Check out the “Useful links” page ! I’ve listed all the interesting websites our teacher talked about this year. 

Nowadays scientific posters are commonly used during scientific presentations and conventions. Scientists present their posters briefly and they can then interact, talk with the people who are interested. Most of M1 students have to make a poster at the end of the year. On the website of North Carolina University the method to make a good scientific poster is explained. Here are the main points to obey in order to do so :

An effective poster is a visual communications tool, a visual medium. It will help you engage colleagues in conversation and get your main points across to as many people as possible.

It must be focused on a single message, graphic (it lets graphs and images tell the story, you should use text sparingly) and ordered (it keeps the sequence well-ordered and obvious to the audience).

An effective poster operates on multiple levels : it is a source of information, a conversation starter, an advertisement and a summary of your work.

A poster uses a different, visual grammar. It shows, not tells.

To convey your message you must keep it attractive, visual and simple to understand.

What you must not do if you want to make a good poster :

These are some of  the advice given on the website. Instead of listing absolutely all of them I prefer to give you the address :

http://www.ncsu.edu/project/posters/NewSite/EffectiveAbstract.html

There are also examples of posters, such as the one called “Gene Flow in Lions” which deals with a genetic issue among a small population (such as lions) that might be therefore threatened. You can find this poster at top of this post.

Cedric Roux, an M1 student like me talked to me a little bit about the poster he made this year. It is about touch screens. The poster surveys different kinds of touchscreens : resistive, capacitive or infrared touch screens. Future developments and applications as well as ergonomic issues are approached by the poster. This is quite a theoretical kind of topic so it was difficult to integrate charts and graphs, but there is still a visual content. Cedric and his coworker drew several pictures representing touch screens.

In a nutshell we can assert that making and presenting a poster enable you to practice your ability to synthetize, summarize information and to discuss scientific issues with your colleagues (oral skills, ability to answer questions…).

To begin the last lesson of the year we studied a recent paper published in Chemistry World in February 2008. It is entitled “Recycling carbon dioxide into petrol”. We had to sum up visually the key points and information, using arrows or charts. I’m going to try to summarize the article here. It deals with an experimental reactor that aims at recycling carbon dioxide (CO2) into petrol, as the title suggests. It is part of the “Sunshine to Petrol” project developed by the Sandia team from Sandia National Laboratories, New Mexico.  A prototype device uses solar energy to split carbon dioxide thus turning it into carbon monoxide (CO) used to produce petrol. The same device is already used to split water (H2O) to form hydrogen to which CO is added afterwards to synthetize fuels. This new way of production the article deals with is a difficult process since CO2 must be buried because of its unstability. Besides solar energy is usually used to generate electricity and not to split CO2 molecules. The final system, called Counter Rotating Ring Receiver Reactor Recuperator (CR5), includes several of these prototypes and is to be tested this spring. The main interest of this system is its efficiency. Indeed a single reactor could collect approximately 22 kg of CO2 and 18 kg of water and turning them into 2.5 gallons of petrol ! (1 gallon = 3.8 L). The final system should be ready by 2011-2013 and the Sandia team is competing with other teams such as the Los Alamos Renewable Energy (LARE) firm.

We then studied briefly an article from NewScientist (1 March 2008). It is a longer thus more elaborate paper on the same subject and is entitled “Let’s hear it for CO2″. It stresses the ecological and economical aspects of the problem : CO2 is descscribed as the “devil molecule” because of the greenhouse effect. This is why this process could debilitate this phenomenon : researchers “retrieve” the CO2 causing pollution to turn it into hydrocarbons used as vehicle fuel or to make some materials such as plastics, usually manufactured with oil. CO2 could therefore become a new raw material that would enable us to face the scarcity of oil deposits. 

Then our teacher Elizabeth Anne handed two articles she wrote several years ago for Physics World : “Mind your language !” (November 1998) and “The great language conspiracy” (January 2003). They are both about the difficulties to talk an understandable English (or French, German, Italian… ”let’s call it FGIx for short”)  during oral presentations for instance. Indeed the English language can be divided into two versions that have historical roots: high English is used when you write scientific papers while low English is the kind of language spoken in everyday life and at physics conferences. The writer gives several examples to illustrate the richness of the vocabulary : repair or mend, enter or come into a room, abandon or give up a project, postpone or put back/off a decision… It can be quite difficult for a student like me to know all the synonyms ! The writer points out the differences between the formal scientific English used in papers and the spoken language used in conferences. These two versions of a same language are so different that non-native English scientists who are used to writing a formal scientific English in their papers have great trouble understanding spoken English used in conferences, where the orator tries nevertheless to make his explanations as straightforaward as possible !

Vocabulary

keg = fût -> beer-keg = fût de bière

stacked = empilé

a batch = a number of people or things that are dealt with as a group

to belch out = to come out of sth in large amounts (comes from to belch = to burp)

hook = accroche ( we can think of “Hook”, aka Capitaine Crochet in Peter Pan…)

stodgy = serious and boring, not exciting

christened = baptisé

hydrocarbon = hydrocarbure

1 gallon = 3.8 L ( Am), 4.5 (Br)

proficient = compétent

dreary = morne, monotone, ennuyeux (dull, boring)

put off - put back = postpone

soak up = absorb

give off = emit

straightforward = simple

comprehensive = exhaustif, complet

posh = typical of or used by people who belong to a high social class (Victoria Beckham from the Spice Girls used to be nicknamed “Posh Spice”…)

We did several things today.

First we learned new idiomatic expressions. We had to connect each one of them with its meaning in a list. I have to admit I didn’t know any of them (but “smell a rat” maybe). You can find these expressions on the page “Idiomatic expressions” on the top bar.

Then our teacher explained the differences between a magazine and a research journal (”revue”) . It was the occasion to understand that you don’t use the same words when you’re dealing with a magazine or a journal. In a magazine journalists write articles and the audience is the general public (”the man in the street”), while in a research journal scientists publish papers. They actually submit papers reviewed by peers. Obviously these papers aim at specialists in the same field as their authors.

 Afterwards we studied a document that explained the differences between an “abstract” and a “summary”. An abstract is the kind of summary you can find at top of a scientific paper. It is a short single paragraph using the same level of scientific language as the text itself. It ordinarily includes five parts : some background information to explain what it is about, the principal activity (or purpose) of the study and its scope, some information about the methodology used in the study (such as instuments or techniques, diffraction for instance), the most important results, and finally a statement of conclusion or recommendation. Abstracts never include bibliographic citations. There is also a category of abstracts that is slightly different. The “reduced abstracts” don’t include any background information; furthermore purpose and method are assembled in the same sentence. Finally conclusions and recommendations are only optional.

Then we read two abstracts and tried to evaluate them. The first one was satisfying whereas the second one was not. Indeed it was overloaded with useless information at the beginning. It was not general enough. This exercise was also a good occasion to read orally and hence to practice our pronunciation. A last exercise was to read an abstract and to identify each part (background information, conclusion…). Mine was about the “Fabrication and characteristics of ZnO thin films with an Al/Si substrate”. It was quite classic and I could pinpoint these parts.

To end the lesson the teacher showed to us an easy way to find scientific abstracts if not the whole articles/papers on the Internet. It is a Google spin-off called Google scholar. The accurate decription is “Provides a search of scholarly literature across many disciplines and sources, including theses, books, abstracts and articles”. To prove its effectiveness I tried a simple test : I wrote “protein” both on Google and Google scholar. The first link found by the first one was the Wikipedia definition whereas the second one automatically found the abstract of a paper published in the journal Analytical Biochemistry. We can see that this site is more appropriate to find scientific papers on the Internet !

recommendation

peers = pairs

shear = cisaillement

droplet = gouttelette

subjected to = sujet à

unbounded = infini, sans limite

threshhold = seuil

To begin with our teacher talked about the website wordreference.com. She presented its various functionalities. You can find translations (in languages such as French, Italian and Portuguese) and definitions of words, expressions and idiomatic expressions. There is also a forum where a community can debate over some questionable definitions, for example “to be raring to go”.

This expression appears in the title of the scientific article we studied a few minutes later. It is entitled “All charged up and raring to go…” and was published in NewScientist a few weeks ago (16 February 2008 to be precise). This articles deals with a new piece of technology devised by Max Donelan and al at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, Canada. It is a brace that turns the mechanical energy provided by the leg movements into electrical energy thanks to a backpack. This has both medical and military applications : motors to actuate prosthetic arms; in the long run soldiers will be able to carry them. However at the moment these devices have a problem of weight which makes them difficult to carry (the backpack weighs 38 kilograms !).

Then each of the groups got a scientific article to read. We had to sum up the main points and make an oral presentation on the overhead projector afterwards.

All these articles dealt with processes involving polymers or nanoparticles.

The first presentation was entitled “UHV moving devices” which aim at carrying out experiments in a vacuum chamber. They require an open position and important factors to consider are parameters, space and electronics.

The second presentation was about “Thin-films quality and vacuum”. The chief point approached by the author is the fact that you need to avoid deposition of impurities when you deposit a material on thin films. That’s why you need an accurate control of the pressure.

The third presentation  was called “Medical applications of new processes, Production and deposition of nanoparticles”. These techniques operate in a vacuum environment. The main advantages are the control of density, porosity and adhesion of the coating used, the absence of heat generation at the substrate and the fact that it’s a single process. The applications are : cleaning medical instruments, coating of  medical implants and nanoparticles markers (MRI). The group concluded asserting this is “the future of medicine”.

Finally we presented our article which was entitled “Versatile polymers offer big potential”. Our presentation was entitled “Vacuum deposition of polymers for solar cells, displays and O2 barriers” (we had trouble not paraphrasing the author’s title…).

These polymers deliver tear and impact resistance. Besides they are oxygen and moisture barriers so they’re used for food packaging. They’re also used for flexible displays and solar cells. However they pose two problems : when they are too smooth, there is an adhesive problem called “blocking”; dust can also generate a rough surface. The solutions to that are the addition of talc (it prevents intimate contact between two layers) and an extra polymer layer that reduces the number and size of the surface defects.

Unfortunately our presentation was not good, our teacher said. Indeed our transparency was overloaded with information and sentences. It was not “visual” enough.

to be raring to go = être impatient de (entre autres définitions)

brace = orthèse (appareil orthopédique)

to harness  (very common use for horses) = exploiter (domestiquer)

to lope = to run making long relaxed steps (same as stride)

thigh = cuisse

calf = mollet

treadmill = tapis de course, tapis roulant

cured = polymerized

banknote (am. = bill) = billet de banque

mechanical

Gilmore Girls (2000-2007) is an American seven-season series broadcast by the WB and the CW.

The story takes place in the town of Stars Hollow near New York. It relates the adventures of a 32 year old woman named Lorelai Gilmore (Lauren Graham) and her 16 year old daughter Rory (Alexis Bledel). Rory was born when Lorelai was still a teenage girl and left home. Her relations with her parents have been turbulent ever since. Lorelai is now an independant woman who runs the Independance Inn with her friend Sookie and Rory is a brilliant student. Lorelai and Rory are mother and daughter but they are above all best friends and Rory sometimes even fulfils the mother role because of the childish (but so irresistible !) nature of her mum. This year Rory is going to enter Chilton, a very expensive private school. Since Lorelai cannot afford it, she is constrained to ask her parents Richard and Emily. They accept but on one condition : Lorelai and Rory must come for dinner every Friday evening…

Gilmore Girls is a fantastic comedy. It is filled with incredible actors and actresses (Loren Graham is absolutely amazing), the dialogues are extremely elaborate and often hilarious, the characters are deeply likeable. This is a non violent show, the story plots mix romance and humour, multiple and colourful characters (Luke, the owner of the coffee house; Lane, Rory’s best friend…). This is not a repetitive show since there are numerous characters who change throughout the seasons (one season lasts one year) : you can follow Rory from high school to Yale for example.

This is not a very famous show in France but it has a huge amount of fans in the world. There are more than 140 episodes all available on Dvd in the States. In France only three of them are available yet but in Belgium you can order seasons 1 to 6 (this is what I did). The series is also broadcast on France 4, a channel available on the TNT but only in French. I think the French version is quite bad, many jokes are badly translated and of course you cannot appreciate the talent of the actors.

This is a show I strongly recommand to… absolutely everybody. Those who don’t need subtitles to understand the dialogues are even luckier, but even with them I can’t imagine how you could not like it.

This week we attended an audio conference along with a Powerpoint presentation on the Internet. It was entitled “RSS : the new killer app for educators”.

The lecturer talked about RSS : Rich Site Summary or Real(ly) Simple Syndication. This is a tool that brings content of the Internet to the reader. There are two parts to RSS : feeds which are URL addresses (newspapers, magazines and so on) that contain all the websites dealing with all the things you are interested in, and the aggregator which collects the feeds you have subscribed to. You can have 10, 20, even 158 feeds in one aggregated space. To find feeds look for an orange XML button. Most weblogs and traditional newspaper such as newspapers have built in RSS feeds, so once you have subscribed to several newspaper feeds you can create your own newspaper thanks to bloglines (according to Wikipedia it is a web-based news aggregator for reading feeds using the RSS format) ! You can also see other people’s blogs. A number indicates instantly the number of new messages waiting for you to read.

This is why RSS can be a tool for lifelong learning or a “killer app” for educators : it is very useful for our teacher to see instantly if we have updated our blogs !

Another application is to search results via RSS : if you look for an information on yahoo or google for instance, if you have subscribed, every time there is a new information you searched for, it is brought to you (if it is on the “searches” folder).

In a nutshell RSS feeds take less time and you have more content and more control.

It was an interesting conference since I’ve always wondered what those “feeds” and those XML buttons are every time I see them on websites !   

- to be on the cutting-edge of research = être à la pointe de la recherche

- “bear with me” = please wait

- it’s difficult to find the happy medium = le juste milieu

It was the time when our teacher talked us about creating a blog instead of writing a logbook. Each student was lent a laptop computer and created (or tried to !) his own English blog. This operation took quite some time but most of us could write our first posts… and here is the result now !

During this lesson we also studied some idiomatic English expressions. Here are the few of them we could mention :

- it’s the last straw (la goutte qui fait déborder le vase)

- it’s raining cats and dogs

- I’ve been kicking myself ever since

- an apple a day keep the doctor away

- an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth

- cheers = thanks, goodbye

- beat around the bush = tourner autour du pot

I may add : to have a frog in one’s throat = avoir un chat dans la gorge

We can observe that even though some expressions are the exact translations of the French versions, some others are completely different and quite funny !

Here are other idiomatic expressions using the word “day” :

- day in and day out = every single day

- call it a day = stop

- that will be the day = that’s very unlikely

- a red-letter day = a special day

- to daydream = to think pleasant thoughts

- it will make his day = it will make him happy

- one of these days = eventually

- one of those days = a bad day

- it scared the living daylights out of him = it terrified him

- it’s not my day today = being unlucky

- those were the days ! = that was a wonderful period

To end the lesson, we did another exercise about expressions using the word “time”.

- dashboard = tableau de bord

- from time immemorial

- once upon a time

- it’s about time/it’s high time + preterit

- for the time being

- time-consuming

- time and time again

- at times

- good timing

- in time = à temps

- on time = à l’heure

- the time of your life

Study Skills Success - Listening

In this unit you have to listen to long scientific lectures or conversations and you are asked to find the main information, to write them or to fill boxes with the right terms. In some exercises, you have to recognize numbers such as dates or streets.  You also have to write names with the appropriate spelling, which can be difficult since the people speaking talk and spell quite fast !

It was a particularly interesting unit because I realized it was quite hard to recognize some words or numbers I’m familiar with. You need to know your alphabet perfectly !

bleak = not encouraging or giving any reason to have hope