Author Archives: Patricia Kidd

Whether it’s a new phone or a new car, everyone loves an upgrade. But not all technology upgrades are created equal: while some offer helpful improvements, others change how we use that technology forever. Take the move from 3G to…READ MORE >

The structure and behavior of leaves means that they look subtly different minute by minute. Some birds and Insects (such as Butterflies) are well known for having ‘photonic’ structures in their wings, giving rise to spectacular luminescence effects. There’s much…READ MORE >

Lockdown has meant we’re doing less lab work – if you can’t get into the lab, it is a good opportunity to get to know your analysis software better.

For experimental scientists, being hands-on in the lab is the very essence of what makes science interesting. Whether you are madly running all your instruments at their maximum throughput or having a contemplative moment thinking about how to design your…READ MORE >

In the 1980s when I first started learning about electronics and electronic materials, people would talk about global communications and I couldn’t quite visualize what that meant. Fast forward to now, and I, like almost everyone else, take it for…READ MORE >

Precision movements In our X-ray diffraction (XRD) Data Collector software there’s a little icon that shows a rotating arm and it takes over the screen when the diffractometer is moving into position. You have to wait for it to finish…READ MORE >