The number of registered users of iMechanica reaches 7000 on 11 May 2008. So far, our fellow iMechanicians have contributed 3172 posts and 7425 comments. The evolving statistics of iMechanica
(see the latest updates here and here) shows a steady growth with no sign of slowing down.
Check out the earlier milestones of iMechanica when the number of registered users reached:
Dear fellow iMechanicians:
After some technical problems over the past weekend, iMechanica is now back on full service. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and thank for your patience.
We are particularly grateful to Ms. Lesley Lam in OIT of Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences for her prompt fix of the problem.
Well-known for its high yield strength, metallic glass often suffers from its low ductility and intrinsic brittleness, as discussed in a recent iMech jClub theme on plasticity and failure in metallic glasses led by Yanfei Gao.
As the most rigid cytoskeletal filaments, microtubules bear compressive forces in living cells, balancing the tensile forces within the cytoskeleton to maintain the cell shape. It is often observed that, in living cells, microtubules under compression severely buckle into short wavelengths. By contrast, when compressed, isolated microtubules in vitro buckle into single long-wavelength arcs. The critical buckling force of the microtubules in vitro is two orders of magnitude lower than that of the microtubules in living cells.
Launched on 9 September 2006, iMechanica is the web of mechanics and mechanicians. The mission of iMechanica is twofold:
At 71, Physics Professor Is a Web Star
Most frequently e-mailed by NYTimes.com readers in the past 30 days, the above article features MIT physics professor, Walter H. G. Lewin, on how his free physics lecture videos online have won him devotees all over the world.
While preparing a talk on iMechanica , I came across the following video "Information R/evolution" by Michael Wesch, an assistant professor of anthropology at Kansas State University. This thought provoking video echoes a recent comment on "The future of knowledge?"
Enjoy!
Attending conferences is one of the essential professional activities for scientific researchers. Conferences take various forms, such as community-wide meetings (e.g., MRS meetings, ASME congress, APS meetings), and topic-focused meetings/workshops (e.g., Plasticity07, Gordon Research Conferences(GRC)). While people have different preferences on the types of conference to attend (e.g., see a recent iMech poll initiated by Biswajit Banerjee ), here are some common positive driving forces to motivate one to attend a conference:
