Materials Connect

10-minute writing: Reaching into our “poetic” selves

The purpose of this exercise is to heighten our science writing as we develop our individual voices.

In her book The Alchemy of Us, materials scientist Ainissa Ramirez writes a chapter called “Connect” (p. 27). She opens the chapter with a story about US President Abraham Lincoln’s funeral procession in the 1860s, where a train carries his coffin across a number of states so people may “attend” his funeral before his body is laid to rest in Illinois. She relates this story to materials science through the materials that make up the tracks (iron, steel, metal alloys). She also makes an analogy between Lincoln and the train tracks as “connectors of the country.”

She could have used the word “connect” over and over again, which would have been mediocre writing. Instead, she uses verbs like bridge and link, and ones that carry metaphorical meanings: threaded, stitched, and circulatory system of the nation. The opposite term she uses is splintered, a powerful term that snaps – we can hear it.

Professor and songwriter Pat Pattison from Berklee College of Music in Boston presents a 5-minute video about verbs: Electrify your writing with verbs. He refers to verbs in terms of “wattage.” The average writer, he says, relies on a string of adjectives and verbs with a low wattage. The great writer, however, leverages powerful action verbs (200 Watts).

One way to reach these powerful verbs is to use a thesaurus.

However, to actually dig into ourselves and strengthen our own writing by developing our own voice, we have to do much more. One way is to practice object writing. Here is a 3.5-minute pivotal video on that topic by Pat Pattison.

In his book Writing Better Lyrics, Pattison implements object writing as a 10-minute writing exercise (p. 3). The way this works is you take an object, then without lifting your pen from paper (or fingers from keyboard), you write non-stop for 10 minutes on how the object looks (see), sounds (hear), tastes, smells, feels (touch), how your body reacts to it (organic – heartbeat, pulse, muscle tension, stomachache, cramp, breathing, etc.), and how your body moves in response to it (kinesthetic – sense of motion, dizzy, balance, embrace, shrink in fear, etc.). When free-writing, you won’t write in full sentences but you’ll put down words as quickly as they come.

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My 10-minute writing sample (11:50-Noon) -

Kate spade, spade symbol, deck of cards, mom is the queen of spades, queen of hearts, queen of cards, she wins our game while she’s half asleep in the hospital, Mom, Mom, It’s your turn. She wakes up and makes her play then sleeps during mine. Mom, Mom, it’s your turn, she plays & wins the game and I’m flabbergasted. Mom - what this does to my ego, I lose while you’re recovering and I’m fine. Wow. Queen of 500-Rum. Teaches us all to play Bridge as kids, I have no patience, bidding, bidding, bidding, I tense up, how high to bid, someone could out-bid me, or I can’t meet my bid, I set aside Bridge and play Pinochle instead, more my style, I relax, bid once, take it or leave it, no more decisions. Decision out of choice of 3 is great; out of multitudes of choices due to internet, how ppl do it? Tensing at the endless possibilities need to make a decision, go back to the eye glass case, skyblue cover, biking along the GAP trail, riding a horse through Cook Forest, skyblue with clouds writing across the sky: kate spade, New York - and dark green grass below, dark green grass on bottom of eye glass case, wow, sky blue top and deep dirty green, muddy, horse slips downhill at cook forest, no worries horse has 3 more legs, the green smells of weeds composting, not cool but not bad, bad, not like pollution from steel mills of Pittsburgh – when Mom was growing up, when I grew up, pollution level makes me nauseous on the way to school. Sometimes so bad, what did it smell like? Not dirt, that’s organic like composting weeds, but a smell worse than bus fumes. I want to head home – or back to the eye glass case – the green turns me off, muggy, humid, a green I wouldn’t use in a daily painting, I like the sky blue top of the case, shines from the sun coming through the window, kitchen-counter smooth case, brings me calmness like a weekend riding horses in Cook Forest, no worries back home, no covid, no delta variant. Mom, queen of hearts, her sweater smells like her perfume, what we wear when we need our Mom-hug, grandma-hug.

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How the exercise improves our writing is to do this every day, first thing in the morning, and stick to the 10-minute limit. If we go beyond 10 minutes, the next day we’ll say we have no time. The 10-minute writing will not yield a piece of writing we want to use. Its purpose, through daily practice, is to help us more quickly access those words and metaphors that are uniquely us when we do our regular writing.

My suggestion:

Set aside one week to do the 10-minute writing at the same time each day. After 7 days, assess how it’s working. The first day I pretty much guarantee will be difficult. By the 7^th day, I pretty much guarantee you’ll note a difference in how much more quickly your mind takes you somewhere you didn’t expect!  

-Judy Meiksin

#SciComm: How to structure an article on an unwieldy topic

The US National Academies (NAS) began a series of workshops last year to determine a roadmap for US science policy for the next 75 years. One of the workshops focused on US research universities. I sat in on the Workshop online, taking notes for a news article.

The next 75 years—this task is immense. I narrowed the topic to a materials science angle for the MRS Bulletin readership.

It’s still massive.

When thinking about who to interview from the materials research community, I realized the speakers at the workshop were predominantly over 60 (maybe some as young as 50). In determining the shaping of research universities and their policies, I thought it would be good to follow up with researchers at a wider spectrum of career stages.

Along with interviewing students and early-career researchers, I contacted older materials researchers who have served on science panels or have done other work related to the topics covered in the NAS workshop. In all, I interviewed 10 researchers, from undergrads to those who have retired.

As the NAS workshop took place during the 1^st wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, this global health emergency cast light on the direction research universities should take in the future, including further development of technology that would enable laboratory research from off-site.

In my notes from both the workshop and the interviews, I had information on:

• NAS workshop discussions
• effects of COVID-19 on university researchers
• diversity & inclusion of the future workforce
• diversity & inclusion of the population affected by research conducted at the US universities

I broke down the content by high-level topics:

• wake-up call based on the pandemic
• risks for materials research
• going forward

From the interviews, one statement kept overriding all the others. It’s the statement that most got my attention. In the structure of the article, I was unhappy that it would be buried deep inside.

Then I decided to take a risk. I realized if this statement held my attention the most, I should open the article with it, and see where it leads:

“I remember first hearing this term ‘digital divide’ in the mid-1990s. It was the concept of people from lower socioeconomic status not having access to computers and the Internet,” says Tabbetha Dobbins, the Interim Vice President for Research and Dean of the Graduate School at Rowan University in New Jersey, in an interview with MRS Bulletin. “It has always been talked about in a scope of, well, there will be jobs available to people who have these computer skills; and people who don't, won't be seeing those jobs.”

Dobbins recently participated in a webinar training K–12 teachers on diversity, equity, and inclusion where she learned that some students have trouble transitioning to online learning during the pandemic because their families cannot afford a computer and access to the Internet. They are, therefore, locked out of an education. “[The Internet] is at least a $70–$80 bill per month and some families simply can't sustain that,” she says. Looking toward US research universities of the 21st century, Dobbins says, “By taking our eye off of that ball 25 years ago and not fixing the problem, how far have we disadvantaged students into pursuing computational materials studies who come from low socioeconomic grounds?”

            –from The COVID-19 pandemic informs future directions of US research universities

What do you think? Does that thought capture your attention?

-Judy Meiksin

Material, microstructure, and design, for old and new music.

 

Music emanates from a combination of material, microstructure and design, much like in any engineering application. Many stringed or wind instruments are traditionally made from wood. Now, recent progress in science and technology enables us to explore other materials and structure to create new sounds, or to re-create ancient ones.

Sounds are acoustic waves impacting our cochlea after interacting with surroundings. When a propagating wave meets a material with a different density  and stiffness than air, it can be reflected and transmitted with distortions. With different materials are associated different sounds, and various designs can further modify them. For example, tap on a piece of glass and it will sound 'sharp' and 'crystalline'; tap on a piece of polystyrene and it will sound 'mat', if any. Tap on glasses with decreasing thicknesses and diameters, and the pitch will rise. Listen to the organ-like sound of the Glass Armonica or the crystalline melodies of the Jal Tarang.

 and  are the 2 key properties that impact the acoustic performance of a material (see ref [1] for the derivation):

- the material's speed of sound (also called impedance)

- the material's radiation coefficient

- the material's damping or loss coefficient . is called the quality factor with the resonance frequency and  the frequency width of this frequency.

Since  and  can be easily measured, it is possible to draw acoustic materials maps, similarly to the Ashby plots that we use in mechanics. Making use of these maps, it is possible to understand and identify which wood species are generally used for a violin bow, or rather for a violin back (see Fig 1) [1]. Since  and  are also intimately related to the material’s microstructure, looking at the distribution of cells and vascular holes in bamboo species can explain why reed stems from P. Australis are preferred for making a hichiriki, a double-reed traditional Japanese flute (see Fig 2) [2]. Indeed, it all comes down to mechanics: the interplay of local soft and hard zones in the stems enables it to vibrate in a way deemed 'best' by professional players.

Fig 1: Acoustic material map for different types of woods, bamboos, and carbon fibre reinforced composites. Modified and adapted from ref [1]. Stradivari's back plates acoustic properties were estimated using the reported Spruce density of ˜300 kg/m³, a typical wood modulus of 10 GPa, and an increase in the typical loss coefficient of 350 %.

 

Fig 2: Optical images of the microstructure of the reed stems from P. Australis, vs that from another reed. Adapted and reproduced from [2].

The motives for musical instruments made from other materials than wood stem from artistic curiosity to historical research, along with the use of more durable, affordable, and sustainably sourced materials.

As in other engineering applications, long fibre reinforced composites can now replace the wood of violins, violas, and cellos. Made from glass, carbon, or flax fibres, with sandwich, woven, and unidirectional fibre orientations, these new instruments create new musical colours. Asking trained musicians to test the instruments, the sandwich composite ones were qualified as 'powerful', 'nasal' and 'harsh'; the unidirectional, 'warm', 'soft', and 'round'; and the woven, 'clear', 'loud' and 'rich' [3]. You can experience by yourself at this link.

From a historical perspective, another unusual approach can be used to tune the sound of violins, which is to grow fungi on the wood. Specifically, some decaying fungi can degrade the lignin, but maintain the cellulose nanofibrils in the wood, intact. This process, which takes up to 20 weeks, increases the porosity without altering the modulus. The violins made with this new lightweight material, called mycowood, have a soft sound and its high frequencies are attenuated. These characteristics make the violins sound like Stradivari's, which cannot be reproduced since the trees they were made of had grown in a cooler climate than nowadays [4]. Check out the fabrication steps and how tests were carried out at this link. 

Today's progress in 3D printing provides even more opportunities to play with materials, microstructures and designs. Using commercial plastic filaments and fused deposition modelling, any instrument can be made. But to obtain a satisfying, musical sound, design optimisation and careful study of the acoustics has to be made. Indeed, in addition to the materials properties, 3D printing comes with imperfections and roughness which requires post-processing. Using Electron Beam Melting, biocompatible baroque flutes made of Ti-6Al-4V, the same material as for hip implants, have been made. To find the right printing sequence, design, and sound, the titanium alloy was printed porous with a specific pattern, while the wall thickness tuned carefully [5]. 3D printing is also a convenient approach to design new materials, or to try to reproduce ancient instruments and sounds. For example, you can listen to a 3D printed baroque flute or a Japanese Shakuhachi.

Finally, although engineering materials for music might be a marginal niche market, similar questions and research apply to much broader applications from sound-absorbing panels for highways and houses to noiseless ceramic-based engines. Creating porous, sound-absorbing materials for structural applications in aerospace or architecture poses again the challenge of optimising material, microstructure, and design.

References:

[1]      Wegst U G K 2008 Bamboo and wood in musical instruments Annu. Rev. Mater. Res. 38 323–49

[2]      Kawasaki M, Nobuchi T and Nakafushi Y 2015 Structure and biomechanics of culms of phragmites australis used for reeds of Japanese wind instrument “hichiriki” Microsc. Res. Tech. 78 260–7

[3]      Duerinck T, Verberkmoes G, Fritz C, Leman M, Nijs L, Kersemans M and Van Paepegem W 2020 Listener evaluations of violins made from composites J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 147 2647–55

[4]      Schwarze F W M R, Spycher M and Fink S 2008 Superior wood for violins - Wood decay fungi as a substitute for cold climate New Phytol. 179 1095–104

[5]      Kolomiets A, Grobman Y J, Popov V V., Strokin E, Senchikhin G and Tarazi E 2021 The titanium 3D-printed flute: New prospects of additive manufacturing for musical wind instruments design J. New Music Res. 50 1–17

#SciComm: Interviewees make good tutors!

All around the world, federal governments are committing huge amounts of money for research and development (R&D) related to quantum projects. Quantum computers, for example, will revolutionize our ability to do calculations beyond what we could ever dream with supercomputers. They’re expected to drive incredible advances in areas such as artificial intelligence. I pursued a science policy article on R&D quantum initiatives for MRS Bulletin. The problem I faced as a writer is how to talk about quantum materials when I have no background in this subject—and, furthermore, when the concept is still elusive even to scientists who are not in this specific field.

A few years ago, when “quantum” was quickly gaining momentum, I took a free online introductory course on quantum mechanics. I particularly learned where semiconducting- and superconducting-based materials play a role in the development of quantum devices and systems. Then last year, I benefited from a Zoom call hosted by the US National Science Foundation (NSF) given for the press to help us understand more about this concept. NSF has a vested interest in helping reporters “get it right.”

While definitely beneficial, neither of these activities helped me as much as interviewing the researchers for the article!

From the online course, I understood that quantum computers are made to correct their own errors, having something to do with coherence.

From the NSF meeting, I learned that money is going into numerous “platforms” of quantum computers because we don’t know, yet, which path will prevail. Because of my familiarity with the race for a vaccine against the COVID-19 virus, I was able to put that comment into context.

However, words like “coherence,” “qubit,” “superconductor,” and “ion-trapped” still floated across my brain like “cookie,” “park,” and “good dog” fall onto the ears of our puppies.

But it was time to interview the researchers. Prior to the zoom calls, I had already looked up their websites and their recently published articles to help me determine who to interview.

The first call was to Anna Grassellino, director of Fermilab’s Superconducting Quantum Materials and Systems Center in Illinois, near Chicago. Their work is specifically on the superconductivity platform for quantum computers, as we can gather from the name of the center. I received an in-depth lesson on the transmon qubit and how long the photon can live inside the cavity before getting absorbed. “We’ll be building a quantum computer using the 3D superconducting architecture,” Dr. Grassellino told me, which is based on their ultrahigh-quality-factor (ultrahigh-q) 3D resonator.

Anna Grassellino, director of Fermilab’s Superconducting Quantum Materials and Systems Center, holding a single-cell superconducting cavity. Credit: Reidar Hahn, Fermilab

The conversation was great because I was able to let her know that I read up on their work, but have no quantum materials background, so she was very generous in showing me a superconducting radio-frequency (SRF) cavity device, explaining how it works. “The key problem that we try to overcome is quantum coherence for the lifetime of the qubit,” Grassellino says. “The lifetime fully depends on how long the photon can live inside of a cavity or the transmon qubit before the quantum state gets destroyed or the photon gets absorbed. That depends on the material we use” (MRS Bulletin, https://doi.org/10.1557/mrs.2020.288).

Next, the UK. Principal investigator David Lucas heads up the UK Quantum Computing & Simulation Hub. He is also a professor at the University of Oxford and I bet he gets good evaluations from his students! While his specialty is on trapped-ion qubits (e.g., a strontium ion-qubit), the Hub pursues the range of platforms. Dr. Lucas tutored me on ion trap and silicon processors, superconductors, diamond nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers, cold atoms, and photonics. I’ve even saved our recorded interview for future reference, sort of like a personalized text book.

Oxford-built ion trap with a single strontium ion-qubit held at the center. Credit: David Nadlinger, winner of the UK science photo competition 2018.

Dr. Lucas and Dominic O'Brien, the director of the Hub, reinforced the NSF message that the science field does not know, yet, which platform will prevail.

And as we’ve seen with the COVID-19 vaccine, it could be more than one!

-Judy Meiksin

Materials connect playlist: plastic net shape manufacturing

Plastic is omnipresent and we are all aware of the challenges it poses. Let's review in music the conventional processing methods for plastic shaping, and recycling! Materials science and processes and intimately related, modifications at the materials level directly influences the process used, which in turn impacts the final material.

 

Start the playlist here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAtYx0idKu6sVCt0TwzHUxQlVdFqB8tgi

 

1. Synthesizing the polymer, most commonly via radical polymerization. The polymer chain structure is built at this stage that will be linked to its thermo-mechanical behavior: straight polymer chains will likely be semi-crystalline, crosslinked polymer networks will likely be more extensible (elastomers) or stiffer (thermosets). Highly branched polymer will get more viscous and high molecular weight will have a long reptation length linked to a high viscosity in molten state, etc. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljvX-RMv_lw

2. Preparing the plastic formulation that contains the polymer(s) and additives like plasticizers, fillers, crosslinker, antioxidants. The formulation will greatly influence which process to use for shaping as well as the final properties of the material, including mechanical, UV-resistance, temperature resistance, porosity, etc. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeu2Y3mdSkU 

and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_L4qauTiCY4&t=87s

3. Dispersive and distributive mixing is necessary to produce a homogeneous plastic formulation and create the "masterbatch", which are small pellets later used in the following processes.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wutkZ07ypA

and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVP7Fjrnhlk

4. Compounding is the process to produce the masterbatch via pelletisation:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZCWPDoN4CU

and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a01QQZyl-_I

5. Near net shape processing, specially for thermoplastic formulations are the most commonly used processes for producing plastic parts like PVC pipes, PET bottles, PE plastic bags, PP bottle caps, etc. Extruding using single or double screws are typically used for elongated shapes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cd_msPNeItU

,whereas injection molding is preferred for complex shapes with small features https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FH7vl-mRgWE

6. After finishing, the final plastic material is obtained. The process chosen not only provides the shape but also influence the properties. For example, during extrusion, the polymer chains of high  molecular weight polyethylene crystallize to form stiff fibers, a microstructure called in shish-kebab. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bNITQR4Uso

7. After use, the plastic part is trashed. In the best closed-loop system, the trash is sorted to attain at least 99% purity to create a new masterbatch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vn2GjrsyE8U

8. After the sorting, the new masterbatch is used as any other masterbatch

9. Parts that cannot be recycled can still be valorized. This means burnt for energy reconversion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGyEd0aKWZE

 

To optimize the close-loop cycle of plastic shaping, we need you and the next generation!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLpltDCoieU

 

 

Innovation in additive manufacturing and digitalization play key roles in adapting to megatrends.

3D printing and additive manufacturing (AM) have been buzzwords for a while now, but today, they have become reality. Indeed, AM has entered the large-scale industrial sphere. Take the car manufacturer Volkswagen, they have teamed up with printer giant HP to now launch their first large-scale production line using binder jet 3D printers .

In this technology, metallic or polymeric powders are deposited layer by layer while a crosslinker, additives and fusing agents are sputtered at specific locations. Each layer is then submitted to temperature or laser to locally consolidate and build the part. The material is thus constructed voxel-by-voxel, that is a small element of volume after each other. The properties of each voxel can be tuned, such as color and stiffness, depending on the nature of the additives deposited onto the powder bed.

Imagine a cube of 20 centimeters width built from cubic voxels of approximately 100 micrometers width: the large cube will be constituted of 2 billions voxels. Although this is very exciting in terms of design and tunability, it poses major challenges in terms of design optimization speed and data handling. To address this issue, HP technology exploits generative design, that is the integration of CAD and simulations. In the future, artificial intelligence and machine learning are likely to be game changers in this area.

Are AM and digital design really needed for large-scale fabrication? Innovation leaders claim that we are at the advent of a new industrial revolution, coined “Industry 4.0”. With AM and digitalization, product development, part fabrication, assembly, sale, and repair, can be accelerated. For example, the distribution becomes instantaneous through the online sharing of the CAD files to any factory in the world. Not only does it present advantages in terms of speed and cost, but it also increases the resilience of the entire supply chains to disruptions such as strikes, natural catastrophes, covid, etc.

By developing side-by-side digitalization tools and AM technologies, researchers thus play a key role in adapting to the current megatrends: rapid urbanization in emerging economies, ageing of the population, shift in economic power from West to East, and scarcity of resources.

Among the many technological challenges that Industry 4.0 poses, the first one is probably on the 3D printing capabilities. Can we expand polymer and metal voxel printing to reinforced composites, ceramics, living materials, waste-based materials, food, electronics …? Can we mix materials? How to recycle them?

To keep up with the most recent research in this field, here are a few suggested papers:

Direct ink writing advances in multi-material structures for a sustainable future (Journal of Materials Chemistry A (2020))

Recent advances in multi-material additive manufacturing: methods and applications (Current opinion in Chemical Engineering (2020))

A review of 3D printing technologies for soft polymer materials (Advanced Functional Materials (2020))

What defines a materials scientist?

Recently, the MRS bloggers have been sharing ideas about what defines a materials scientist. We discovered that our group is made up of a diverse pool of people from a variety of backgrounds. As one of the bloggers involved in the conversation, I was curious to analyses our different profiles and compare them to my own experiences. It appears that we have all taken different paths to arrive to the materials science discipline and, although our views vary on what we consider to be the top three skills of a materials scientist, there are some quite interesting trends.

My own path to materials science has been a winding one, although it’s all been based in the UK. I started out with a joint honors undergraduate degree in earth science with astronomy before obtaining a multi-disciplinary MSc related to process engineering. After that I spent a few years working in the nuclear industry before returning to academia to pursue a PhD in molecular modelling of polymers for carbon capture. Finally, I moved in to a post-doctoral position at a flagship radiation science laboratory which was converted into a fellowship specializing in nuclear waste.  

In my analysis of our ideas about materials science I found that, surprisingly, while some of us focused on technical skills needed to achieve the heights of materials discovery, many of us articulated the sheer importance of transferable skills that would apply to many other disciplines.

At least half of us mentioned that creativity, imagination or curiosity are key attributes of a materials scientist. Kero explained this very well when he pointed out that it takes more time than a PhD to become a true expert in any one discipline. He gave examples on how he is juggling with disciplines but probably, it is his curiosity that drives him to delve into his research and to keep exploring. That is certainly one of the things that keeps me going as well.

Most of us mentioned working with others in some way, whether that be about communication or collaboration. The ability to talk multiple scientific languages was specifically mentioned by both Hortense and Bharati. I think this makes a lot of sense as we are often working with people who may be technical specialists in one very particular area such as NMR or ion beam interactions and you often need to rely on several different disciplines to conduct an experiment. Since a lot of us supervise students or PhD candidates who many not yet have the same level of knowledge as we do, it is also important for us to be able to clearly explain key concepts to them.

A summary of the top 3 skills we each identified in a materials scientist. Blue = technical skill; Green = creativity and curiosity; Yellow = working with others.

Given our diversity, there were, of course, some very individual responses. Gargi may be the only one who mentioned that planning and multi-tasking are important and, to me, this suggests that picking the most outstanding skills of a materials scientist is actually quite difficult.

I agree completely that that these attributes are very important so why didn’t they make it in to my own top three? I suppose that this is something I would do automatically and so, when I was asked the question about skills, I focused on what was on my mind at the time. Since my background is quite I learned to multi-task before I entered the materials science field. In contrast, I’m still getting to grips with some aspects of radiation science and supervising a research group.

Perhaps the reason that many of the bloggers focused on transferrable skills is that we’re already quite advanced in our education, and so already have a good grasp of many of the technical skills. I guess my analysis means that, ultimately, there are many aspects of a materials scientist, and that we draw on a common skill-set depending on the environment that we are working in.

So, what defines a materials scientist? It seems that there are a lot of attributes to consider and technical ability is only one part of the story; our creativity and ability to interact with others are just a few of the common skills we have identified.

 

How Do Chinese Researchers Keep Up with Scientific Publications in the Era of Social Media?

Apart from reading scientific publications from official journal websites, researchers from China, particularly younger researchers, have relied increasingly heavily on another avenue to keep them informed about the literature — through social-media mobile apps, with WeChat as the best-known example.

Fig. 1 The logo of WeChat.

WeChat is a Chinese messaging, social media, and mobile payment app. Since its release in 2011, WeChat has become one of the world's most-used mobile apps, with over 1 billion monthly active users. Nearly every mobile user in China has a WeChat account. Some of my US friends have also installed WeChat in addition to WhatsApp for instant messaging.

WeChat allows users to establish public platforms to broadcast user-generated content to subscribers. These public platforms are similar to LinkedIn, Twitter, or Instagram accounts created by companies or research groups, which can post advertisements for promotion purposes. WeChat platform owners and associated management team members are responsible for creating, editing, and publishing the posts. Subscribers receive notifications containing links to the new items. They can tap the link to read and post comments to exchange ideas. Around 2015, some public accounts began to select recently published research papers for reporting. Typically, their reports were written in Chinese and summarize the main ideas and critical findings, similar to daily news feeds or journal e-alerts sent to your emails. 

Entering 2016, public platforms reporting scientific publications (coined academic public platforms hereafter) sprung up. Besides the soaring number, academic public platforms became increasingly specialized, covering one or more research fields, including sustainable energy, materials sciences, chemistry, physics, biology, geography, and social sciences. Their information is kept updated because they only select papers hot off the press for highlighting. Recently, popular science articles, conference announcements, and researcher recruitments have emerged.

The number of posted articles varies between one and eight per day, and each piece has about 500 to 2000 Chinese characters (approximately 1- to 20-min reading). Fig. 2 is a screenshot of six posts by a polymer-science platform on July 6^th, 2020. Typically, a post usually begins with a short introduction of the background, followed by the article information, including the authors and their affiliations, the title, the journal name, and one-sentence summary of the most prominent significance (Fig. 3A). The main body consists of key figures in the paper and their corresponding articulations (Fig. 3B). Different composers have their unique writing styles or formats (e.g., drawing cartoons), but need to write in Chinese.

Fig. 2. A screenshot of six posts by a polymer-science WeChat public platform on July 6^th, 2020.

Fig. 3 (A) The beginning and (B) main body of a post introducing a recent publication on carp scale in Matters.

Nowadays, academic public platforms intimately integrate graduate students, postdocs, professors, industrial developers, engineers, and journal editors. Graduate students, postdocs, and assistant professors can report for the platforms. Some of them serve as voluntary or salary-based editors for polishing, proofreading, and typesetting the posts. Some writers also participate in platform maintenance by checking readers' comments and deleting controversial or misleading information. Researchers, particularly some graduate students, postdocs, and young professors, prefer to consult the core information distilled in their native language on WeChat rather than reading original articles. Besides platform-generated items, research groups sometimes recommend their just-accepted papers in high-profile journals or directly submit their posts to one platform for dissemination and promotion. It seems that WeChat platforms are virtual journals collecting brief Chinese-version of published manuscripts in English.

Editors of academic journals have also created their platforms to publicize potentially high-impact papers published in their journals. Additionally, journal editors can create group chats to gather readers of similar research expertise and share the posts within the targeted audience (Fig. 4). The authors of the reported articles can participate in discussion with the group members to answer inquiries or solicit future collaborations. These activities benefit journals, authors, and readers.

Fig. 4. A group chat created by Sci. China Chem. Editors of this journal post highlights, along with brief descriptions of the potentially impactful papers published in their journal. In this screenshot, there are 500 group members in the chat.

Companies and research institutions financially support most academic public platforms. In return, platforms advertise their products or services in their posts. The advertisements are either banners, mentioned explicitly in the text, or written into a post. Funders consider the number of subscribers a vital factor to determine which platform to support. Since WeChat users have unlimited freedom to subscribe or unsubscribe from a platform at any time, platform owners must continually offer high-quality and eye-catching content to attract and retain their readers. Successful platforms can have more than 100k subscribers, and their most popular posts can reach over 10k reading times in a day. This attention economics unconsciously cultivate writers and editors who can quickly grasp the main ideas of research articles and present the core values in a compelling yet understandable way. Writers can sometimes get their remuneration of contributions once the post is out, and the amount depends on the number of clicks on the post. Therefore, WeChat writer can become a part-time job.

With the rapid rise of short-video apps such as TikTok, I envision that the future of delivering state-of-the-art research will transit from texted posts to informative videos. WeChat has already enabled creating and sharing videos within the app, and I am eager to witness the revolution of information delivery in the foreseeable future.

Tianyu Liu

5 tools to leverage for a book review

Using my book review of The Alchemy of Us as an example

When materials scientist Ainissa Ramirez published her book with the subtitle referring to materials – “How Humans and Matter Transformed One Another” – I thought this would be an excellent book to review for the materials community via MRS Bulletin.

Looking back over the review, I’m thinking about the “tools” I utilized when choosing how to approach this type of writing. Here are 5 tools I identified.

1. Passion

Be passionate about the book you’re reviewing. If you don’t care about the book, it will be difficult to draw inspiration to write about it. When you’re passionate, you would be able to write as though you were talking about the book to a group of friends.

I’m passionate about Ainissa Ramirez’s book The Alchemy of Us because she includes connections of new technology with the broad demographics of society. For example, the chapter about black & white photography shows how Frederick Douglass utilized the medium to represent the African American community as individuals in their own right against the backdrop of US slavery, and years later a chemist working for Kodak fought against the company’s use of Polaroids that subjected South Africans to discrimination. Yet, this is not the theme I chose for the review. Had I written the review during the current climate where we are experiencing the global revolution of the Black Lives Matter movement, I might have thought otherwise! However, at the time I wrote, I was thinking about how the scientific elements in photography lean more narrowly toward materials chemistry, which I thought might misrepresent the expanse of the book.  

2. Theme

Choose a trend in the book that pulls it together. This allows you to have a focus and tie everything you write about to that focus. With a focus, it is also easier to decide what details to include.

In my review, the theme I chose is the way the author connects people and technology in social history that supposedly have nothing in common, but are brought together by the materials involved. For example, I chose the concept of “time.” I was then able to use this concept for the hook.

3. Hook

Devise an opening statement to pique your readers’ interest.

I chose a riddle: “What do Ruth Belville, Albert Einstein, Louis Armstrong, and David Eagleman have in common?” The riddle demonstrates the very theme I chose. At the end of paragraph 3 I begin to answer the riddle: “This is where Ruth Belville comes into the story.”

4. Story

Choose a “story” from the book to expound upon.

By choosing the concept of “time” for the theme, I have Ruth Belville’s story to tell, which fascinates me (passion) because I never heard of her and Ramirez tells a story about what Belville does that I had never heard: “In 1908, Belville made her rounds in London with her trusty pocket watch named Arnold.” Belville checks the time on her pocket watch against the clock at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, which she then sells to people in London so they can compare their timepieces with hers for accuracy. Materials—such as steel, brass, ruby, and piezoelectricity in quartz – play a role in the accuracy of time pieces over the years. However, for various reasons, it is difficult to be precise – a role that materials science does not seem able to solve (yet): “With further exploration in physics (Einstein), music (Armstrong), and neuroscience (Eagleman), [Ramirez] shows how ‘precision’ – that holy grail – keeps evading our reach.” It matters that I focus on the materials discussed in the book because of my audience.

5. Audience

Know who your audience is.

Knowing my audience directed me to choose selective examples rich in details of materials science. The book, however, is not written strictly for a materials science audience but rather for the broad public readership. So I also needed to distinguish why the book would be of interest to the professionals in this field: “I can see this book making it to the “gift list” for (1) family and friends, so that they can understand the field I work in; (2) science writers, so they can study a grand example of how to tell a story that makes materials research understandable to the general population; and (3) materials researchers, who can see their work from a perspective beyond the laboratory.”

I’m curious how others have approached book reviews. I welcome your comments!

-Judy Meiksin

Q&A: What makes you a materials scientist?

 

Materials science is a field that is now almost half a century old, yet it is not always clear what it entails, and what are the skills of those who practice it. Defining what a materials scientist is is not straightforward. In a previous blog post, some key characteristics of a materials scientist are presented. However, conversation among the bloggers of Materials Connect highlighted that some of these characteristics were more specific to the topic at stake, namely porous materials.

Since this blog is driven by early-career researchers in materials science, we are forming a representative pool of people to describe the richness and diversity of the community. Below, our bloggers share some of their research activities, discoveries, and interests. As a reader of our blog (thank you!), we hope that you will find these posts interesting thanks to the experience shared, the topics covered, and the overall excitement about materials research.

######## Laura Leay, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

What is your name and research field?

Laura Leay. Nuclear waste and radiation science, specifically how the nuclear waste evolves under its own radiation field over timescales relevant to disposal (hundreds of thousands of years).

What excites you the most in materials science?

That we have the ability to consider individual atoms and understand how they affect the macroscale properties of the material; that we can use this information to build intricate things such as semiconductor devices or design materials that can withstand extreme environments such as deep space or the heart of a nuclear reactor. Our knowledge can be used to push technology forward and do amazing things.

What are the 3 skills that you think are the most useful in materials science?

(i) Understanding the limitations of our current knowledge. This can be tricky as there is such a large body of knowledge and there are always fine details that may be difficult to describe. For example, geopolymers are being considered for the immobilization of some nuclear waste. These cementitious materials have been researched for decades and there is a complex interplay between the mix of components (alumina, silica, alkali and water) that leads to different properties of the material. One of my favorite papers on this topic looks at the effect of structural water on cracking, and uses a very particular definition of structural water, based on the observations made during their study.

(ii) Creativity. To push knowledge forward we need to build on it and come up with something new. In my post that inspired this collaborative post I talk about the evolution of adsorption science for understanding porosity and I think that there are many other examples of one set of experiments that are inspired by previous work.

(iii) Communication. If you create new knowledge and no one knows about it, does it even count? Publishing manuscripts in journals is the traditional method of doing this while blogs and videos are effective ways of presenting information in an engaging way. Discussions at conferences are also very useful. Here are two examples:

-        I’m a relatively new investigator in the field of radiation effects in nuclear waste and, at a previous MRS meeting, I’ve met Bill Weber, an expert in the field. His insights have been invaluable and I’ve since written one review paper while discussions that draw on his in-depth knowledge is helpful in designing experiments for future manuscripts. Talking to the public is also very useful.

-        I recently volunteered at the BlueDot science festival and the questions I was asked about nuclear waste really made me think hard about the importance of my work and what the key outcomes are. As a result, my research is more focused.

Laura sitting at her bench (credit: Laura Leay). The picture depicts the plurality of the research, with characterization tools in the background (scanning electron microscope on the  left and optical microscope on the right), preparation or synthesis tools (micropipets, powders, etc.), theoretical understanding (a reference book on the bench, a white board  leaning on the wall in the back). All lengthscales of materials are also present: nanometer with the electron microscope, micro- and millimeter with the optical one, and centimeter and beyond with the specimen.

######## Keroles B. Riad, Concordia University, Montréal, Canada

What is your name and research field?

My name is Keroles B. Riad, a Ph.D. candidate and a public scholar at Concordia University, Montreal, Canada. I have multidisciplinary research interests. Fundamentally, I make new materials for stereolithography 3D printing. So I am interested in 3D printing as a process using light to photo cure resin into three-dimensional shapes, and its materials. There are two main projects I am working on: 1) photocuring epoxy with quantum dots with a high bandgap energy in order for the 3D-printed parts to be insensitive to sunlight, and 2) photocuring graphene oxide liquid crystals to make stronger photocurable 3D-printed parts. I started with working on the organic chemistry, polymer and catalysis points of view to prove that semiconducting nanoparticles can indeed photocure epoxy. Then, I learned about nanotechnology and flame synthesis to make the quantum dots that I need. Finally, I am also learning about graphene and liquid crystals more broadly.  

What excites you the most in materials science?

Discovery! I love that even though I have clear objectives for my exploration, I am always stumbling into discovering something new that is unrelated to my objectives but is scientifically impactful. A clear example is when I was trying to make quantum dots using flame spray pyrolysis, I discovered a monoclinic crystal structure that was never observed before in flame-made titania (published here). Flame-made monoclinic titania had little to do with my original objective, but it is important because nanoparticle properties are governed by crystal structure.

What are the 3 skills that you think are the most useful in materials science?

(i) Child-level curiosity: A challenge I have had trying to conduct experimental research intertwining so many disciplines is that there is no way for me to be an “expert” in all of those disciplines. In fact, I am convinced it takes more time than a PhD to become a true expert in any one of those disciplines I am juggling. Thus, I always have unanswered basic questions. I think it is critical to keep asking those basic questions in spite of fear of looking silly, and challenge the answers you receive. My first paper is based on work I have done as a bachelor student trying to learn about polymers. It is a direct result of asking silly basic questions, and challenging what I have been learning. 

(ii) Child-level stubbornness: there is a saying that goes along the lines of “when you put your mind to something, the entire universe conspires to make it happen.” That is absolutely not the case with research - hardly anything works the way you think it will. Certainly, not the first time. An example is my first four months research internship at ETH Zürich trying to make the quantum dots I need via flame. I tried so many combinations and materials in the first three months and a half without ever getting close to the bandgap energy that I need. I only succeeded two weeks prior to the end of my internship. I frantically spent the last two weeks making as much of it as possible to take back to my university in Canada.

(iii) Child-level willingness to fail: I make a clear distinction between research and development. It is easy to conflate the two, particularly in engineering. You simply cannot do truly original research if you are unwilling to risk catastrophic failure. In the conception of every project I have worked on, others have given me many completely legitimate reasons why what I am trying to do is impossible. Sometimes they were right and I failed, and sometimes I proved them wrong. My most recent paper on photopolymerization of epoxy with semiconducting nanoparticles is a clear example of original research that was faced by a lot of legitimate skepticism at conception.

Nanocomposite containing graphene liquid crystals (credit: Keroles Riad).

######## Tomojit Chowdhury, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA

What is your name and research field?

I am Tomojit (Tom), a Materials Chemistry graduate student at the Johns Hopkins University, U.S.A. My field of research is solid state materials chemistry. Specifically, I am interested in the chemistry and physics of dimensionally restricted solid state materials (also known as low-dimensional materials), which manifest dramatic changes in their chemical and physical properties when the material dimension approaches the wavelength of an electron. Currently, I am exploring the morphology- and dimension-dependent optical/electronic properties of inorganic two-dimensional (2D) crystals towards developing new tools in optoelectronics and quantum device studies.

What excites you the most in materials science?

To me, the beauty of materials science lies in the close-knit interactions between three major disciplines – physics, chemistry, and engineering. Out of the numerous compelling facades of materials science, I find light-matter interaction as the most exciting phenomenon. This has motivated me to take up graduate research focused on the light-matter interactions in low-dimensional materials. I have been seeking the answer to the key question of how the morphology and dimensionality of atomically thin 2D crystals influence their light-emitting behavior. To address this question, I use various synthetic and fabrication tools to grow high-quality atomic crystals, and subsequently utilize micro/spectroscopic techniques to examine their optical and electrical transport properties. In a recent study, we demonstrated that growth substrate plays a pivotal role in transforming the structure and dimensionality of 2D atomic crystals revealing distinctive optical characteristics.

What are the 3 skills that you think are the most useful in materials science?

Considering the highly interdisciplinary flavor of materials science, I find the following skills to be the most critical ones in the practice of this field. They are (i) crystal growth - for obtaining high-quality materials, (ii) analytical characterization - to examine the structure, composition, properties of the materials, and (iii) theoretical tools - to explain emerging material phenomena. I endeavor to utilize these skills in my own graduate research while preparing myself for the next stages of scientific research. Designer crystal growth is of paramount importance where different crystal morphologies can be explored and manipulated by implementing specialized synthetic techniques that are critical to the realization of new crystal growth mechanisms. Equally important, development of analytical tools to investigate new materials phases, dimensions, physical/chemical properties is central to the observation of emergent phenomena, such as topological, correlated effects. Finally, advanced theoretical methods/models, such as quantum simulations, molecular dynamics algorithms are essential in order to explain new physical and chemical characteristics emanating from the materials, therefore validating experimental observations through the axioms driven from fundamental science.

Enjoy reading some of the most recent cool discoveries concerning crystal growth, analytical tools, and materials theory!

Top left: A hot-wall gas phase reactor used to grow nanomaterials. The radiance indicates a high temperature chemical vapor deposition (CVD) in progress!

Top right and bottom left: Activities inside the optical/optoelectronic labs.

Bottom right: Most important, a coffee break!

######## Hortense Le Ferrand, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

What is your name and research field?

Hortense Le Ferrand, doing research on additive manufacturing technology to fabricate and design structural and multifunctional composites.

What excites you the most in materials science?

I take inspiration in natural materials because they provide examples of how to make amazingly complex and functional structures using weak and common elements. I really love the multidisciplinary aspect of the field, where one advance in biology might push research in characterization by highlighting new questions, or the capabilities now available via 3D printing or microfluidics but requiring new understanding of  basic phenomenon. The potential applicability of our research to the everyday life is the cream of the crop.

What are the 3 skills that you think are the most useful in materials science?

(i) Being able to talk multiple scientific languages. Indeed, materials scientists are multidisciplinary and like or need to converse with researchers in biology, physics, computational modelling, etc. Each community has its own specific jargon but most materials scientists are multi-jargon-al and can collaborate with diverse fields. For example, I learned that the concept of being small is drastically different between mechanical engineers for whom 10 cm is small, and biologists, for whom small is sub-micrometric or what cannot be seen by optical or confocal microscopy.

(ii) Getting a holistic sense of what are the important parameters in an experiment, and what are external influences. For example, when testing a hydrogel in tensile mode, it is critical  not only to have the correct testing design following ASTM standards, but also to control the humidity and temperature. The results from an experiment are therefore definitively related to the conditions of the testing.

(iii) Being humble but creative. I believe it is crucial to be aware that materials and materials development began in the Prehistoric period and that an amazing lot has been done since. However, there is much more to learn, as exemplified with  the discovery of new chemical elements in the 18th century, and more recently of new phenomena such as shape-memory ceramics, multiferroic materials, etc. and this calls for creativity to use old and recent knowledge to create materials that can have impacts in our society.

Materials science links experiments, characterization and modelling. This is a picture of my lab showing a combination of organization with lists of chemicals, boxes and ordered benches. But it also shows entropy and mess with many pill glasses, samples and tools, suggesting more experiments to come. (credit: Hortense Le Ferrand)

 

######## Christos E. Athanasiou, Brown University, Providence, USA

What is your name and research field?

Christos E. Athanasiou, postdoctoral research associate at Brown University. I am developing functional ceramic nanocomposites for battery and structural applications. To do that, I am using a blend of old (mechanics) and new (machine learning) engineering tools.

What excites you the most in materials science?  

I find fascinating the ability to combine physics, chemistry, and engineering to develop materials with unique properties. What else could be more exciting than creating materials with mechanical, electrical, chemical properties, or a combination of them, that do not exist in nature?

What are the 3 skills that you think are the most useful in materials science?

(i) Being able to work with ultra-bright people who are willing to change the world: I strongly believe that one of the perks of academic life is the ability to work with fearless people who wish to make their mark. For example, at Brown University I work with a remarkably clever and passionate scholar who is not afraid to think out of the box and learn new things. The result of our collaborative work is a deep learning method which we expect to revolutionize the field of mechanical testing at small scales [see here].

(ii) Learning to be rational, analytical, and creative: At universities one can clearly distinguish two types of researchers: the ones that come up with new ideas every day and the ones that investigate in-depth the same problem for decades. The multidisciplinarity of the materials science field requires people who can discover a balance between their analytical and creative thinking. And eventually these are the ones who drive innovation. As an example you can check out the work of Prof. ABC (where ABC should be chosen by you!) who has studied in-depth ceramics, metals, nanocomposites etc. using a combination of traditional and novel methods.

(iii) Learning how to earn and live with less than your computer science colleagues where computer science can be replaced with other trendy science topics [joke].

Image of ceramic nanocomposite electrolyte ready to get sintered via electrical flash method. This photo demonstrates that state-of-the-art results do not always require state-of-the-art setups. (credit: Christos Athanasiou).

#### Bharati Neelamraju, University of Arizona, Tuscon, USA

What is your name and research field?

Bharati Neelamraju, PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Arizona. My PhD work has been in the field of organic electronics, in particular on understanding the doping and degradation mechanism of organic semiconductors using a combination of spectroscopies, scattering techniques, electrical and electrochemical measurements. Currently working as a postdoc in Micron Technology Inc.

What excites you the most in materials science?

The most exciting thing about materials science is its interdisciplinary nature of work. You need to understand physics-chemistry (biology for some areas!) and engineering simultaneously. It is a highly collaborative environment where you need to learn how to work with different people in addition to different scientific backgrounds.

What are the 3 skills that you think are the most useful in materials science?

(i) Ability to talk and think in many languages: Science majors think we are engineers while engineers think we are scientists! Being able to talk and think in both languages, I believe, is important for materials science and engineering majors where science drives engineering and vice versa. For example when looking at chemical/physical mechanisms, there is a tendency to run yourself into a rabbit hole; in those times, putting your engineer hat on (as my advisor always said) helps bring the chemistry/physics back into perspective.

(ii) Collaborative attitude and time management: Materials science is highly collaborative. It is very important to be able to work effectively with other labs and teams. While you need to keep your work a priority, you are also running samples for other projects you support. It’s easy to miss deadlines where you are only supporting and not the lead. Vice versa you also need to push other teams to make sure your work is done on time. These are some soft skills I believe are very important for materials scientists. Also always acknowledge and give credit where credit is due!

(iii) The growth mindset: I think continuous learning is something that is very important in this field because you are solving problems from various angles. Having a growth mindset means you are always willing to learn and find creative ways of solving problems rather than depending solely on your innate strengths (This could be the industry talking :P )

Top: Bahrati presenting her work at a conference. Bottom left: Bahrati in front of a thin film vacuum deposition chamber holding a thin film sample of phthalocyanine. Bottom right: Right image is a field effect transistor used for electron mobility measurements. (credit: Bahrati Neelamraju)

 #### Gargi Joshi, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Ishikawa, Japan

What is your name and research field?

 Gargi Joshi

-        Ph.D. in Materials Science

-        Postdoctoral researcher at the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.

-        My research interests gravitate around bioinspiration, specifically self-assembly of biopolymers.

What excites you the most in materials science?

The boundless possibilities and design schemes. A complex structural hierarchy manifests everywhere in nature based upon the simplest of building blocks. Deciphering it takes creative intelligence to an entirely different level.

What are the 3 skills that you think are the most useful in materials science?

(i) Planning & Multitasking

The entire process of research work, experimentation, analysis, data compilation, discussion and so on, needs plenty of patience and belief. It all starts from a hypothesis followed by a marathon to justify it. Instead of just running experiments over and over again, I focus on immediately examining as well as organizing the data. This proves beneficial in planning the next step accordingly and saves a lot of time.

(ii) Constructive criticism and Scientific logic

Although we put our heart and soul into the research work, prejudice cannot dominate while writing a manuscript. By actively being a part of the review addressal phases in all my co-authored manuscripts, I gained a lot of experience in scientifically tackling the questions and comments. Moreover, having an open mind to different perspectives should be simultaneously inculcated if someone wants to be in the research field. Taking part in discussion with people working on different topics has helped me evolve my approach and practical thinking.

(iii) Imagination

Sketching my ideas on paper and arguing with myself to reach a logical conclusion is my favorite part. Before writing or discussing anything, I pen down my thoughts roughly and conceptualize the overall research. It stimulates my mind to focus on the finer details that I might have missed. Eventually, using illustrative tools to design the theme improves the final manuscript aesthetically.

Living and working in an International community helps me develop multiple skills. (credit: Gargi Joshi).