Discovering the Secret Life of Solids: Catching Materials Evolution in Real Time

Metal halide perovskites are remarkable materials with the ability to convert sunlight into electricity, emit colorful light, and detect radiation. However, making them typically requires harmful solvents, and the process of their formation has remained largely invisible to scientists. To address this, researchers combined an old technique—mechanochemistry, which involves grinding solids to trigger chemical reactions—with modern optical spectroscopy. By replacing traditional milling jars with transparent quartz and using a Time-Lapsed In Situ (TLIS) spectrometer, they created a system that allows scientists to observe perovskite formation in real-time, capturing every millisecond of change. This new tool acts like a high-speed camera for materials, revealing how disordered solid precursors evolve into structured, functional crystals.

Figure 1: The TLIS Spectrometer and Its Applications, see description below.

Using the TLIS spectrometer, the team made several key discoveries. They observed how a promising solar cell material, formamidinium lead triiodide (FAPbI₃), quickly degrades from a stable black phase to an ineffective yellow phase, but adding methylammonium (MA⁺) helped slow this process significantly. In another case, a lead-free perovskite unexpectedly "self-healed" over the weekend, improving its ability to emit light due to the slow migration of chloride ions within the solid. They also enhanced tin-based perovskites, which are more environmentally friendly than lead-based ones but degrade quickly, by creating a protective chloride shell. This breakthrough not only improves stability but also opens new possibilities for biomedical imaging. The ability to observe materials evolving in real time allows scientists to develop and optimize new materials much faster, reducing research time from months to days while eliminating the need for hazardous solvents. This work paves the way for more sustainable, efficient material discovery across industries like solar energy, electronics, and even food science.

What is (and isn’t) Endemic Innovation?

Endemic Innovation (EI) is a way of creating solutions that are deeply connected to a specific region’s unique resources, traditions, and knowledge. Unlike traditional innovation, which focuses on making things scalable for a global market, EI starts locally—using what already exists in a place to solve problems in a sustainable and effective way. For example, Portugal’s Amorim Cork company uses the country’s natural cork forests and traditional harvesting techniques to produce high-tech materials for industries like aerospace. Similarly, Iceland’s ON Power turns volcanic heat into clean energy, while New Zealand’s Comvita builds on Māori knowledge to produce medical-grade Manuka honey. True EI must meet five key criteria: it must rely on endemic (unique and non-replicable) resources or knowledge, be sustainable, be deeply connected to local communities, combine local and global technologies, and have the potential for global impact.

However, not every local project counts as EI. Simply being a grassroots initiative or having local value doesn’t make something an example of EI unless it meets the strict criteria. For instance, Israel’s Netafim developed drip irrigation to solve water scarcity in the Negev Desert, but its technology was designed to be adapted worldwide. Similarly, Chile’s Spora transforms fungi from its native forests into sustainable fashion, combining ancient knowledge with cutting-edge biotechnology. The core idea of EI is not just preserving tradition but evolving it—blending old knowledge with modern advancements to create sustainable, high-impact solutions. As climate change and global challenges increase, EI offers a new way forward, proving that the best solutions often come from the unique strengths of a place rather than one-size-fits-all approaches.

SpringerCommunities, Published in Social Sciences, Sustainability, and Business & Management 

Feb 06, 2025, Daniel Martínez Pereira, Professor, Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez

Cities and DEI - Quotes of the Day

 Quotes of the day! Cities and DEIA

Photo by SiravitPlug on Unsplash

Cities as hubs of innovation 

"In cities, we’re constantly interacting with people from diverse backgrounds, creating a web of social connections. These interactions drive us to adapt, learn, and grow."
–adigaskell.org, Urban Design Affects the Racial Biases We Develop

This quote resonates with my belief that cities are hubs of innovation and transformation. Their cosmopolitan nature—bringing together people from various cultures, mindsets, and experiences—creates fertile ground for new ideas and ways of thinking. For example, in history, Yokohama, Japan, was the only place where foreigners were allowed to reside. To this day, it remains a hub of innovation in Japan. Similarly, cities like New York, London, and Shanghai have emerged as centers of creativity and progress due to their cultural diversity.

DEI as means for improved organizational governance

"In the fourth week, the most junior, female member of the staff team said in a plenary session that she was aware of a conflict occurring in the group. The person chairing the session, the most senior, male government official on the lab team, declared, 'There is no conflict here!' The staff member was silenced, and over the remaining four weeks, she never, ever spoke in plenary again."
–Adam Kahane, Power and Love

This is an example of silencing, which highlights an important issue in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. The senior staff member, likely without realizing it, dismissed the concern with an offhand remark. This small moment caused a breakdown in communication and discouraged further contributions from the staff member. Addressing such situations isn’t about giving special treatment or prioritizing one group over another. It’s about fostering better communication and improving organizational dynamics, ensuring everyone feels heard and valued.

January 11 - Some quotes and some journal articles of interest

Quotes

"The world is easier to navigate if you remember that people are governed by emotions, acting more often out of jealousy, pride, shame, desire, fear, or vanity than dispassionate logic. We act and react because we feel something. To discount this and listen superficially—or not at all—is to operate at a serious disadvantage." (Kate Murphy, You're Not Listening)

Most of your training should be below aerobic threshold. This approach lets you build aerobic volume while minimizing injury risk. (David Roche, When (And Why) to Train Below Aerobic Threshold | Trail Runner Magazine)

"Social revolutions are usually horrible times of great unrest and insecurity, but they are also historical watersheds that reset and potentially revitalize a nation." (Brian Walker, David Salt, Resilience Practice)

"This requires greater prioritization of behavioural and operational research, a discipline that gets scant coverage in academic circles but which encompasses systems analysis and modelling. It also requires greater value to be placed on synthesis as a tool in discovery because of its power to describe system-level behaviour. Often it is the simple solutions applied well that make the difference rather than new technologies." (nature.com, Take the Long View - Nature)

"Faith is a place of mystery, where we find the courage to believe in what we cannot see and the strength to let go of our fear of uncertainty." (Brené Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection)

"Draw yourself up to your full height and look your audience straight in the eyes, and begin to talk as confidently as if every one of them owed you money. Imagine that they do. Imagine that they have assembled there to beg you for an extension of credit. The psychological effect on you will be beneficial." (Dale Carnegie, The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Speaking)

Systems

"One starting point for identifying where to take action is to look at the chains of causalities and feedback loops to see where potential for action lies. Another is to explicitly locate alternative attractors within the system. These are likely to be points where there are counter-narratives to the dominant narratives – which appear to have some traction even on a very small scale. Participants will also need to look for where the strong energy seems to be in the system – narratives which excite or anger people and so on. The potential for change in a system often exists in the domains where there is a visible emotional response to issues." (Danny Burns and Stuart Worsley, Navigating Complexity in International Development) 

Journal Articles

Bridging the Gap Between Labour Unions and the Management Through Leadership Development Programs?

Merging Worklife Organizational Innovation and Educational Programs- Promoting Continuous Adaptations to the Global Economy

When Successful Action Research is not Legitimized as Scientific Contribution by the Central Sponsors: How can Morten Levin’s Three Pillars of Action Research Support the Arch of Research Collaboration between Large Public Organizations and Universities?

When Co-Generative Learning Met Co-Production and Co-Creation - On How Three Different Concepts Shaped “Samskaping”

Shape-Shifting Robots?

Researchers have developed miniature, shape-shifting machines capable of transitioning between solid and liquid states using magnetic fields. These devices, inspired by sea cucumbers' ability to change stiffness, leverage gallium, a metal that melts slightly above room temperature. Magnetic particles embedded in the gallium enable remote control of its movements and phase transitions.

Key advancements include:

1. Material Properties: The gallium melts when exposed to an alternating magnetic field and resolidifies at room temperature. Permanent magnets manipulate its movement in both solid and liquid forms.
2. Capabilities: The material can carry heavy loads (10,000 times its weight), stretch, split, merge, and flow through tight spaces.
3. Demonstrations: Examples include a toy figure escaping a jail cell by melting and reforming, and a device removing a ball from a model human stomach by enveloping and extracting it.
4. Applications: The material shows promise in tasks like soldering and potential biomedical uses. However, adjustments are needed to make it viable in the human body by raising its melting point with additional metals like bismuth and tin.

While the innovation represents a significant leap in soft robotics, challenges remain in precise control within biomedical contexts. Future advancements may involve integrating this material with others for broader applications.

These shape-shifting devices melt and re-form thanks to magnetic fields

Gallium plus magnetism equals something straight out of Terminator 2

Link

RIAA wanted to shut down the Internet back in 1994

Telling. This organization is truly dinosaur-ish. Their tactics are detrimental not only to the innovative power of the United States but I would argue detrimental to their own future. I think history has shown us over and over again that attempts to stop the impact technical evolution on one's industry backfire and lead to industry decline.

clipped from forum.cheapbooks.com

Question: What online service did the RIAA claim should be shut down because it has no legal use, and is primarily used to share illegal files?

Answer: The World Wide Web (circa 1994)

Few people remember this, but in the early days of the web, the RIAA proposed shutting down the web. That's right; if the RIAA had its way in the early 1990's, the web as we know it would cease to exist.

The RIAA claimed in the early 1990's that the primary purpose of the web was for students to pirate music.

RIAA started complaining about how the web was used for sharing illegal files, and they argued that since the web had no legal commercial use, it should be shut down.