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mega molecules
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Get Ready for Ultra-Thin Invisible Body Armor
Graphene, which is as common as the flakes from your pencil when you write, is turning out to be the wonder material of the new millennium. A few years ago, researchers discovered its electrical properties, which make one-micron sheets of the stuff ideal for tiny computerized devices. Now a new study reveals that graphene may also be one of the strongest materials known to humans. It has a breaking strength of 55 newtons per meter. That means if you had a sheet of graphene that was the thickness of typical plastic wrap, it could support the weight of a 2000 kg car before breaking. Just to make things even more mega, graphene is also transparent. Ultra-thin, invisible body armor, here we come! [New Scientist] Image via Coderforfood.
mega molecules
mega materials science
On the auction block at Bonham's last week were two strange items: a 4.5 billion-year-old meteorite from the dawn of the universe (left), and two chunks of fossilized dinosaur poop (right). Which do you think sold for the most money?
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Meteorite vs. Dinosaur Poop -- Who Wins?
On the auction block at Bonham's last week were two strange items: a 4.5 billion-year-old meteorite from the dawn of the universe (left), and two chunks of fossilized dinosaur poop (right). Which do you think sold for the most money?
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materials science art
It looks like an alien city on the edge of a canal. But this is actually just a few microns across — it's a scanning electron microscope image by Fatih Buyukserin. What you're seeing are polymers stuck to a silicon mold full of beehive-like cells. This nano-city even has its own flowers made of wire.
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A Natural Landscape in Microns
It looks like an alien city on the edge of a canal. But this is actually just a few microns across — it's a scanning electron microscope image by Fatih Buyukserin. What you're seeing are polymers stuck to a silicon mold full of beehive-like cells. This nano-city even has its own flowers made of wire.
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sci fashion
Nanowire Power Shirt Generates Electricity While You Wear It
Now you can power your cell phone just by wearing a special shirt made of two tiny layers of nanowires that rub against each other as you move. These super-conductive wires are "piezoelectric," generating energy through pressure and movement. The result is a shirt that generates more electricity the more you move around. A few weeks ago, a research team at Georgia Tech announced the first generation power shirt (you can see the two layers of nano wires above), speculating that it could someday power small electronic devices like iPods or mobiles. More »
sci fashion
Rayon and polyester better step aside. There's a new synthetic fabric in town, and it's softer, lighter, and more flexible than any of its predecessors. Designers Yvonne Laurysen and Erik Mantel collaborated to create furore, a porous material reminiscent of expanded metal. It comes long and bushy or short and smooth, and can be dyed a variety of different colors. What does this mean for the future of fashion? For one thing, it means you can now dress like a furry alien mermaid without having to hunt down, kill, and skin a furry alien mermaid.
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Furore, a Fur Substitute, is Next-Gen Polyester
Rayon and polyester better step aside. There's a new synthetic fabric in town, and it's softer, lighter, and more flexible than any of its predecessors. Designers Yvonne Laurysen and Erik Mantel collaborated to create furore, a porous material reminiscent of expanded metal. It comes long and bushy or short and smooth, and can be dyed a variety of different colors. What does this mean for the future of fashion? For one thing, it means you can now dress like a furry alien mermaid without having to hunt down, kill, and skin a furry alien mermaid.
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biomimetics
This mind-bendingly cute thorny devil lizard is one of the most sought-after creatures in the engineering world because it has a special talent: drinking through its foot. Using cracks in its scales, this little guy can wick water up through its foot into its body. Materials scientists hope that by studying how the lizard does this, they can invent substances that absorb water in a similar fashion. And bioengineers might go further.
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This Lizard Drinks Through Its Foot, and Soon You Will Too
This mind-bendingly cute thorny devil lizard is one of the most sought-after creatures in the engineering world because it has a special talent: drinking through its foot. Using cracks in its scales, this little guy can wick water up through its foot into its body. Materials scientists hope that by studying how the lizard does this, they can invent substances that absorb water in a similar fashion. And bioengineers might go further.
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mad materials science
Ever wanted to create luminescent designs or safety arrows in your floor, but weren't too crazy about those crappy, glow-in-the-dark stickers? Now a company in the Netherlands called Hidden Safety is marketing luminescent gravel, which can be mixed into concrete floors to create beautiful patterns or just point people the right direction in the dark. The gravel looks ordinary in light, but it is actually absorbing photons (hence, the material is often called photoluminescent). When darkness falls, photons zoom out of the gravel and create a glow.
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Your Floor Can Glow in the Dark with Luminescent Gravel
Ever wanted to create luminescent designs or safety arrows in your floor, but weren't too crazy about those crappy, glow-in-the-dark stickers? Now a company in the Netherlands called Hidden Safety is marketing luminescent gravel, which can be mixed into concrete floors to create beautiful patterns or just point people the right direction in the dark. The gravel looks ordinary in light, but it is actually absorbing photons (hence, the material is often called photoluminescent). When darkness falls, photons zoom out of the gravel and create a glow.
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mad materials science
Smart Paint Creates Moving Logos on Your Pop Bottles
One squirt of smart paint could create a small moving picture on the next bottle of pop you buy. This paint, which is being developed at the University of Warwick in the UK, essentially smears an electrical power system onto any surface: bottle, computer, even your hands. The electrified surface could then display a moving image; or it could provide camouflage, changing color to match its environment. Or it could become a tracking device, perfect for a surveillance society. More »
superpowers
New Adhesive Microfiber Gloves Let You Scale Glass Walls
Soon we'll have special gloves and shoes that allow us to climb smooth, vertical surfaces — and even walk across ceilings. A team of researchers at UC Berkeley has created a plastic microfiber that imitates the "stickiness" of gecko feet, which are covered in tiny hairs that attach to smooth surfaces. Already, the researchers are predicting they'll be able to walk robots across the ceiling using their microfibers, and humans could be next. More »
mad microscopy
Atomic Structures Captured by New, Ultra-Powerful Microscope
This image shows the precise arrangement of atoms that form a bridge between two gold crystals. Until yesterday, you would not have been able to see that image — at least, not with such clarity and color. It's the product one of the world's most powerful transmission electron microscopes, installed yesterday at UC Berkeley, which can deliver crisp images of objects that are less than half the diameter of a hydrogen atom. Want to see the microscope? More »
aliens
Science Fiction Angels Who Are Really Aliens in Disguise
The Left Behind books (and movies) are one of the most popular edge-cases in the science fiction world. They're shunned by many SF fans as too cheesily religious, yet embraced by zillions of Christians who made this many-volumed tale of the Rapture and Armageddon into bestsellers. They're an odd anomaly hovering between great apocalypse scifi and Great Apocalypse from The Bible. Left Behind the movie is actually pretty good B-movie scifi fare, and you can see in our clip that the spooky Rapture scene on a plane feels pretty much like the opening of an alien abduction flick. Plus, Left Behind is only one of many other stories where the work of angels looks basically like the work of aliens. We've got a list of five kickass alien angels for you right here. More »
mad materials science
Get ready for windows that never break with translucent concrete. A German design firm has created load-bearing concrete containing optical fibers, allowing light and color to pass through to the other side (the shadowy hand is what you can see through the concrete in direct light). The result is that you can live inside a sunlit dome and still be protected when the space invaders come and drop those dangerous light thingies on your head. Click through for more transluscent concrete, and some transparent aluminum too.
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Translucent Concrete Lets The Light Shine In
Get ready for windows that never break with translucent concrete. A German design firm has created load-bearing concrete containing optical fibers, allowing light and color to pass through to the other side (the shadowy hand is what you can see through the concrete in direct light). The result is that you can live inside a sunlit dome and still be protected when the space invaders come and drop those dangerous light thingies on your head. Click through for more transluscent concrete, and some transparent aluminum too.
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invisibility
One Step Closer to a True Cloaking Device
Last year, a team at Duke announced a beta cloaking material whose special nano-properties make it "invisible" to microwaves. Today, however, researchers in Stuttgart have got something even better — a "metamaterial" that can cloak objects in the visible light spectrum. Made of gold nano-mesh, the material has a negative refraction index for visible light — that means it doesn't reflect light, and could give the illusion of blending into the background. I can't wait for my metamaterial full body suit for doing futuristic spy shit. Towards Cloaking Visible Light [Science Daily]
holiday materials science gifts
