Sainte-Geneviève Library. Paris, France.  

NSF’s Science360 Photo of the Week

This is a close-up view of the beam created by a vortex laser.

Because the laser beam travels in a corkscrew pattern, encoding information into different vortex twists, it’s able to carry 10 times or more the amount of information than that of conventional lasers. The optics advancement could become a central component of next-generation computers designed to handle society’s growing demand for information sharing. Image credit: Natalia Litchinitser, University at Buffalo

Like this photo? Sign up for NSF’s Science360 News Service at news.science360.gov for a daily dose of STEM radio, news, videos and more cool images like this.

“I was on a leadership team in 5th grade. At the end of the year we were supposed to take a trip to Washington DC. We held fundraisers and everything. But when it was time to go, I didn’t have the identification papers to buy a plane ticket. So our teacher Ms. Rivera decided that we’d take a bus. Just so I could go too. That trip changed my life. It made me want to be a lawyer. And Ms. Rivera became one of the closest people in my life. She always kept in touch. She basically watched me grow up. One time in high school I got in a huge fight with my mom, and Ms. Rivera came and took me on a long car ride. I started to tell her everything. I told her about a recent break-up, and how I smoked weed, and ‘I did this,’ and ‘I did that.’ She just listened to everything. Then she started telling me about her life too. She told me that she’d been in an abusive relationship. I’d always thought her life was perfect because she was a guidance counselor. But she’d been through so much too. When it was came time to apply for college, Ms. Rivera was the one who helped me apply for DACA. She told me about the TheDream.us scholarship. I didn’t even want to apply. I was ready to give up. I’d just accepted that I’d always work in restaurants like my mom. But Ms. Rivera made me apply. She said: ‘What happened to that girl who wanted to be a lawyer?’ I learned that I got the scholarship in February. They’re paying for my entire college. Ms. Rivera was so proud of me. She kept saying: ‘I told you so.’”

More art, less pollution

Week in Brief (27 November – 1 December)

Credit: Christine Daniloff/MIT

Artists can now paint with ink made from polluted air. Start-up company Graviky Labs has developed a device that attaches to the exhaust systems of diesel generator chimneys, catching emissions, which are then converted into inks, called Air-Ink.

The devices ­– known as KAALINK devices ­– are currently being trialled across India. So far more than 200 gallons of Air-Ink have been produced from collected emissions. KAALINK relies on static electricity, whereby energised materials attract particles. Inside the device are cartridges filled with high-energy plasma, which is triggered by a voltage to attract emission particles.

The disposable cartridges, which need to be emptied after 15–20 days, are then sent to Graviky Labs collection units. From these, they are sent to the start-up’s lab for treatment, where heavy metals and toxins are removed.  

Graviky Lab’s Anirudh Sharma, an Interdisciplinary researcher at MIT Media Lab, commented, ‘Other processes convert air pollution into water pollution, and essentially generate more waste. We minimise the process and create a recycling stream from particulate matter waste that would have otherwise gone into our lungs.’

Credit: Graviky Labs

To find out more visit, bit.ly/2hXCRgX

In other news:

– Co-op and Iceland have backed a potential bottle deposit scheme 

– A mission testing methods to clean-up space junk is preparing for launch 

– Siemens, Rolls-Royce and Airbus are to collaborate on the development a of hybrid-electric aircraft 

To find out more on materials science, packaging and engineering news, visit our website IOM3 at or follow us on Twitter @MaterialsWorld for regular news updates. 

Pleasantville (1998)

Whistler, Canada

Amélie doesn’t have a boyfriend. She tried once or twice, but the results were a let-down. Instead, she cultivates a taste for small pleasures.

The winners of the Miss Perfect Posture contest at a chiropractors convention, USA, 1956

via reddit

The Poplar Avenue at Moret, Cloudy Day, Morning via Alfred Sisley

Size: 59x73 cm Medium: oil on canvas