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Modeling elastomers at Medinstill

Submitted by dbs on

I am a senior research engineer at Medical Instill Technologies, New Milford, CT. Our company is currently focused on designing and manufacturing innovative dispensing systems for pharmaceutical and nutritional products, and also their filling systems. You may visit our website (http://www.medinstill.com) for more information.

We are currently exploring elastomer-based dispensing systems for fluids of different viscosities. In relation to this project, we are interested in hiring somebody with a doctoral level education and who has exposure to modeling elastomers, particularly elastomer solid mechanics, adhesion between elastomers, and flow of fluids over elastomers.

Web journals threaten peer-review system

Submitted by Martijn Feron on

The peer review system has been the established way to select publicated research for decades. However, this way of publishing may come to an end.

New developments in this field embrace the idea that research should not be restricted by the iron grip of the journals. The value of the authors work is debated in cyberspace, leading to a number of consequences. Disadvantages include the possibility of a deluge of junk science due to the unfiltered publishing and online abuse concerning unfairly ridiculing rival's work. On the other side scientific discovery could be accelerated and online critiques may help detect mistakes or fraud more quickly.

Already the first initiatives are present, Philica, PLoS (Public Library of Science). Online journals are not boomingly popular, as they have attracted little attention so far. However, possibilities regarding reaching a broad audience in a fast way seem promising...

The 13th International Conference on Experimental Mechanics

Submitted by Horacio Espinosa on

Dear Colleagues:


The 13th International Conference on Experimental Mechanics (ICEM13, http://www.icem13.gr) will be held on July 1-6, 2007 in Alexandroupolis, Greece. It is our pleasure to announce that the Conference will include a special symposium organized by us entitled, “Plasticity, Fracture and Fatigue at the Micro and Nano Scales,” which will focus on recent developments in this area within the larger scope of assessing research needs in a variety of applications of interest.

The Boltzmann Distribution

Submitted by Zhigang Suo on
  • A small system in thermal contact with a large system
  • The Boltzmann factor
  • Partition function
  • The probability for a system in thermal equilibrium with a reservoir to be in a specific state
  • The probability for a system in thermal equilibrium with a reservoir to be in a configuration
  • Thermal fluctuation of an RNA molecule
  • A matter of words

Return to the outline of Statistical Mechanics.

Probability

Submitted by Zhigang Suo on
  • An experiment that has many possible outcomes
  • Construct a sample space at a suitable level of detail
  • Probability of an event
  • Conditioning
  • Independent events
  • Random variable
  • Use a random variable to specify an event
  • Use a random variable to dissect a sample space
  • Probability distribution of a random variable
  • Variance of a random variable
  • A dimensionless measure of the fluctuation of a random variable

Return to the outline of Statistical Mechanics

How "hot" is a research topic?

Submitted by Pradeep Sharma on

A student pointed me to a recent article on physicsweb. This article discusses a new (scientific) ranking system developed by a German student (Michael Banks) in Max Planck Institute of Solid State Physics to characterize the "hotness" of the scientific subject. If, after reading the popular physicsweb article linked above, you are interested in more details you may wish to read the attached original article posted by Banks. "Carbon nanotubes" emerges at the top of the list.