The science of static shock jolted into the 21st century
Shuffling across the carpet to zap a friend may be the oldest trick in the book, but on a deep level that prank still mystifies scientists, even after thousands of years of study.
Now Princeton researchers have sparked new life into static. Using millions of hours of computational time to run detailed simulations, the researchers found a way to describe static charge atom-by-atom with the mathematics of heat and work. Their paper, "Thermodynamic driving forces in contact electrification between polymeric materials," appears in Nature Communications.
The study looked specifically at how charge moves between materials that do not allow the free flow of electrons, called insulating materials, such as vinyl and acrylic. The researchers said there is no established view on what mechanisms drive these jolts, despite the ubiquity of static: the crackle and pop of clothes pulled from a dryer, packing peanuts that cling to a box.
As Benjamin Stuart Walcott, Class of 1917, approached the final semester of his time at Princeton, he wrote to his father about his future plans:
If I go to Europe, as I want to, to drive an ambulance or in the aeroplane[,] I will be doing a man’s work and shall be doing enough to support myself. If the work is unpaid, it is merely because it is charitable work and as such is given freely. If you want to pay my way, I will consider it not as dependence on you, father, but as a partnership that may help the Allies and their cause… If not, I will be willing to invest the small amount of capital which has accumulated in my name. I have been thinking of this work in Europe for over a year now, and am still very strong for it. I don’t know what the effect will be on myself, but if it will be of service to others, I think that it is something I ought to do.
His plane was shot down over France in December 1917, on his first combat patrol. He did not survive.
Call it PRO -PALESTINE, PRO- LIFE OR ANTI WAR PROTESTS ,this my friend's is the era of the unstoppable Generation of resistance, #genz Just globalised the Intifada.Bidens and Netanyahu worse nightmare just went on overdrive.
The groups noted that in Nov., Alexandra Orbuch, a writer for The Princeton Tory, a conservative student publication, was assaulted by a male member of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) while filming a protest the group held on campus. The man allegedly followed Orbuch to obstruct her efforts, eventually stepping on her foot and pushing her. When Orbuch complained to a nearby public safety officer, the officer told her that she had “incited something.”
Despite the gendered nature of the assault —an issue Princeton has dedicated an entire office to dealing with — the university granted the male student a no-contact oder against Orbuch, explaining that any reporting she published which alluded to him would be considered a violation of the order and result in disciplinary charges. A similar incident occurred in 2022, when Tory reporter Danielle Shapiro attempted to report on the Princeton Committee on Palestine. After being notified of the order, Shapiro was told refer to a “Sexual Misconduct & Title IX” webpage, according to a guest column she wrote in the Wall Street Journal.
“This is at least the second time in the last two years that a Tory student journalist has been silence by a no-contact order at the behest of community members offended by his or her pro-Israel journalism,” Thursday’s letter continued. “This systematic weaponization of no-contact orders to silence pro-Israel journalism — or any journalism — cannot stand.”
The incidents involving Orbuch and Shapiro are two of numerous examples of universities subjecting conservative and pro-Israel campus community members to reputational smearing and denying them the same rights and protections as progressives and pro-Palestinian advocates. The issue has drawn attention from Congress, whose House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce is investigating whether universities such as Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) employed a self-serving interpretation of the US Constitution to avoid punishing students who committed antisemitic discrimination and harassment.
The 1985 MOVE bombing, locally known by its date, May 13, 1985
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1985_MOVE_bombing
Since the bombing, the bones of two children, 14-year-old Tree (Katricia Dotson) and 12-year-old Delisha Orr, were kept at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. In 2021, Billy Penn revealed that according to the museum, the remains had been transferred to researchers at Princeton University, though the university was unaware of their exact whereabouts. The remains had been used by Janet Monge, an adjunct professor in anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania and a visiting professor in the same subject at Princeton University, in videos for an online forensics course named “Real Bones: Adventures in Forensic Anthropology,” as case studies.[27] Present-day MOVE members were shocked to learn this, with Mike Africa Jr. stating "They were bombed, and burned alive ... and now you wanna keep their bones."[28]
New reusable and recyclable environmentally friendly hydrogel
Princeton researchers have created a new type of hydrogel that is recyclable, yet still tough and stable enough for practical use (and reuse).
As flexible networks of polymer chains suffused by water, hydrogels possess excellent properties including softness, elasticity and biocompatibility. Accordingly, the squishy materials have already found widespread use as contact lenses and wound dressings. Hydrogels also hold great promise for drug delivery systems, agriculture and food packaging, among other applications.
Unfortunately, conventional hydrogels pose environmental pollution problems because they cannot be effectively recycled or reprocessed. Hydrogels also degrade from long-term use. The researchers said these limitations derive from the materials' structure.