On
June 24 bipartisan legislation was to authorize billions in funding to
U.S. researchers who have been impacted by the pandemic. The Research
Investment to Spark the Economy (RISE) Act authorizes approximately $26
billion in emergency relief for federal science agencies – such as the
Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Agriculture,
Department of Energy, Environmental Protection Agency, National Science
Foundation and others – to award to research universities, independent
institutions, and national laboratories to continue working on
federally-funded research projects.
SVC is endorsing the push t
o generate significant social media attention in support of the bill. Here is sample text for social media posts and/or tweets:
- Bipartisan
lawmakers just introduced the #RISEAct to provide $26 billion in
#ResearchRelief for projects that have been impacted by COVID-19.
- Thank
you @RepDianaDeGette, @RepFredUpton, @RepEBJ, @RepFrankLucas,
@RepAnnaEshoo & @RepAGonzalez for your support of our researchers.
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The Race for COVID-19 Solutions
New tests, masks, and ventilators developed this month may help fight the pandemic.
Around the world, people in medical and engineering laboratories are
working tirelessly to address the COVID-19 pandemic. To alleviate
widespread shortages of effective tests, masks and ventilators,
researchers and engineers have rushed to develop novel technologies that
healthcare professionals may be able to use. We feature some of the
newest designs this month
.
READ FULL ARTICLE.
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All Black Holes Should Sport Light Rings
Theoretical astrophysicists predict that a glowing halo just outside the event horizon should surround all black holes.
When the black hole Gargantuan first appeared onscreen in the 2014 blockbuster “
Interstellar
,”
nobody had seen a black hole yet. Without a real-life image for
reference, the visual effects artists who worked on the movie
collaborated with astrophysicists to ensure their onscreen creation
would look close to what the universe has in store for us.
READ FULL ARTICLE.
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A Sweaty Update to the Mood Ring
Testers who wore these devices that track sweatiness found the data useful for monitoring emotions and managing stress.
Remember
mood rings -- the beachfront gift shop trinkets that change their
shimmering colors depending on your body temperature? Researchers
presented an updated version at the virtual conference Human Factors in
Computing Systems. Their
findings
were also previously published in Transactions in Computer-Human Interaction.
READ FULL ARTICLE.
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Why Training with Heavier or Lighter Baseballs Could Help Pitchers Throw Faster
Could using lighter-weight balls in practice be a safer way to speed up a pitcher's arm -- and the ball?
For
today's baseball pitchers, velocity is king. The average speed of a
major league fastball in 2019 was 93.4 mph, compared with 90.9 mph in
2008, according to
FanGraphs
. Such unprecedented speed is
changing the game
-- and the drive to throw ever faster may also be risking the safety of younger players dreaming of the majors.
.
READ FULL ARTICLE.
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Upgraded LIGO Detector Could See Black Holes Being Thrown Out of Galaxies
Scientists may soon be able to observe a dramatic, long-predicted consequence of Einstein’s theory of general relativity.
When
a bullet is fired from a gun, the gun recoils to compensate for the
bullet’s momentum. This conservation of momentum still applies when the
most massive objects in the universe -- black holes -- collide and merge
with each other. During these mergers, recoils can be powerful enough
to send the merged black hole flying out of its home galaxy, at speeds
of up to 10,000,000 miles per hour.
READ FULL ARTICLE.
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How a Strategy Based on Testing Helped Eradicate the Smallpox Virus
The ghost of an ancient disease could inform the fight against COVID-19.
"Testing,
testing, testing" has become the mantra of the fight against the
coronavirus. Scientific experts all seem to agree the virus cannot be
controlled without adequate testing.
Rights information:
Public Domain
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Hummingbird Vision Hints at Compound Colors Outside the Normal Spectrum
Hummingbirds can distinguish blends of color that we see as ordinary hues.
Hummingbirds
can see colors humans can only imagine, an ability that now sheds light
on an extra dimension of animal vision, a new study finds.
READ FULL ARTICLE.
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Why Artificial Brains Need Sleep
Like biological brains, artificial neural networks may depend on slow-wave sleep for learning.
Artificial brains may need deep sleep in order to keep stable, a new study finds, much as real brains do.
READ FULL ARTICLE.
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Getting Inside the Way Sports Teams Should Make Decisions -- And the Biases That Lead Them Astray
A conversation with baseball writer Keith Law.
The decisions made by baseball teams are prone to many biases. For
example, teams may be too optimistic about how well a player will
perform after signing a huge contract, or they may put too much emphasis
on the most recent data about a player's performance. There are many
ways that cognitive biases influence how decisions are made, in sports
and our everyday lives. Senior baseball writer Keith Law of The
Athletic discusses these topics in his new book "
The Inside Game
."
READ FULL ARTICLE.
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When Scientists Find Nothing: The Value of Null Results
Science is an endeavor of trial and error. Can we find a better way to share the "erroneous" trials?
How
long would it have taken Edison to invent the lightbulb if he and his
team of workers hadn’t keep track of all the failures? From platinum
filaments to animal hair, his team built a library of thousands of
materials before patenting carbonized bamboo as the best material.
Decades more would pass before Hungarian Sándor Just and Croatian Franjo
Hanaman identified tungsten, the type of filament still used in
incandescent lightbulbs today, as an even better material.
READ FULL ARTICLE.
Image credits:
Yuen Yiu
Rights information:
American Institute of Physics
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We’re partnering with Long-Term Care Resources (LTCR) to bring you LTCR
plus
, an
exclusive group long-term care benefit program that provides assistance
throughout these key areas of long-term care planning: funding,
navigation, care audit, and legal services.
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Smart Speakers Could Detect Cardiac Arrest
A new skill for a smart speaker -- Google Home or Amazon’s Alexa may listen for signs of cardiac arrest.
A
cardiac arrest can happen suddenly, and patients can become
unresponsive and either stop breathing or gasp for air, making a sound
known as agonal breathing. Researchers at the University of Washington
have developed a way for a smart speaker, like the Google Home or
Amazon’s Alexa, or even your smartphone, to detect the gasping sound of
agonal breathing and call for help.
WATCH VIDEO.
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Monkeys Don’t Trust Bad Avatars
Monkeys’ reactions to computer-generated videos suggest they, like humans, suffer from the creepy “uncanny valley” effect.
Whether it’s an android, computer graphics in a movie, or a
live Tupac hologram
,
animated representations of people can sometimes creep viewers out if
the images don’t seem quite right. Now, new research suggests that
monkeys may get creeped out by bad imitations, too
.
READ FULL ARTICLE.
Image credits
:
Stig Berge via
Flickr
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OUR MISSION
Striving to MAKE A DIFFERENCE in the lives of our students.
One
of the SVC’s long-term goals has always been to support charitable,
educational, and scientific activities. As its first initiative, the
Foundation created a scholarship program aimed at supporting
enterprising students and practitioners who have an interest in
furthering their education in the field of vacuum coating
technology.
The
Foundation also grants travel awards to students to attend and present
technical papers at the annual SVC Technical Symposium. Since its
inception, both programs have awarded over $250,000 in scholarships to
students from the United States, Canada, China, Lithuania and Spain.
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Society of Vacuum Coaters | PO Box 10628, Albuquerque, NM 87184
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