and nothing else.
Photovoltaics:
- Science writer Don Monroe summarises recent research on periocally arranged graphene which interesting light absorption properties: Graphene Arrays Could Be Perfect Absorbers
- MIT technology review’s Katherine Bourzac on A Leap Forward for Plastic Solar Cells on Yang Yang‘s (UCLA) 10.6% record efficiency organic solar cells based on new polymers from Sumitomo Chemical. See also the press release by UCLA
- @joergheber, editor of Nature Materials, twittered his scepticism (not concerning the research, but the outlook) concerning a recent press release from University of Cambridge. Jörg’s followup message was this one…. Read for yourself, but I think he has a point.
Global warming:
- Climate sceptics on the go, via /.: Don’t Worry About Global Warming, Say 16 Scientists in the WSJ; I am no climate scientist, but what I read usually points in the other direction… at least judging from most scientists with peer reviewed publications in contrast to non-peer reviewed “scientists”. Nevertheless, the scientists cited above seem to be real ones, although (mostly?) not with scientific background related to the global climate
- we have a similar discussion here in Germany, with RWE manager Fritz Vahrenholt writing a book trying to confute evidence of global warming, relating any temperature change to the solar activity: summary by Die Zeit (german, google translate) and an article (again Die Zeit) by Toralf Staud, refuting the seven main theses of Vahrenholt ( german, google translate).
Other stuff:
- Chronical of higher education summarised the Elsevier boycott. See also The Economist and Nature
- If you do not boycott Elsevier, you may be interested in the booklet Charting a Course for a Successful Research Career by Prof. Johnson, available for free on the sciverse website
- mini statement about the importance of rewriting for better writing of manuscripts etc
- I liked Roman Cortes’ short note on Monte Carlo methods: beautiful!
- douglaswray explains social media
- comment on balancing collaboration and competition for young scientists by Lydia Murray
- Matt Ford, ars technica: Survival in academia, the tenure track not taken
- Article level metrics (in contrast to impact factor) by altmetric with their Bookmarklet
- The coffee setup 2010, though still uptodate, by Marco Arment
- Nature editorial on Tough choices: Scientists must find ways to make more efficient use of funds — or politicians may do it for them and Feature Funding: Got to get a grant
- Alternative for your paper collection now also for windows: Papers by Mekentosj
- German profs underpaid, court says by Quirin Schiermeyer
- blog entry by Hamish Johhnston at physicsworld.com on pondering the power law
Notes on Disordered Matter 