Worms to test nanomaterials? Sure, there must be plenty of room at the bottom!
Presenters: Sumithra Srinivasan PhD student Dr. Anna Laromaine Tenured Researcher
Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) or round worms are small worms with 60% genetic homology to humans. They are transparent which enables facile visualization by optical microscopy and they exhibit short life span and fast reproduction cycle facilitating the evaluation in the whole life cycle. Use of C. elegans as animal models surpasses the complex process of obtaining ethical animal rights, provide us with a large sample size (around 1000 worms per group!), and can be used even in a chemical synthesis laboratory for safe-by-design approach to design novel nanomaterials! C. elegans for nanotechnology is witnessing a rising research interest and our group works in toxicity evaluation through oral administration of nanomaterials such as iron oxide NPs, gold NPs, polypyrrole NPs and bacterial nanocellulose. The workshop will include a short introductory presentation showing the advantages, state of the art, future avenues and challenges. Later, the participants will be trained with "video-demo" handle the worms and carry out some maintanence and growth experiments as well as some interesting photos and videos of the worm world and nanoworld will be shown to the audience.
Application of High Temperature Superconductors. How appealing an irresistible material can be?
Presenters: Pedro Barusco PhD student Dr. Joffre Gutierrez Royo Tenured Researcher
High Temperatures Superconducting (HTS) materials are composites that behave as superconductors at temperatures above 73.15 K (−200 °C) under atmospheric pressure. Therefore allowing it to become operational in a fairly simple liquid nitrogen environment. The majority of useful high-temperature superconductors are in the class of copper oxides, more specifically the (Re)BaCuO Perovskites. Since 2000, companies and research centers worldwide have been perfecting the production of these ceramics into bulk blocks, thin patterned films and long length tape wires. An effort aiming for a more practical and cost effective incorporation of the HTS materials into promising engineering applications such as: high speed transportation, compact power grid generation, efficient energy transmission, intrinsic DC current protection and high field magnets. The HTS workshop shall start with a short presentation about superconductivity history, types of superconductors, their properties (Zero resistivity, Meissner Effect ...), operational advantages and disadvantages of each type, applications and the future HTS community goals. Afterwards the participants will be instructed in the handling of liquid nitrogen to help in a set of 2 “demo” experiments with HTS wires: magnetic levitation and Current limitation.