by Richard Mandel

Polymers do not usually adhere to glass, but combining glass and polymer to create composite materials is possible if an intermediary polymer coupling agent is used as a go-between, according to Penn State scientists. “Aminopropyltrethoxysilane (APS) is the most common silane coupling agent for coating common silicate glasses,” says Amy Barnes, Ph.D. candidate in materials science and engineering, who also told attendees at the 19th International Congress on Glass in Edinburgh, Scotland, “We have shown that we can get silane to adhere to phosphate glass surfaces, which can protect the surface, minimize corrosion, or be a mediator between the glass and a polymer.” Barnes; Dr. Carlo G. Pantano, director of Penn State’s Materials Research Institute and distinguished professor of materials science and engineering; and Dr. Samuel D. Conzone of Schott Glass Technologies, examined sodium aluminophosphate glass which, when doped with rare earth elements such as erbium and ytterbium, is used in optical and photonic systems such as laser sources, and in wave guide amplifiers. “Very little is currently known about the surface of phosphate glasses because, traditionally, the glass quickly reacts with the atmosphere. Only in recent years has there been advances in making this glass more durable,” says Barnes. “Applications to join two phosphate glasses, phosphate glass and polymers, or phosphate glass and other organic chemicals are just beginning.” Circle 400 - Penn State University. 

While we’re on the topic of college research, researchers in Cornell’s Department of Communication, Department of Computer Science, and the Human Computer Interaction Group gave students in two classes laptop computers equipped to connect to a wireless network and monitored their online activities. More and more colleges are installing wireless networking, so that a student sitting in a lecture hall, a classroom or even outside the building can pop open a laptop computer and connect to the Internet at high speed. The results? In a traditional lecture-style computer science class, students who spent the most class time browsing the Web got the lowest grades. But in a highly interactive communications class, where classroom activities made extensive use of the students’ wireless capabilities, those who browsed the most scored highest, the researchers found. In both classes, they found that students who had the largest number of browsing sessions during class tended to have higher final grades, but those whose browsing sessions were more drawn out tended to get lower grades. The researchers also found differences between men and women in the kinds of web sites that were most distracting. Men’s grades suffered most when they browsed sports and finance, while women were more likely to get lower grades when they spent time on multimedia and personal portal sites. However, the researchers noted, just the amount of browsing the students did could be correlated with their grades, no matter what sort of sites they looked at. “It really does transform the classroom environment,” said Geri Gay, Cornell professor of communications, speaking of her own teaching experience. “We can bring the real world into the classroom, but it has to be structured.” Circle 401 - Cornell University.