Bad results make nice photos

I am making thin films of transparent metal hydrides, using a method called reactive sputtering. The samples I prepare react strongly with oxygen after the preparation, which I really do not want them to do. To avoid the sample to take up oxygen from air, I therefore cover them with metal before exposing them to air. But it it is not always successful. Some times the metal capping is too thin, and the oxygen goes through the film, creating tiny cracks and craters. The images above are microscope images of the cracks and craters, taken with an optical microscope trough the transparent films.

The colours are created by light interference in the film, the same effect that creates rainbow-like colours when a thin cap of oil is lying on top of water or wet asphalt, which you probably all have seen.

Review: Sony Ebook Reader for research (and little things)

For quite some years I have anxiously been expecting the emerging of the digital book. I have been following the development and the releases of the Kindle from Amazon, as you all might have heard of. But I was actually never really attracted to the Kindle. It seems to proprietary for my taste, and it has a lot of things I really do not need.

So, when I was in the US in December, I went to a Sony store just to see what was up, and there was the Sony Reader Touch Edition PRS-600. I was immediately attracted to the fancy little gadget, and after a day of tough consideration I bought it as a birthday present for myself.

The justification I presented for myself, was that this was something I needed for my research. As a researcher, I have hundreds of journal papers to read, and they are all in my computer in PDF format. The ebook reader would make me able to take advantage of the time I spend on the bus going to and from work, and it would make me able to carry an incredible heap of documents where ever I go. Perfect!

And what do I think? The ebook reader has been accompanying me now for almost two months, and I am really very happy about it. It reads the PDF documents very nicely, and the e-paper in combination with the opportunity to take notes directly on the touch-screen make it very much similar the real paper experience.

Getting away from the computer can also be a great pleasure at times. I can have real trouble in concentrating when trying to read something complicated in the computer screen, as I have gotten so used to the restless zapping between documents and endless information search on the internet. Printing the important documents was always necessary when it was something important, but this is no longer the case. I save paper, and my desk does no longer look like a big mess.

But real paper is still there. I still read real books when on the bus, and I still print some documents. The reader is a small device, which can of course be convenient for carrying it around, but for reading comfortably it would have been better having a display of at least twice the size of this one. The contrast of the screen is not extremely good, so it requires quite good light to read well. Another thing that should be commented is that it does react a little slow, especially when reading scanned PDF files and taking notes in them. For scrolling through large documents this is definitely not the solution.

But after all, it because of all the little things I have really started to love my ebook. Just slipping the SD-card into my computer makes it so simple to put documents onto it, and it can be used to carry anything from cooking receipts to bus timetables. The opportunity to take notes is also really handy because I carry it almost anywhere, and I do not have to worry about where I left that damn piece of paper where I put down the reservation number of whatever, you know?

I recommend utilizing an ebook for research and all the other little things. But if you are in doubt, you could always wait one more year for the larger versions to get on the market.