Title: Expanding your Horizons: nurturing girls’ interest in science, technology, mathematics and science
Link out: Click here
Description: First European conference inviting 400 11-13 year old girls from public and private schools to nurture interest in the sciences, mathematics, engineering and technology
Start Time: 9:00
Date: 14 Nov 2009
End Time: 16:00
Sponsored by the Geneva Women in International Trade (GWIT)
A day of hands-on workshops and speakers with women who excel in the non-traditonal fields for girls who show an interest.
Register on-line on the Expanding your Horizons site, further information on the event at expandingyourhorizons@gwit.ch
Metal glass (top), traditional magnesium alloy (bottom), © 2009 ETH Zurich
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A substance that can stabilize broken bones as they heal, then is absorbed by the body when it is no longer needed, has been developed by materials researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (FITZ). The new material, called metal glass, is an alloy of magnesium, zinc and calcium that is cooled extremely rapidly to prevent it from forming the typical crystalline structure of a metal. The team announced the news in the science journal Nature Materials.
China is leaping ahead in solar and wind turbine technology, as well as in the lesser known field of solar water heaters, writes Los Angeles Times reporter David Pierson from Rhizhao in Shandong province, China. Some cities such as Rhizhao have 99 percent coverage, with the mattress-size panels covering virtually every roof in the coastel city of 2.8 million.
New Scientist video on Rhizhao and solar water heaters, 2007
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Forty years ago, as everyone surely knows by now, the first man, who was American, stepped on the moon: July 21 in the early hours, European time. “The first human stepped on a celestial body” was the more elegant phrase used to describe the moment, by Douglas Griffiths at a commemorative event hosted by the US Mission in Geneva Tuesday evening 20 July. Griffiths is the deputy permanent representative to the United Nations and Other International Organizations in Geneva and charge d’affaires, ad interim.
There were two surprises, among the declarations, reminiscenses and information shared with a community of largely sceintific people at the US Mission in Geneva Tuesday evening 20 July:
Sony will keep wages unchanged for this year and cut bonuses from six to four months. The global financial crisis has hit the Japanese technology sector, causing Sony to freeze workers’ salaries in order to recover, reports Reuters. Sony, unlike some of its competitors, does not raise wages automatically based on seniority. Instead, wages increase annually based on role and performance, and rivals may follow suit as the crisis worsens. Reuters
Updated 03 March: links added Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The title of the fourth annual Lift conference, “Where did the future go?” was set long before the current global crisis started making daily headlines. The idea, Lift found Laurent Haug says, came out of a feeling that we have reached a turning point with technology, where we have a need to look back to our ideas about the future as well as forward. The topic has attracted a record attendance of some 800 people to Lift09, which kicked off Thursday morning 26 February.
