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Adolphe Merkle Institute
The Adolphe Merkle Institute (AMI) is a research center in Fribourg, Switzerland focused on nanoscience. The institute is named after the Swiss entrepreneur Adolphe Merkle who created the foundation that partially funded the institute. History Dr. Adolphe Merkle, an entrepreneur from Fribourg, established the Adolphe Merkle Foundation in 2007 with the goal of strengthening research and teaching at the University of Fribourg. His contribution of 100 million Swiss francs constitutes one of the most important private donations to support academic research in Switzerland. In 2008, the Adolphe Merkle Institute was founded under its first director, Prof. Peter Schurtenberger, formerly a professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Fribourg and then appointed as the chair of Experimental Physics and Nanoscience at the Institute. He developed the vision of an interdisciplinary institute that focuses on soft nanomaterials and combines fundamental and application-oriented ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Research Institute
A research institute, research centre, research center or research organization, is an establishment founded for doing research. Research institutes may specialize in basic research or may be oriented to applied research. Although the term often implies natural science research, there are also many research institutes in the social science as well, especially for sociological and historical research purposes. Famous research institutes In the early medieval period, several astronomical observatories were built in the Islamic world. The first of these was the 9th-century Baghdad observatory built during the time of the Abbasid caliph al-Ma'mun, though the most famous were the 13th-century Maragheh observatory, and the 15th-century Ulugh Beg Observatory. The Kerala School of Astronomy and Mathematics was a school of mathematics and astronomy founded by Madhava of Sangamagrama in Kerala, India. The school flourished between the 14th and 16th centuries and the original discoverie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Colloids
A colloid is a mixture in which one substance consisting of microscopically dispersed insoluble particles is suspended throughout another substance. Some definitions specify that the particles must be dispersed in a liquid, while others extend the definition to include substances like aerosols and gels. The term colloidal suspension refers unambiguously to the overall mixture (although a narrower sense of the word ''suspension'' is distinguished from colloids by larger particle size). A colloid has a dispersed phase (the suspended particles) and a continuous phase (the medium of suspension). The dispersed phase particles have a diameter of approximately 1 nanometre to 1 micrometre. Some colloids are translucent because of the Tyndall effect, which is the scattering of light by particles in the colloid. Other colloids may be opaque or have a slight color. Colloidal suspensions are the subject of interface and colloid science. This field of study was introduced in 1845 by Italian ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Swissinfo
SWI swissinfo.ch is a multilingual news and information platform produced by the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SRG SSR). Its content is Swiss-centred, with top priority given to in-depth information on politics, the economy, the arts, science, education, and direct democracy. Switzerland's international political, economic and cultural relations are other key points of focus. The website is available in ten languages. History In the mid-1990s, economic circumstances forced swissinfo.ch to take a new strategic direction. The internet was advancing fast, heralding a new era for the producing journalists and the Swiss Radio International (SRI) audience alike. The German, French, English and Portuguese sites went online in 1999. The Italian, Japanese and Spanish sites followed in 2000, with Arabic going live on 1 February 2001 and Chinese in September of the same year. Within just two years, the internet platform for expatriate Swiss was already better known than SRI's short-wav ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bioprinting
Three dimensional (3D) bioprinting is the utilization of 3D printing–like techniques to combine cells, growth factors, and/or biomaterials to fabricate biomedical parts, often with the aim of imitating natural tissue characteristics. Generally, 3D bioprinting can utilize a layer-by-layer method to deposit materials known as bio-inks to create tissue-like structures that are later used in various medical and tissue engineering fields. 3D bioprinting covers a broad range of bioprinting techniques and biomaterials. Currently, bioprinting can be used to print tissue and organ models to help research drugs and potential treatments. Nonetheless, translation of bioprinted living cellular constructs into clinical application is met with several issues due to the complexity and cell number needed to create functional organs. However, innovations span from bioprinting of extracellular matrix to mixing cells with hydrogels deposited layer by layer to produce the desired tissue. In addition, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mechanochemistry
Mechanochemistry (or mechanical chemistry) is the initiation of chemical reactions by mechanical phenomena. Mechanochemistry thus represents a fourth way to cause chemical reactions, complementing thermal reactions in fluids, photochemistry, and electrochemistry. Conventionally mechanochemistry focuses on the transformations of covalent bonds by mechanical force. Not covered by the topic are many phenomena: phase transitions, dynamics of biomolecules (docking, folding), and sonochemistry. Mechanochemistry is not the same as mechanosynthesis, which refers specifically to the machine-controlled construction of complex molecular products. In natural environments, mechanochemical reactions are frequently induced by physical processes such as earthquakes, glacier movement or hydraulic action of rivers or waves. In extreme environments such as subglacial lakes, hydrogen generated by mechnochemical reactions involving crushed silicate rocks and water can support methanogenic microbial com ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nanocomposites
Nanocomposite is a multiphase solid material where one of the phases has one, two or three dimensions of less than 100 nanometers (nm) or structures having nano-scale repeat distances between the different phases that make up the material. The idea behind Nanocomposite is to use building blocks with dimensions in nanometre range to design and create new materials with unprecedented flexibility and improvement in their physical properties. In the broadest sense this definition can include porous media, colloids, gels and copolymers, but is more usually taken to mean the solid combination of a bulk matrix and nano-dimensional phase(s) differing in properties due to dissimilarities in structure and chemistry. The mechanical, electrical, thermal, optical, electrochemical, catalytic properties of the nanocomposite will differ markedly from that of the component materials. Size limits for these effects have been proposed: in Kelly, A, ''Concise encyclopedia of composites materials'', E ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Supramolecular Chemistry
Supramolecular chemistry refers to the branch of chemistry concerning chemical systems composed of a discrete number of molecules. The strength of the forces responsible for spatial organization of the system range from weak intermolecular forces, electrostatic charge, or hydrogen bonding to strong covalent bonding, provided that the electronic coupling strength remains small relative to the energy parameters of the component. While traditional chemistry concentrates on the covalent bond, supramolecular chemistry examines the weaker and reversible non-covalent interactions between molecules. These forces include hydrogen bonding, metal coordination, hydrophobic forces, van der Waals forces, pi–pi interactions and electrostatic effects. Important concepts advanced by supramolecular chemistry include molecular self-assembly, molecular folding, molecular recognition, host–guest chemistry, mechanically-interlocked molecular architectures, and dynamic covalent chemistry. The st ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Centre For Technology Assessment TA-SWISS
The Foundation for Technology Assessment TA-SWISS is a Centre of Competence of the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences, based on a mandate in the Swiss federal law on research. It is an advisory body, financed by public money, and devoted to technology assessment. (The abbreviation «TA» which is used to describe TA-SWISS stands for Technology Assessment, and reflects the activities of the Centre.) Mission The object of the Foundation for Technology Assessment TA-SWISS is to follow technological changes and developments and to identify the social, legal and ethical consequences of new technologies. Another element of its mission is to encourage the discussion of scientific and technological challenges. The recommendations that result from TA-SWISS projects are used to assist the decision making process, and are intended for the Swiss Parliament and the Federal Council. Depending on the topics covered, these recommendations may also be of interest to other groups, such as professi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nanosensor
Nanosensors are nanoscale devices that measure physical quantities and convert these to signals that can be detected and analyzed. There are several ways proposed today to make nanosensors; these include top-down lithography, bottom-up assembly, and molecular self-assembly. There are different types of nanosensors in the market and in development for various applications, most notably in defense, environmental, and healthcare industries. These sensors share the same basic workflow: a selective binding of an analyte, signal generation from the interaction of the nanosensor with the bio-element, and processing of the signal into useful metrics. Characteristics Nanomaterials-based sensors have several benefits in sensitivity and specificity over sensors made from traditional materials, due to nanomaterial features not present in bulk material that arise at the nanoscale. Nanosensors can have increased specificity because they operate at a similar scale as natural biological proce ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Smart Polymer
Smart polymers, stimuli-responsive polymers or functional polymers are high-performance polymers that change according to the environment they are in. Such materials can be sensitive to a number of factors, such as temperature, humidity, pH, chemical compounds, the wavelength or intensity of light or an electrical or magnetic field and can respond in various ways, like altering color or transparency, becoming conductive or permeable to water or changing shape ( shape memory polymers). Usually, slight changes in the environment are sufficient to induce large changes in the polymer's properties. Applications Smart polymers appear in highly specialized applications and everyday products alike. They are used for sensors and actuators such as artificial muscles , the production of hydrogels, biodegradable packaging, and to a great extent in biomedical engineering . One example is a polymer that undergoes conformational change in response to pH change, which can be used in drug deliver ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bilan (magazine)
''Bilan'' is a French language biweekly Business journalism, business magazine published in Geneva, Switzerland. The magazine has been in circulation since 1989. History and profile ''Bilan'' was first published in June 1989. The publisher of the magazine was Alain Fabarez. It was owned by the Edipresse Group until November 2011. Then it became part of the Tamedia Group. The magazine is published biweekly by Tamedia Publications on Wednesdays and has its headquarters in Geneva. It came out monthly until 2005 when its frequency was switched to biweekly. Its headquarters was formerly in Lausanne. ''Bilan'' is the French counterpart of the Swiss German language, German business magazine, ''BILANZ'', and features analyses of finance markets and targets managers of small or large enterprises and decision makers. It publishes several listings, including the 300 richest Switzerland, the 100 richest in Europe, the 300 most influential Switzerland, the 50 start-up invest in and the top 3 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bioinspiration
Bioinspiration is the development of novel materials, devices, and structures inspired by solutions found in biological evolution and refinement which has occurred over millions of years. The goal is to improve modeling and simulation of the biological system to attain a better understanding of nature's critical structural features, such as a wing, for use in future bioinspired designs. Bioinspiration differs from biomimicry in that the latter aims to precisely replicate the designs of biological materials. Bioinspired research is a return to the classical origins of science: it is a field based on observing the remarkable functions that characterize living organisms and trying to abstract and imitate those functions. History Ideas in science and technology often arise from studying nature. In the 16th and 17th century, Galileo Galilei, G. Galilei, Johannes Kepler, J. Kepler and Isaac Newton, I. Newton studied the motion of the sun and the planets and developed the first empirical ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
