The researchers at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland have created a low-cost smart paint that can detect microscopic faults in wind turbines, mines and bridges before structural damage occurs.
12 January 2012 - NICOLA PUGNO Politecnico di Torino After the stone, bronze and iron ages, the new bio-inspired super-materials Man has always drawn inspiration from nature to design new materials and structures. Flight is one example. However, it would not be possible or sufficient to just copy nature (an aeroplane does not beat its wings). On the other hand, drawing inspiration from it, today we can go even further, for example in space. Similarly, observing geckos we could produce super-adherent materials. One example is Spiderman's costume: "gecko" gloves could theoretically bear the weight of 100 people. In addition to imitating the strong adhesion, the challenge is to conciliate it with ease of detachment and self-cleaning, elements that co-exist perfectly in geckos, as in spiders and insects. Imitating the topology of the lotus leaf we can instead create anti-adherent and self-cleaning surfaces. Super-resistant cables based on nanotubes or graphene (a discovery that 2010 won the Nobel Prize for Physics for the Russians André Geim and Konstantin Novoselov), maybe even able to repair itself, could be produced drawing inspiration from spider webs, also making it possible to achieve the dream of the space elevator. The megacable, about 100000 km long, would have a theoretical resistance 100 times than that of steel and would be super-tenacious: with a diameter of only one millimetre, it would be able to stop a Boeing 747. Nanotubes and graphene can also be used to ...
The Space Elevator will reduce the cost of getting from earth to space. It will also allow us to take very large payloads into space very easily, very safely. Because of that, we can build cities on the moon. We can build space stations. We can build large solar arrays in space to collect energy from the sun and beam it down to earth. How would space elevator affect the average person? Through for example much faster telecommunication rates -- you can have any kind of data rates you want, and videophones will be as common as a cell phone. And the solar power energy we'll collect can relieve our dependence on oil. That in itself will change a lot of things it will reduce pollution and it will change world politics, hopefully even stopping some of the conflicts.
Richard Dawkins looks at the incredible discoveries of the last 50 years and reveals where some of the greatest minds of our time think we are heading. Olivia Judson reveals the controversial true story of how Rosalind Franklin's work in crystallography helped Watson and Crick to discover the double-helix structure of DNA, and the wealth of knowledge now gathered about the human genetic blueprint as a result. Jim Al-Khalili charts the career of astronomer Fred Hoyle, who helped to popularise science, worked out that we are all made of star-dust and, ironically, coined the term 'Big Bang' for a theory he rejected. James Dyson explores a revolutionary new discovery - carbon nanotubes - which, as well as being the toughest material known to man and 50000 times thinner than a human hair, offer potential applications from cheap and super-efficient solar power to building a 'space elevator'. To end this documentary, Stephen Hawking and Richard Dawkins ask each other the questions they really want answered: Is there life on other planets? Why are you so obsessed with God?
Read more: www.newscientist.com Carbon material gives more grip than gecko feet. Deepest-living fishes caught on camera for the first time. Digital zebrafish embryo provides the first complete developmental blueprint of a vertebrate.
Beauty and form combining to provide hot water. This shower's sculptural form heats the water without using any electricity or fuel. The Piezo Shower uses selectively narrowed bore tubes to pressurise water combining it with groundbreaking developments in nano generators transforming pressure into heat. Design: Sebastian Jansson, Fernanda Pizà, Victor Stelmasuk, Natalie Weinmann
New York Times technology reporter David Pogue tells Kwame Homan about his recent project that asks the question, "what will the future be made of?" The four-part series from NOVA called "Making Stuff" looks at materials that will make the world stronger, smaller, cleaner and smarter.
"Gamechangers: Energy Science, Innovation, and the Future of America." In the National Laboratory system, we are working on new energy technologies that could transform the ways we generate, store and use energy, and that could protect our environment while recharging our national economy. But as we tackle the fundamental scientific research we need to discover and develop disruptive new energy technologies, it's worthwhile to ask: What does it really mean to change the game? What does game-changing technology look like, and what are currently our best prospects for gamechangers? Ultimately, can we really change the energy game in this country? I believe the answer is yes -- but only if we bring together the right people and give them the right tools to address the right questions. --Eric D. Isaacs Bio: Eric D. Isaacs, a prominent University of Chicago physicist, is President of UChicago Argonne, LLC, and Director of Argonne National Laboratory. Before becoming Argonne Director, Isaacs served as Argonne's deputy laboratory director for programs, with responsibility for leading the laboratory's strategic planning process and overseeing the laboratory-directed research and development program as well as its educational programs. Earlier he distinguished himself both as director of the Center for Nanoscale Materials at Argonne and as professor of physics in the University of Chicago's James Franck Institute. During his 13-year tenure at Bell Laboratories, he was a member of ...
Simon Litsyn: Professor of Tel Aviv University, one of the creators of flash memory. Simon tells us about his recent research: analyzing Alzheimer's disease he found surprising properties of organic nano-tubes, which theoretically could be used to broaden our memory span.
A brief overview of what Jordan Gerton's lab researches. Included is a brief description of fluorescence and atomic force microscopy and the future uses of it. www.physics.utah.edu
