Education

Video: Fran Taylor and the revival of midcentury barware culture

By Lisa McDonald / June 26, 2024

Ohio-based artist and businesswoman Fran Taylor played a major role in midcentury barware culture, and the recent revival of her business by a Lancaster-based couple aims to honor and promote her trailblazing legacy.

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Semi-automatic annotation of materials science text accelerates data extraction from literature

By Lisa McDonald / May 24, 2024

The emergence of large language models has the potential to greatly accelerate data extraction from materials science literature, but annotating the text before extraction is often still a manual task. Researchers led by Taylor Sparks at the University of Utah developed a new method that harnesses the power of Google’s Gemini Pro to reduce the need for manual annotation.

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The rebirth of stained glass: From medieval religious art to modern architectural design, Part 3

By Guest Contributor / April 30, 2024

Though the tradition of creating grand stained-glass windows is less common than it was before, the art form remains an important part of our culture today. In April 2024, CTT is running a special three-part series on stained glass. Part 3 covers the revival of stained glass in the 19th and 20th centuries and its use today.

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Video: How it’s made—inside the world of kyanite mining

By Lisa McDonald / April 24, 2024

Establishing and expanding new and existing mining operations is a complex process. Virginia-based Kyanite Mining Corporate recently published a three-part series on the complexities of mining, which included a discussion on the need to make mining sustainable.

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Colored glass: From alchemy to empirical chemical design

By Guest Contributor / April 19, 2024

What gives colored glass its brilliant hues? Since the early days of alchemy, our understanding of and control over the design of colored glasses has improved enormously, opening the door to a host of practical applications.

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The rebirth of stained glass: From medieval religious art to modern architectural design, Part 2

By Guest Contributor / April 16, 2024

Though the tradition of creating grand stained-glass windows is less common than it was before, the art form remains an important part of our culture today. In April 2024, CTT is running a special three-part series on stained glass. Part 2 provides an overview of the early history of colored glass and details the rise and fall of stained-glass windows between the 11th and 16th centuries.

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The rebirth of stained glass: From medieval religious art to modern architectural design, Part 1

By Guest Contributor / April 2, 2024

Though the tradition of creating grand stained-glass windows is less common than it was before, the art form remains an important part of our culture today. In April 2024, CTT is running a special three-part series on stained glass. Part 1 overviews the techniques used to create stained glass.

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Video: The Sun Queen—how Mária Telkes lit the way for solar-powered technology

By Lisa McDonald / March 20, 2024

In honor of Women’s History Month, CTT shines a light on the PBS special “The Sun Queen,” which documents the life and research of Hungarian–American chemical engineer and inventor Mária Telkes, who helped advance the field of solar technology.

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Pittsburgh and the history of Depression glass

By Guest Contributor / March 19, 2024

The Great Depression in the United States (1929–1939) led glassmakers to pivot from producing fine crystal to manufacturing glassware pieces that could be pressed in large quantities with machines. The MacBeth–Evans Glass Company in Pittsburgh was one of many companies producing these so-called “Depression” glasses, and its history is covered in today’s CTT.

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Video: Inside traditional ceramic industries of the early 20th century

By Lisa McDonald / March 6, 2024

Recognizing the impact of ceramic products on society can be difficult due to the ceramic industry’s somewhat hidden nature. But two recent projects are helping bring the history of traditional ceramic industries to light through glass slides and laser-engraved bricks.

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