is certainly a follow-up of this cell. Artificial leafs where also in the news, see Nature News.

PhD Comics finally tells us how grant applications work… how true! A bit dry reading in comparison may be the European Peer Review Guide, as reported by Nature News.

Via Slashdot: Experimental Error: Forging a Head by “scientist-comedian” Adam Ruben. Quite nice:-)

Organic solar cells can become cheaper, as ITO is replaced by printed nano-silver. This step may reduce the cost of the electrode by up to 90%, according to Konarka as reported by Technology Review (in german, translation here). By the way, Germany had a new record for the installed power from renewables, as reported by Renewable Energy World. Well, massive funding helps… and may be a good way to get started.

Two sad but interesting stories about two scientists leaving the world of fundamental research to move on: Getting a life (devicerandom blog) and Falling Off the Ladder: How Not to Succeed in Academia
(published in Science Careers). However, if you decide to stay – which I hope… I will:-) – consider to read this Guardian article on Good Science Writing by Tim Radford.

So long, maybe at some point some physics is to come again – there is always hope;-)

Add to Connotea