Kenneth C. Maclure, 1914-1988

On 24 March 1988 Canada lost one of its pioneer polar air navigators in the sudden death of Kenneth Maclure while vacationing with his wife Margaret (Blackmore) in Mexico. ... In 1941, ... Maclure proposed a grid system for measuring direction in high latitudes to overcome the problem created by the extreme convergency of the meridians. ... he was the first Canadian to reach the North Geographic Pole. Maclure's grid direction proposal was thoroughly tested and proved to be a simple technique for measuring direction on polar flights. ... Maclure's grid was altered to further simplify navigation on high latitude flights originating from North America. [He participated in a number of scientific flights across the Canadian Arctic to Alaska including:] ... the Ptarmigan weather flights by the USAF out of Alaska over the Arctic Ocean and Operation Cariberg, to study the migration of caribou from timberline to the barrens and to study the amount and state of ice in Hudson's Bay. ... His work included acoustic and electromagnetic research in ice-filled waters, which necessitated many visits to the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. ... This quiet, modest Canadian, a major contributor to modern-day polar air navigation, will be greatly missed by his former associates and all who knew him. ..

Integrating computational and experimental workflows for accelerated organic material discovery

Organic materials find application in a range of areas, including optoelectronics, sensing, encapsulation, molecular separations and photocatalysis. The discovery of materials is frustratingly slow however, particularly when contrasted to the vast chemical space of possibilities based on the near limitless options for organic molecular precursors. The difficulty in predicting the material assembly, and consequent properties, of any molecule is another significant roadblock to targeted materials design. There has been significant progress in the development of computational approaches to screen large numbers of materials, for both their structure and properties, helping guide synthetic researchers towards promising materials. In particular, artificial intelligence techniques have the potential to make significant impact in many elements of the discovery process. Alongside this, automation and robotics are increasing the scale and speed with which materials synthesis can be realised. In this progress report, the focus is on demonstrating the power of integrating computational and experimental materials discovery programmes, including both a summary of key situations where approaches can be combined and a series of case studies that demonstrate recent successes

A light scattering instrument for investigating cloud ice microcrystal morphology

We describe an optical scattering instrument designed to assess the shapes and sizes of microscopic atmospheric cloud particles, especially the smallest ice crystals that can profoundly affect cloud processes and radiative properties yet cannot be seen clearly using in situ cloud particle imaging probes. The new instrument captures high-resolution spatial light scattering patterns from individual particles down to ~1 μm in size passing through a laser beam. Its significance lies in the ability of these patterns to provide morphological data for particle sizes well below the optical resolution limits of current probes

Photoresponsive type III porous liquids

Porous materials are the subject of extensive research because of potential applications in areas such as gas adsorption and molecular separations. Until recently, most porous materials were solids, but there is now an emerging class of materials known as porous liquids. The incorporation of intrinsic porosity or cavities in a liquid can result in free-flowing materials that are capable of gas uptakes that are significantly higher than conventional non-porous liquids. A handful of porous liquids have also been investigated for gas separations. Until now, the release of gas from porous liquids has relied on molecular displacement (e.g., by adding small solvent molecules), pressure or temperature swings, or sonication. Here, we explore a new method of gas release which involves photoisomerisable porous liquids comprising a photoresponsive MOF dispersed in an ionic liquid. This results in the selective uptake of CO2 over CH4 and allows gas release to be controlled by using UV light