Nanotechnology: The Next Challenge for Organics

Nanotechnology is the fast growing science of the ultra small; it is creating engineered particles in the size range 1 to 100 nanometres. At this size, materials exhibit novel behaviours. Nanotechnology is a rapidly expanding multibillion dollar industry, with research being heavily promoted by governments, and especially the US. Nanoscale materials are already incorporated into more than 580 consumer products, including food, packaging, cosmetics, clothing and paint. Nanotechnology has been cited as the foundation of a new “advanced agriculture”. This technology is advancing without nano-specific regulation and without labelling while, at the same time, public confidence in government regulatory agencies, and in the safety of the food supply, is declining. There is an opportunity, perhaps an imperative, for the organic community to take the initiative to develop standards to exclude engineered nanoparticles from organic products, just as GMOs have been excluded previously

Stick or switch? Consumer switching in 14 retail markets across Europe. ESRI Research Bulletin 2019/12

Consumer advocates and regulators encourage the public to search for better deals in markets for services like telecoms, energy and insurance, arguing that there are opportunities to save money and get better service by switching. Consumer switching can also help spur competition. Yet rates of switching vary a lot across markets: many people seldom think about changing their package or service provider and fewer still actually switch. If research can identify some of the barriers that deter people from searching or switching in particular markets, maybe policies can be designed to help enable and encourage switching behaviour. This study examines some of the factors that affect switching rates for European consumers across a wide range of markets

Noise suppression in inverse weak value based phase detection

We examine the effect of different sources of technical noise on inverse weak value-based precision phase measurements. We find that this type of measurement is similarly robust to technical noise as related experiments in the weak value regime. In particular, the measurements considered here are robust to additive Gaussian white noise and angular jitter noise commonly encountered in optical experiments. Additionally, we show the same techniques used for precision phase measurement can be used with the same technical advantages for optical frequency measurements.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Integrated photo-responsive metal oxide semiconductor circuit

An infrared photoresponsive element (RD) is monolithically integrated into a source follower circuit of a metal oxide semiconductor device by depositing a layer of a lead chalcogenide as a photoresistive element forming an ohmic bridge between two metallization strips serving as electrodes of the circuit. Voltage from the circuit varies in response to illumination of the layer by infrared radiation

The Apocalypse According to Johnny Cash: Examining the ‘Effect’ of the Book of Revelation on a Contemporary Apocalyptic Writer

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