DONATE

Water can be dead, electrically speaking

Research led by the University of Manchester’s National Graphene Institute, with the collaboration with IBEC, reveals that water that’s only a few molecules thick – like the water that covers every surface around us – behaves very differently to normal, ‘bulk’ water.

Water is one of the most fascinating substances on Earth.  At the heart of its many unusual properties is its high polarizability – that is, its strong response to an applied electric field.

PhD Discussions Sessions: Helena Lozano and Martina Maier

PhD Discussion sessions are open to all staff and researchers at all career stages, and are intended to help PhD students gain feedback from colleagues by presenting their research results and discussing them with each other, as well as with more experienced researchers.

PhD Discussions Sessions: Helena Lozano and Martina Maier

PhD Discussion sessions are open to all staff and researchers at all career stages, and are intended to help PhD students gain feedback from colleagues by presenting their research results and discussing them with each other, as well as with more experienced researchers.

PhD Discussions Sessions: Helena Lozano and Martina Maier

PhD Discussion sessions are open to all staff and researchers at all career stages, and are intended to help PhD students gain feedback from colleagues by presenting their research results and discussing them with each other, as well as with more experienced researchers.

PhD Discussions Sessions: Helena Lozano and Martina Maier

PhD Discussion sessions are open to all staff and researchers at all career stages, and are intended to help PhD students gain feedback from colleagues by presenting their research results and discussing them with each other, as well as with more experienced researchers.

IBEC at the 12th Festival de la Ciència

Last weekend IBEC participated in Barcelona’s twelfth Festival de la Ciència with a host of activities.

Kicking off IBEC’s proceedings on Saturday morning were some activities led by the SPECS group, starting with the workshop ‘Biomimetic Robots to Understand Our Behavior’, which offered a glimpse at the way robotics can help us study aspects of brain function, such as learning, and our behaviour. SPECS’ robot, Nao, was one of the volunteers helping to run the workshop.

Attendees could also try out the group’s Rehabilitation Gaming System, a virtual-reality tool that helps restore motor activity and cognition after a brain injury.

“La música de la ciencia”

In a La Vanguardia feature by Josep Corbella, IBEC’s Xavier Trepat is interviewed along with IRB’s Salvador Aznar-Benitah about the important role music plays in their lives, how it has affected their careers as researchers, and about the relation and similarities between musical and scientific creativity.