Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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Vanadium Dioxide V02 an insulator or conductor or both?
Vanadium Dioxide is an interesting material. It functions as a metal at some temperatures and then as an insulator at other temperatures. The microscopic reason for the transition is unknown but the ways this can be used is interesting. Transition metal oxides make for interesting studies. They are normally an insulator that does not allow…
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Water droplets to form tissue structures
Dr Hagan Bayley’s lab has been working on ion channels, pores and droplet based technologies. Dr Gabriel Villar from that group just published a paper in Science that shows the formation of unique droplets submerged in hydrocarbons/oil. The formation of these droplets is interesting but what is unique is that they can form interactions amongst…
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Commoditization of technology – Part 4 – New Perspective.
Changing the perspective is always difficult. It is hard to imagine how the perspective can be changed in a standard product that is off the shelf but often times it works significantly if the same device or instrument is used in a unique or different way. Let’s go back to the example of a centrifuge…
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Chemical Heritage Foundation – a resource for scientists and technologists
Many visitors come to Philadelphia to learn about American history and make a compulsory stop to see the Liberty Bell. However, what is relatively unknown to most of them is that there is a great chemical technology library, museum and a center for scholars less than three blocks away called the Chemical Heritage Foundation. There…
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Microsoft Kinect based control of Laser tweezers
Microsoft Kinect was originally invented as a good way to control gaming but due to its good flexibility has quickly turned into a good way to control things. In biology, it has not been used as much to control microscopes or other expensive devices but Dr David McGloin at the University of Dundee in UK…
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Commoditization of technology – Part 3 – Change the normal.
Continuation of discussion on what takes for a company to shine in a crowded marketplace with the example of a centrifuge company. The company that makes centrifuges has to change the acceptable practices that better fit its business and model. For example, this centrifuge company realizes that the acceptable practice in the market is to…
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What makes a good mobile application?
Several companies want to make applications and they go about dedicating several resources to create the application. We, at Usinlife have thought about what makes a good application and have three basic guidelines. These are not the only guidelines but are the starting point for every app process. 1. The app has to fulfill a…
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Commoditization of technology – Part 2 – Improve on good.
The instinct in the market is to have a broad based technology and serve different segments of the customer. We will continue discussing the centrifuge example since this is a commodity in a research lab and very few scientists pay any attention the Make or model of the centrifuge as long as it works and…
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Mathematical patterns of sunrise and sunset
It is easy to see mathematics when you look at common things that we take for granted. For example the following pages were created from a website: http://ptaff.ca/soleil/?lang=en_CA. The raw data can also be got from the link below. Take a look at these graphs and think about what can you see. Steven Strogatz saw…
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Commoditization of technology – or how to sell a centrifuge? Part 1
When a new technology comes to the market, it is novel and there are no competitors. But, as time passes there are other entrants to the marketplace and the competition heats up. Soon, other companies start coming into the marketplace and creating their differntiators that make them unique in the marketplace with features. For a…
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