Yle visits to make a story about hackmanite

From left to right: Roosa, Hannah, Cecilia, Yle’s Markku and Samuli and lastly Sami grinding some hackmanite. Photo taken by Mika Lastusaari.

Today was an interesting day when Finland’s national public broadcasting company Yle visited our lab for a couple of hours. Journalist Markku Sandell interviewed us asking good questions about hackmanite research and patterns of cooperation with the European Space Agency. There is no exact information yet on when the thing will air, but we’ll notify when we know.

IMC is now Intelligent

During the move to Aurum we reinvented ourselves by making something drastic: we changed our name! Inorganic is now history and Intelligent future. This is because our IMC council thought that our chemistry repertoire spans wider than just inorganic, and our common interest is making intelligent materals. We are henceforth Intelligent Materials Chemistry Group, but we still maintain that old, familiar IMC. Here you can watch our move-themed video.

Neon ray and gold dust videos:
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Free Motion Graphics
Videos used:
https://youtu.be/m1YUmZRfgqU
https://youtu.be/lRTtMcx6rSM

YouTube Channel:
https://youtube.com/MG1010
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Molten gold video:
MOODY RAW SCREENS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htXe0ybca1U

Sami’s interview in a local newspaper Kunnallislehti

Kunnallislehti is a local newpaper in the region consisting of Paimio, Sauvo and Kaarina municipalities. Sami was interviewed as a chemist living in Paimio’s Kevola village because of the newly-published X-ray tenebrescence article. Sami tells about the background of the invention, experiences about living in Paimio and also dispels worries that people may have about particle accelerators.

Article by reporter Perttu Hemminki.

Sami’s article receives attention in newspapers and magazines

IMC group and our whole chemistry department has received attention from various newspapers and magazines with PhD student Sami Vuori‘s article (corresponding author Adjunct Professor Mika Lastusaari) that was recently published in Advanced Optical Materials: “Detection of X-Ray Doses with Color-Changing Hackmanites: Mechanism and Application“. In addition to showing a practical application, the article also reveals the mechanism of hackmanite’s coloration upon X-ray exposure, which has never been researched thoroughly before.

Image by Sami Vuori.

In the article, Sami imaged a dead body of an ant using a film with hackmanite powder on it. When the X-rays hit the film, the hackmanite colors from natural white to pink, and since the ant’s body attenuates X-rays, some photons are absorbed in it and won’t color the film. This is a simple method, which does not require any expensive analyzers since one can see the result directly.

Image by Sami Vuori.
Image by Sami Vuori.

The article was an international joint effort consisting of researchers from the University of Turku (PhD student Sami Vuori, Adjunct Professor Mika Lastusaari, Dr. Isabella Norrbo, Professor Petriina Paturi, Professor Timo Saarinen and University Teacher Heikki Palonen), University of São Paulo in Brazil (Dr. Lucas C. V. Rodrigues), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Dr. Jörg Göttlicher and Dr. Ralph Steininger) and University of Lyon (PhD student Pauline Colinet, Assistant Professor Tangui Le Bahers).

Press release: scientists (Ari, Anssi, Pasi) discover new information about the function of enzymes

Ari, Anssi, Pasi and Åbo Akademi’s project researcher Risto Savela discovered new information about the functionality of vanadium aminophenolates in cathecol oxidation. The article is published in Dalton Transactions and was selected to their HOT article collection. Good job!

Press release (in Finnish):

Tutkijat löysivät uutta tietoa entsyymien toiminnasta

Article:

Vanadium aminophenolates in catechol oxidation: conformity with Finke’s common catalyst hypothesis

Mika and Ari wrote about inorganic chemistry in a local newspaper

Turun Sanomat, the biggest local newspaper in the Turku area, has a popular science-related article series called Aliot. Mika and Ari wrote about inorganic chemistry in a manner that everyday reader can grasp.

The writing is themed Even inorganic is organic – sustainable development with new materials, and it is available here (only in Finnish):

Epäorgaaninenkin on luomua – uusilla materiaaleilla kestävään kehitykseen

Natural hackmanite paper spreads everywhere

It seems that the natural hackmanite article published in Chemistry of Materials has spread wider than we could ever imagine. It has now been found in 17 different sources from 5 different language regions throughout the world, and there will probably be even more during the coming months.

Check the links from this list:

https://inorganic.utu.fi/about-us-in-other-media/