UP Materials Science Society

23/04/2026

𝐇𝐔𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐒𝐘𝐀 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐀 𝐊𝐀𝐘 𝐀𝐋𝐘𝐒𝐒𝐀 𝐀𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐎!

Ang mga Inhinyero ng Bayan ay lubos na nakikiramay sa pamilya, mga kaibigan, at sa buong UP Community na nagdadalamhati sa pagpaslang kay USC Councilor Alyssa Alano.

Noong Abril 19, pinaulanan ng bala, bomba, at nagsagawa ng aerial strafing ang 79th Infantry Batallion ng Armed Forces of the Philippines sa Brgy. Salamanca, Toboso, Negros Occidental. Sa militarisasyong ito, mahigit-kumulang 163 pamilya at 653 na mga indibidwal ang napilitang umalis sa kanilang mga tahanan.

Isa si USC Education and Research Councilor Alyssa Alano, isang inosenteng sibilyan, sa 19 na walang-awang pinaslang ng mga militar, gayong nakikipamuhay lamang siya sa mga magsasakang Negrenseng pinapasista ng estado.

Si Alyssa ay naging katuwang ng UP ESC sa paggaod ng mga kampanya sa nagdaang termino nito, at 𝘁𝗮𝗮𝘀-𝗸𝗮𝗺𝗮𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗽𝘂𝗽𝘂𝗴𝗮𝘆𝗮𝗻 𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝗴𝗮 𝗜𝗻𝗵𝗶𝗻𝘆𝗲𝗿𝗼 𝗻𝗴 𝗕𝗮𝘆𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝗮𝘀𝗶𝗸𝗵𝗮𝘆 𝗻𝗮 𝗽𝗮𝗴𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗼𝘀 𝗻𝗶 𝗔𝗹𝘆𝘀𝘀𝗮 𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘀𝗮𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗸𝘁𝗶𝗯𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗮, 𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘀𝗮𝗱𝗼𝗿, 𝗮𝘁 𝗸𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗶𝘆𝗮 𝗻𝗴 𝗯𝗮𝘆𝗮𝗻. Ang mga ala-alang iniwan ni Alyssa ay patuloy na magsisilbing punla sa pag-alab ng diwang militante ng mga Iskolar at Inhinyero ng Bayan.

𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗶𝗻 𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗮𝗵𝗮𝘀𝗮𝗻𝗴 𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗼𝗸𝗼𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗻𝗮 𝗻𝗴 𝗨𝗣 𝗘𝗦𝗖 𝗮𝗻𝗴 𝗹𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗮𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗮𝘀𝘆𝗼𝗻 𝘀𝗮 𝗸𝗮𝗻𝗮𝘆𝘂𝗻𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗮𝘀𝗶𝘀𝗺𝗼 𝗻𝗴 𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗱𝗼. Isa itong konkretong manipestasyon na ang prayoridad ng estado ay hindi ang interes ng sambayanan, kun' 'di, ng mga mayayaman at mapansamantala lamang.

Simula pa sa pagkapangulo ni Duterte hanggang ngayong panahon ni Marcos Jr., nagsilbing tila nasa "de facto Martial Law" ang isla ng Negros dahil sa mga represibo at pasistang polisiya gaya ng Memorandum Order no. 32 na tinatatag ang Negros bilang "state of lawless violence".

Ang pagkamkam ng lupa at pagpatay sa mga magsasaka't mamamayan sa Negros ay patuloy na ipinatutupad ng estado sa huwad na ngalan ng pagpapanatili ng kapayapaan.

Si Alyssa ay isa lamang sa malawak na hanay ng mga kabataan at Pilipinong lumalaban sa karahasan, korapsyon, at pananamantala ng estado. Kasama nito sa listahan si Chad Booc mula sa Kolehiyo ng Inhenyeriya na nakipamuhay at nagsilbing g**o ng mga Lumad. Ngunit imbis na tugunan ang tunay na ugat ng kahirapan, ay pasismo, bala, at bomba ang laging tugon ng reaksyunaryong gobyerno, kaakibat ng walang-habas na redtagging.

𝙃𝙄𝙉𝘿𝙄 𝘿𝘼𝙃𝘼𝙎 𝘼𝙉𝙂 𝙎𝘼𝙂𝙊𝙏 𝙎𝘼 𝙆𝘼𝙃𝙄𝙍𝘼𝙋𝘼𝙉.

Kasama ang UP ESC sa mgaa nagluluksa sa pagpaslang kay Alyssa. Ngunit sa kabila nito, ay patuloy na magngangalit ang mga Inhinyero ng Bayan sa paghingi ng hustisya para kay Alyssa at sa lahat ng biktima ng pasismo ng estado. Ipagpapatuloy ang laban ni Alyssa para sa isang lipunang malaya at payapa.

𝙏𝙖𝙖𝙨-𝙠𝙖𝙢𝙖𝙤𝙣𝙜 𝙥𝙖𝙜𝙥𝙪𝙥𝙪𝙜𝙖𝙮 𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙖 𝙠𝙖𝙮 𝘼𝙡𝙮𝙨𝙖 𝘼𝙡𝙖𝙣𝙤, 𝙢𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙞𝙧 𝙣𝙜 𝙨𝙖𝙢𝙗𝙖𝙮𝙖𝙣𝙖𝙣!
𝙄𝙨𝙠𝙤𝙡𝙖𝙧 𝙣𝙜 𝘽𝙖𝙮𝙖𝙣, 𝘽𝙖𝙮𝙖𝙣𝙞 𝙣𝙜 𝙎𝙖𝙢𝙗𝙖𝙮𝙖𝙣𝙖𝙣!
𝙈𝙞𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙖𝙧 𝙨𝙖 𝙠𝙖𝙣𝙖𝙮𝙪𝙣𝙖𝙣, 𝙥𝙖𝙡𝙖𝙮𝙖𝙨𝙞𝙣!

22/04/2026

As the sun beats down on us this tag-init season, we instinctively look for ways to escape the heat - hiding beneath the shade, looking for electric fans or air-conditioning units, and drinking ice-cold water - anything to help us cool down. But what if instead of avoiding sunlight, we engineer materials that work with it to solve pressing problems, such as access to clean water?

Dive into how materials can harness the power of the sun for water purification in this week's Wisdom Wednesday!

Ev***ration seems simple: heat water and it turns into v***r. Traditional systems follow this by heating large volumes of water. This method is inefficient as much of the energy is wasted to heat the entire body of liquid instead of directly driving ev***ration. Imagine boiling a whole pot when you only need steam from the surface. Photothermal water ev***ration solves this problem by focusing heat at the water surface for efficiency. This is made possible by photothermal materials which absorb sunlight and convert it into heat at the air–water interface. This results in faster ev***ration and allows water to be distilled into something clean and drinkable with less wasted energy.

A photothermal material’s performance depends on how well they absorb light then convert it into heat while allowing water flow. Because of this, researchers classify these materials based on their composition and structure. One classification is carbon-based materials which includes graphene, carbon nanotubes, and biochar. These are great at absorbing sunlight across wide ranges of wavelengths making them efficient solar absorbers. Their electrons are both rapidly excited and relaxed, converting the energy into heat via lattice vibrations. Carbon-based materials have porous structures and hydrophilic surfaces which allow water to move easily to heated interfaces for continuous ev***ration. These materials are relatively low-cost and chemically stable, making it suitable for large scale applications.

Another classification are plasmonic metal-based materials, such as gold and silver nanoparticles. These materials rely on a phenomenon called localized surface plasmon resonance or LSPR wherein electrons oscillate in response to light. This oscillation generates intense, localized heating which makes them very efficient. However, these materials are expensive so they are often used in small amounts or combined with other materials to balance cost and performance.

Conjugated polymer-based materials like polyaniline also play a role by converting light into heat through their molecular structures. These polymers contain delocalized π-electron systems which allows them to absorb sunlight across a broad range of wavelengths. When these electrons are excited by light, they relax back to their original state through non-radiative processes and release energy as heat instead of light. When it comes to polymers, their advantage lies in its flexibility, lightweight nature, and ease in integrating into composite systems. Actually, many photothermal systems don’t rely on one type of material and instead use combinations designed to maximize performance. For example, a system may incorporate carbon materials for strong light absorption with polymers for flexibility and porous scaffold for good water transport. These composites allow researchers to fine tune properties such as efficiency, durability, and cost for ev***ration.

Structure is also pivotal to photothermal materials as these are often engineered into three dimensional porous systems, such as foams, aerogels, or hydrogels. These structures allow light to be trapped, provide pathways for water to flow to the surface, and allow v***r to escape efficiently. Some systems are designed to float on water with insulating layers underneath to prevent heat from escaping into the bulk liquid. This happens as heat is generated only at the surface with insulating layers to slow heat loss downward. While capillary action supplies thin layers of water upward to be heated while circulating the contaminants back into the bulk liquid. This makes sure that the energy stays concentrated at the air-water interface.

Photothermal materials extend beyond water purification with its principle of localized solar heating for a range of applications. They may be used in processes such as solar desalination, wastewater treatment, and even salt recovery wherein residual crystals can be harvested as valuable byproducts. Their efficient heat generation enables uses in sterilization, atmospheric water harvesting, and even solar-driven steam production.

Like we have seen with solar panel technologies, understanding how photothermal materials function allows us to see sunlight not just as heat to escape from, but as a resource to harness. So, the next time the sun feels overwhelming just remember; with the right materials even intense heat can be transformed into something that can sustain life.

Content by: Arthur Emanuel Gray and Jan Melchor Aglibot
Design by: Marion Cecille Mesias and Maria Cassundra Romero

Are you ready to be WEISS-er? Access our references to learn more at tinyurl.com/upmssWW

Wisdom Wednesday is brought to you by the UP Materials Science Society. Want more knowledge? Stay tuned next week for another amazing Wisdom Wednesday!

22/04/2026

𝐏𝐚𝐠𝐛𝐚𝐭𝐢 𝐬𝐚 𝐦𝐠𝐚 𝐛𝐚𝐠𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐈𝐬𝐤𝐨𝐥𝐚𝐫 𝐧𝐠 𝐁𝐚𝐲𝐚𝐧! 🌻

Mula sa UP Materials Science Society, isang pagpupugay sa inyong pagsisikap at dedikasyon. Sabik kaming masaksihan ang pagsisimula ng panibagong yugto ng inyong tagumpay. Bitbit ang talino at malasakit, patuloy na maglingkod nang may dangal at husay.

Utak at puso para sa bayan. Padayon! ❤️

15/04/2026

What does it take for humanity to return from the Moon—alive—while wrapped in a fireball hotter than molten lava?

In April 2026, Artemis II, the first crewed mission beyond low Earth orbit since 1972, carried astronauts on a historic journey around the moon—only to face its most dangerous phase on the way home: atmospheric re-entry. After nearly ten days in deep space the Orion spacecraft plunged back toward Earth at speeds approaching 25,000 mph (≈40,000 km/h). In minutes, it encountered temperatures of up to ~5,000°F (~2,760°C)—conditions intense enough to melt most metals. And yet, on April 10, 2026, Orion splashed down safely in the Pacific Ocean, marking a textbook return and a major milestone in modern space exploration.

Witness the fiery science behind the safe return of Artemis II astronaut crew in this week’s Wisdom Wednesday!

Atmospheric re-entry is a violent thermodynamic event in which at hypersonic speeds, the spacecraft compresses air in front of it, generating extreme heat through aerodynamic heating and shockwave formation. The result is a plasma sheath that engulfs the capsule, cutting off communications and creating what astronauts often describe as riding a fireball.

How did Orion survive these dangerous conditions?

The Artemis II Orion capsule uses a heat shield material known as AVCOAT, similar to what was used during the preceding Artemis I spacecraft and the Apollo program more than 50 years ago. Rather than resisting heat indefinitely, AVCOAT is designed to decompose in a controlled and predictable manner. It consists of silica fibers embedded in an epoxy novolac resin, creating an ablative material. As temperature rises, the outer silica layer chars and forms a highly insulating quartz layer, while the resin pyrolyzes to produce gas. This process creates a protective barrier that blows away the hot plasma and carries heat away from the surface, ensuring that the underlying structure remains comparatively cool in spite of scorching external temperatures.

Equally important is how AVCOAT is structured. In its original Apollo-era form, the material was applied within a fiberglass honeycomb matrix, with 300,000 individual cells filled manually—creating a highly controlled geometry for ablation. This approach ensured uniform material distribution but required months to complete a single heat shield. For Orion, the manufacturing process changed significantly. Instead of injecting material into a monolithic honeycomb, engineers now produce AVCOAT in machined blocks or tiles, which are then bonded onto a composite-backed heat shield. This, however, introduced a new variable—how gases generated during ablation move through the material—which became critical after Artemis I.

When the uncrewed Artemis I capsule returned to Earth in 2022, post-flight inspection revealed unexpected cracking and localized loss of charred material across the heat shield. The root cause was traced to internal pressure build-up within the AVCOAT. Gases generated inside could not escape efficiently, causing some regions to experience spalling—chunks of material breaking away prematurely.

From a materials perspective, AVCOAT must be dense enough to maintain structural integrity under aerodynamic shear, yet permeable enough to allow decomposition gases to vent. Too little permeability leads to rising internal pressures and fracturing, while too much compromises the mechanical stability of the char layer. Artemis I revealed that this balance, while effective in principle, was not fully optimized in practice.

For Artemis II, rather than redesigning the entire material system, introducing significant delays, engineers addressed the problem through operational adjustments. The re-entry trajectory was modified to reduce thermal loading. Instead of using a skip-entry trajectory like in Artemis I, engineers opted for a steeper, direct re-entry. This reduces thermal exposure and inhibits excessive gas buildup, minimizing the risk of degradation observed in earlier missions.

Looking ahead to Artemis III, further refinements are expected. While AVCOAT remains the baseline material, its formulation and processing continue to evolve, particularly in response to improved understanding of high-temperature material behavior. Even decades after its original development for Apollo, AVCOAT is still being re-engineered—less as a finished solution, and more as a material system under continuous iteration.

Artemis II shows that returning from deep space is less about resisting extreme conditions and more about managing them. The Orion spacecraft does not “withstand” re-entry in the usual sense. It relies on materials that are expected to change, degrade, and respond in predictable ways under stress.

In that sense, Artemis II is not just a successful return, but a continuation of materials development. The heat shield did its job, but it also provided data on how it burned, how it fractured, and how it can be improved.

Content by: Jasmine M. Fria
Design by: Antonio Pacia and Paola Paragas

Are you ready to be WEISS-er? Access our references to learn more at tinyurl.com/upmssWW

Wisdom Wednesday is brought to you by the UP Materials Science Society. Want more knowledge? Stay tuned next week for another amazing Wisdom Wednesday!

08/04/2026

With summer fast approaching, everyone is trying their best to find ways to stay cool; from enjoying chilly mountain winds, to dipping into beach waters, to hanging out in an air conditioned cafe, or even staying in front of an electric fan at home. But staying cool isn’t just a problem for people; it’s also a challenge for computers. These machines tend to heat up as they consume electricity during processing, with heat being produced as a byproduct. This is why computers continue to evolve alongside advancements in cooling technologies. Recently, new breakthroughs have emerged to address these challenges, such as the use of Phase Change Materials (PCMs) for cooling.

Learn more about how these materials beat the heat in this week’s Wisdom Wednesday!

Traditional cooling approaches often rely on slowing heat transfer, such as through insulation. However, electronics produce heat when converting electricity into processing power and when insulators are used, there is a risk of heat buildup and eventual overheating. Instead of simply slowing heat transfer, the goal shifts to stabilizing temperatures. This leads to leveraging the ability of Phase Change Materials (PCMs) to absorb and release heat from their surroundings, transferring it to a dedicated heat sink where it can safely dissipate. Through a property known as latent heat.

During a phase transition, temperature remains relatively constant as heat is used to break or reform intermolecular bonds. Latent heat refers to the energy required for this phase change, and a higher latent heat means more energy can be stored before the material fully transitions. Phase Change Materials leverage this high latent heat to absorb energy from their environment. When used as thermal paste/pads for a CPU, these materials provide an easier pathway for heat to flow out of the system because as PCMs heat up and soften, they fill in microscopic gaps, decreasing thermal resistance. The material of this thermal pad is typically a type of paraffin wax mixed in an adhesive, fine-tuned for a specific operating temperature to optimize performance. Generally, the most common materials used as PCMs are paraffin wax, salt hydrates, fatty acids, and engineered eutectic mixtures.

These ‘cool’ PCMs are also good when integrated in construction, apparel and storage. In these fields, PCMs are integrated into their respective materials, such as drywalls and fabrics. These materials are usually integrated into different materials by encapsulation. This process traps PCMs within a matrix, ensuring that when they melt, they remain structurally stable while still maintaining their primary function. But PCMs don’t just work in thermal paste. What is good about these examples is that not only are they good at keeping their surroundings cool, they also do well to keep things warm. After they have absorbed excess heat, as they cool down, they relax and release heat into their environment, stabilizing the temperature in the other direction. This explanation is similar to how pools feel cool in the morning but warmer at night.

As we can see, these “smart materials” are incredibly flexible and can adapt to environments at different temperatures while still maintaining as the cornerstone for modern infrastructures from computer cooling systems to cold chain storage and building cooling.

Content by: Jason Angelo Zafra
Design by: Soleil Aguilar

Are you ready to be WEISS-er? Access our references to learn more at tinyurl.com/upmssWW

Wisdom Wednesday is brought to you by the UP Materials Science Society. Want more knowledge? Stay tuned next week for another amazing Wisdom Wednesday!

01/04/2026

HAWAK MO ANG BEAT🎵🎶, HAWAK MO AN… See more

25/03/2026

A body lies cold on the ground. The crime scene is sealed by yellow tape, and a team of investigators sifts through the area for answers. The detectives zero in on alibis and motives, but the first witnesses do not speak. They glint under the light, cling to fabric, or settle in the dust: a hair fiber, a shard of glass, a trace of soil, a smear of residue. These silent remnants tell a story more precisely than most human accounts, and for forensic materials scientists, they are the key to truths that a perpetrator, or a narrative groomed to silence it, cannot entirely conceal. A Clue surfaces, a Gone Girl leaves a trail, a Zodiac reveals a pattern, Memento restores what was lost, Knives Out cut through deception, a Scream breaks the quiet, and even the Silence of the Lambs fails to keep the truth buried in this week’s Wisdom Wednesday.

The most gripping crime stories hinge on a breakthrough moment—when a fragment dismissed as trivial becomes the linchpin of the entire case. For a forensic materials scientist, this revelation is no surprise; it is the essence of their work. The smallest, most innocuous pieces of evidence, often invisible to the naked eye, can provide the most damning connections. These traces engage in a complex exchange, passing between victim, suspect, and environment in patterns no one can fully erase. Known as Locard’s Exchange Principle, it holds that material transfers occur whenever two things physically interact. This is why every point of contact is carefully scoured—because in piecing together those exchanges, investigators can reconstruct the sequence of events and expose the perpetrators’ trail.

Broken glass is more than a nuisance; it’s a storyteller in trace evidence. Suppose a window is smashed during a late-night operation. Investigators sweep up the fragments at the scene. Its refractive index acts like an optical ID card, showing exactly how it bends light. Elemental fingerprints from X-ray or laser analysis can tie shards to a particular batch or factory of origin. And then there are the fracture patterns—radial cracks, concentric rings, even bullet paths—that sketch the direction and sequence of impacts. A hole created by a high-velocity projectile, like a bullet, for instance, will be narrower at the point of entry and widen toward the exit point, forming a distinctive cone fracture.

Now picture a late-night struggle in a back alley. The suspect bolts, but a fiber from their clothes snags on the fence. To the naked eye, it’s just lint. To a forensic materials scientist, it’s a breadcrumb on the path to truth. Fibers come from everyday materials—cotton, polyester, nylon—yet each has unique traits. With polarized light microscopy, SEM, and infrared spectroscopy, scientists can pin down a fiber’s polymer structure and dye composition. Even fibers that look identical to us can reveal different “spectral signatures” under analysis. On their own, a single fiber is fragile evidence. But in patterns, fibers weave powerful testimony. In the infamous Atlanta Child Murders case, investigators tied rare green carpet fibers from multiple victims back to Wayne Williams’ home. A few overlooked fibers helped unravel one of America’s most chilling cases.

Meanwhile, fibers of a different nature—biological traces preserved in blood and tissue—helped solve the murder of Jennifer Laude in 2014. Meticulous DNA and autopsy work aided in clarifying a crime initially shrouded in ambiguity. Similarly, in the 2009 Maguindanao massacre, forensic anthropologists painstakingly reconstructed decomposed bodies from mass graves, confirming not only deaths but also the brutality of political violence. Every fragment, bone, and trace of clothing testified and resisted the attempts to obscure the scale and ferocity of the killings.

Even bullets and guns carry confessions in them. Rifling grooves in a barrel etch microscopic striations onto bullets, while firing pins leaves its own stamp on the casing. Together, they act like a weapon’s fingerprint. If a criminal tries to grind off a gun’s serial number? The metal “remembers.” Stamping distorts the grain structure beneath the surface, and with acid etching or magnetic particle inspection, investigators can coax erased numbers back into view. Modern 3D imaging and computer algorithms make these matches even sharper, giving hard numbers to back what examiners see. A firearm may be cold and silent, but under forensic scrutiny, it testifies to every shot it has ever fired. The 2017 killing of Kian delos Santos was initially reported as a shootout, but post-mortem and ballistic analyses uncovered inconsistencies with police claims, turning overlooked bullets into testimony that challenged official narratives.

Human rights organizations and international bodies, such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, documented the Philippines’ anti-drug campaign launched in 2016 as a field of alleged extrajudicial killings, flagging patterns of violence, raising concerns about impunity, and calling for independent investigations into the thousands of deaths they described. At the ICC’s February 2026 confirmation hearing, prosecutors said Rodrigo Duterte was “pivotal” in the killings, alleging he created, funded, and armed death squads that targeted suspected drug users and dealers, and that the campaign claimed thousands of civilian lives, including children. These cases are not just headlines but contexts in which the forensic archive becomes a form of civic memory. In spaces where the machinery of accountability is strained, such empirical stubbornness matters more than ever.

In this “war against the poor,” death was not an accident of the streets; it was a method. A body hits the pavement, and the scene immediately begins to lie: a weapon appears, sachets of shabu are slipped into lifeless hands or pockets, a report is drafted, a narrative is scrubbed clean, and the killing is dressed up as routine. Yet every attempted erasure leaves residue, and in the ICC proceedings, that residue is finally being read aloud. The contrast is hard to miss: the accused now stands inside a formal legal process, while the thousands who died in the drug war never had the chance to be heard at all. Forensic traces then become not only a tool for conviction but a rebuke to impunity: the intractable, physical proof that contradicts staged encounters, coerced accounts, and polished press statements. Here, at last, everything is documented, argued, and heard.

In places where killings are politicized or where official policies have normalized lethal force, the laboratory can be a modest, bloody counterweight: quiet tests that tally what the street remembers, microscopic witnesses that survive attempts at erasure. That is why the work matters, not just for courtrooms, but for societies trying to answer the most dangerous question of all: whether anyone can get away with murder.

You can: Step 1. Discredit the witness. Step 2. Introduce a new suspect. Step 3. Bury the evidence. You may throw so much information at the jury that they walk into the deliberation room with one overwhelming feeling... doubt. But when the verdict comes, it isn’t the clever excuses, airtight alibis, or carefully rehearsed stories that crack a case and decide a fate—it’s the silent, enduring, and indisputable testimony of matter.

That’s how you know you won’t get away with murder. Justice will be served.

Content by: Sebastian Genesis Viduya
Design by: Jewelle Marie Buenaventura

Are you ready to be WEISS-er? Access our references to learn more at tinyurl.com/upmssWW

Wisdom Wednesday is brought to you by the UP Materials Science Society. Want more knowledge? Stay tuned next week for another amazing Wisdom Wednesday!

19/03/2026

In solidarity with the Nationwide Transport Strike amid rising oil prices, the review session for 𝐌𝐚𝐭𝐡 𝟐𝟐 𝐋𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐄𝐱𝐚𝐦 𝟐 will be rescheduled to 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝟮𝟯, 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟔 (𝗠𝗼𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘆), 𝟓:𝟑𝟎 𝗣𝗠 - 𝟕:𝟬𝟬 𝗣𝗠.

Join our review session by registering here: https://tinyurl.com/UPMSS-Math22-LE2-25B

📅 Date: March 23, 2026 (Monday)
🕓 Time: 5:30 PM - 7:00 PM
📍 Venue: TBA

See you there!

NOTICE: In solidarity with the Nationwide Transport Strike today amid rising oil prices, the review session for 𝐌𝐚𝐭𝐡 𝟐𝟐 𝐋𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐄𝐱𝐚𝐦 𝟐 will be rescheduled to 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝟮𝟯, 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟔 (𝗠𝗼𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘆), 𝟓:𝟑𝟎 𝗣𝗠 - 𝟕:𝟬𝟬 𝗣𝗠.

Ilang “series” na ba ang 𝗇̶𝖺̶𝗉̶𝖺̶𝗇̶𝗈̶𝗈̶𝖽̶ nasolve mo?🤔⁉️

If you are still struggling with determining if a series converges or not, or finding the Taylor polynomial of a function - we can help you with that! 🧠💡

Join us in our 𝐌𝐚𝐭𝐡 𝟐𝟐 𝐋𝐄 𝟐 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 𝐒𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 this March 19, 2026 (Thursday) prepared by the University of the Philippines Materials Science Society (UP MSS)!

Secure your slot by registering here! https://tinyurl.com/UPMSS-Math22-LE2-25B

📅 Date: March 23, 2026 (Monday)
🕓 Time: 5:30 PM - 7:00 PM
📍 Venue: TBA

‼️LIMITED SLOTS ONLY‼️

See you there!

Together with:
MMM Representatives

18/03/2026

𝘐'𝘮 𝘧𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘻𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦, 𝘐 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘮𝘺 𝘴𝘬𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵
𝘔𝘺 𝘤𝘰𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘐 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘶𝘱 𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶

Alysa Liu’s captivating performance at the Olympic Figure Skating Exhibition Gala was truly an inspiring display, sparking interest and appreciation of the sport among Gen Zs with trending TikTok videos imitating the first few seconds of Miss Liu’s routine to the bop song Stateside. Expressions of sudden urge to take a leap, and yearn to gracefully spin flooded the platform, but what about the ice rink gives that feeling of confidence to showcase one’s passion through talent without much thought of what lies beneath their skates?

Presenting the cold, hard facts beneath every momentum-building glide in this week’s Wisdom Wednesday!

The planning and preparation of the ice before stepping into the rink is a crucial stage to achieve a safe and optimal environment for the skaters. To ensure the quality of the ice surface before use, the ice is made, maintained, and resurfaced through thermal processes that we know all too well—freezing, cooling, and melting. For step one, a certain arrangement is designed and followed to keep each component intact and functional when interacting, reducing future mishaps.

Constructing the skating rink is a delicate process, consisting of multiple layers of construction that often remains unappreciated. From the ground up: layers of soil, sand, and gravel act as drains for ground water. Upon settling on the location of your ice rink, we layer it with the antifreeze pipes above the soil to remove heat from the next layer and provide constant cooling below freezing temperature to maintain the ice surface. But why place the insulation layer between what keeps the ice solid and the ice itself? Seems contradicting doesn't it? Worry not as this specific order prevents the further freezing of the water layer deep into the ground leading to a possible structural failure of the concrete and ultimately ruining the rink, an expensive problem to deal with indeed!

Keeping the ice’s solid state for not just one routine but for the entire duration of events is the next challenge, one hurdle that materials science and engineering came to overcome. The tendency to consume significant amounts of energy in ice maintenance also poses an issue to the environment’s current state. Imagine running an olympic-sized refrigerator for months! For the Milano Ice Skating Arena, also known as the Unipol Forum who hosted this year’s ice skating competitions in the 2026 Olympics, a CO2 refrigeration system was utilized to meet the olympic-ice standards while keeping low Global Warming Potential in mind, bringing awareness to natural refrigerants for low impact on the Earth’s climate. As investigated by Nguyen (2012), relative to the traditional coolant options such as NH3/Brine and CO2/Brine, a full CO2 system is more favorable in terms of efficiency and cost: 30-60% lower energy consumption and approximately 13% cheaper with good performance. To think that what started out as an idea to keep your produce cool and fresh, became an effective larger scale solution!

In the final stage of ice rink construction lies the fate of every skater during each breathtaking performance. In the spirit of a fair competition, the ice’s surface must be of the same quality for every act. Ever noticed those slow, go-kart looking vehicles that get cut when going into commercials or breaks? These are called ice resurfacer machines or a “zamboni,” a skater’s friend to a bump and skid-free beginning of their act as they carry out that flawless run they’ve been perfecting during rehearsals. Zambonis get to work by evening out the friction mark-covered upper layer of the ice through removal of debris and addition of hot water that makes it look like the initial stage of the ice rink before the competition even started. Alas our indoor ice rink has been constructed!

While often seeing the spotlight on the skater’s outstanding performances, one must not fail to see the support provided by science in weather-defying conditions. Be it a cold yet stable surface to land on during a hot summer day, materials science and engineering will provide a way!

Content by: Karolina Lopez
Design by: Andrea Natividad and Sean Santos

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Wisdom Wednesday is brought to you by the UP Materials Science Society. Want more knowledge? Stay tuned next week for another amazing Wisdom Wednesday!