Winter Tree

Image: Winter Tree, this photo is available to licence on EyeEm.

#249

Friday, February 5, 2021

In This Edition:
Spinach detectors, printed paper speakers, free skillfinder & e-college courses, zoom goat, & Cistercian number cyphers!

Spinach Detectors

Image: Unsplash, Louis Hansel

Engineers at MIT have used spinach to detect explosive materials in groundwater. Carbon nanotubes in the spinach leaves emit a signal when the routes detect nitroaromatics, often found in landmines, which is picked up by an infrared camera that triggers an email to alert scientists.

Source:

Printed Paper Speaker

Image: Jacob Müller

Scientists at Chemnitz University of Technology in Germany have developed paper thin speakers which can be printed on rolls of paper called T-Paper. The paper holds two layers of conductive organic polymer with a piezoelectric layer in between that vibrates to create the sound. T-paper can be shaped into a circle and act as a hanging loudspeaker at events like tradeshows or as part of museum exhibits to broadcast audio information.

Source:

Free Skillfinder & E-College Courses

Image: Skillfinder

Skillfinder is an Australian website that brings together a range of free short courses developed and delivered by a host of tech companies such as Adobe, Google, Microsoft, IBM, and others. Courses are available in a number of categories from Computing Basics and Coding to Machine Learning and Project Managment. E-College is a similar website that is available to residents of The Republic of Ireland, but E-college courses also include exams and certifications.

Source:

Zoom Goat

Image: BBC, Cronkshaw Fold Farm

Dot McCarthy, a farmer from Cronkshaw Fold Farm in Lancashire, has made £50,000 by hiring out her show goats on zoom for £5 per 5 min appearance! The money is being used to keep farm staff employed during the pandemic and convert the farm to newable power to improve its carbon footprint.

Source:

Cistercian Number Cyphers

Image: Twitter, MathematicsUCL

Highlighted by MathematicsUCL on Twitter, Cistercian monks in the 13th century developed a cypher system to prepresent numbers from 1 to 9999 in one symbol.

About Found This Week

Found This Week is a curated blog of interesting posts, articles, links and stories in the world of technology, science and life in general.
Each edition is curated by Daryl Feehely every Friday and highlights cool stuff found each week.
The first 104 editions were published on Medium before this site was created, check out the archive here.

Daryl Feehely

I’m a web consultant, contract web developer, technical project manager & photographer originally from Cork, now based in London. I offer my clients strategy, planning & technical delivery services, remotely & in person. I also offer freelance CTO services to companies in need of technical bootstrapping or reinvention. If you think I can help you in your business, check out my details on http://darylfeehely.com

Life Changing Smart Thinking Books