Diamond lattice structure pendant by Joseph Thiebes, 2015

Diamond lattice structure pendant

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Diamonds are a scam! They are common and worthless. One company has cornered the market, controlling how many diamonds are mined and how they reach the consumer. Mining for diamonds is back-breaking work, and the wages are ridiculously low.

It is for this reason I have created the diamond lattice structure pendant. This pendant features the structure of diamonds, formed by carbon atoms in a specific arrangement.

Pick from a variety of materials, including everything from solid gold to white plastic. Shown here is the default material, blackened steel, giving the traditional appearance of carbon atom models.
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Nobel Prize Laureate Eric Betzig

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“I would never call myself a chemist,” said Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2014 recipient Eric Betzig.

Betzig was the 2015 speaker at the annual Mark Gurevitch Memorial Lecture Series, hosted by the Physics Department at Portland State University. During his lecture at Hoffman Hall on May 14, Betzig spoke about his career and his prize-winning work. Read more about Betzig’s talk in this article by Joseph Thiebes, and in the video below.

SWEETLab brings water to Rwanda

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In January 2015, Sustainable Water, Energy and Environmental Technologies Laboratory (SWEETLab) finished setting up nearly half a million filters and stoves in Rwanda, many of which contain new sensors that communicate their status over the Internet, ­according to SWEETLab Director and Portland State Mechanical & Materials ­Engineering Assistant ­Professor Evan Thomas. Learn more from Dr. Thomas, Kwasi Boateng, and Zdenek Zumr about SWEETLab in this article and video below by Joseph Thiebes.

Tilikum Crossing 2014, photo by Joseph Thiebes

Collaborative Life Sciences Building and Tilikum Crossing

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My first video for the Portland State Vanguard is now available online at this link. In the video, Dr. Jason Podrabsky, chair of the biology department, speaks about the benefits that the new Collaborative Life Sciences Building (CLSB) benefits students in the biology department. One of the photos in the slideshow at the top of the article was also taken by myself. Below are a couple more photos, unpublished elsewhere, that I took while at the new CLSB. The first is one showing the nearly-complete Tilikum Crossing bridge, which will open in 2015. Its West end is right next to the CLSB.  Below that is a photograph that I took in one of the new chemistry teaching labs in the North part of the CLSB.

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Comical Candidacies: Controversy in Political Satire

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Joseph Thiebes and Vermin Supreme after the AC2012 debate

Joseph Thiebes and Vermin Supreme after the debate

Three hours later than planned, after a 6-hour flight and a hurried drive through the suburbs of Boston, I finally arrived in Salem, Massachusetts to find the media team nearly ready for the event that had been anticipated jokingly as perhaps “the most important political event of the year,” (Bernstein) and would later be called “the best fake presidential debate Massachusetts has seen in a generation” (Carioli). I donned my newly fitted black tuxedo with a red bowtie and matching pocket square, and sat down at a table on stage next to a man in the process of fastening a boot to his head. It was Halloween weekend, but the boot was not exactly a costume. Hearing the excited cheers of audience and members of the media team, Vermin Supreme acknowledged that this trademark fashion accessory brings more media attention than any of his other antics.

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