Material science
kcollins | March 21, 2011
If researcher Angela Belcher has her way, electric cars of the future will be
equipped with lightweight, inexpensive batteries that can store enough electricity
to make driving such vehicles even more practical. Also on her laboratory "to
do" list: developing tougher electronic material so that you'll never lose your
computer again to an errant glass of water spilled on your keyboard.
Skillfully combining the disciplines of materials science, engineering and
bioengineering, Angela is focused on developing tougher and more effective
materials and devices for clean energy, electronics, the…
edyong | March 5, 2010The Not Exactly Pocket Science experiment continues after the vast majority of people who commented liked the pilot post. I'm really enjoying this, for quite unexpected reasons. It's forcing me to flex writing muscles that usually don't get much of a workout. Writing short pieces means being far more economical with language and detail than usual. It means packing in as much information as possible while still keeping things readable. And it means blitz-reading papers and writing quickly without losing any accuracy.
One quick note before the good stuff: last time, a few people suggested that…
edyong | January 19, 2010Deep beneath the ocean's surface lie the "black smokers", undersea chimneys channelling superheated water from below the Earth's crust. Completely devoid of sunlight, they are some of the most extreme environments on the planet. Any creature that can survive their highly acidic water, scorching temperatures and crushing pressures still has to contend with assaults from predatory crabs. What better place, then, to look for the next generation of body armour technology?
The scaly-foot gastropod (Crysomalion squamiferum) was discovered just 9 years ago at an Indian black smoker and it may have…
grrlscientist | January 14, 2010tags: How it's Made: Aluminum Foil, aluminum, material science, chemistry, technology, streaming video
The video shows the process of producing everyday use aluminum foil from huge, raw aluminum ingots.
grrlscientist | January 8, 2010tags: How it's Made: Snowboards, snowboards, sports, engineering, material science, technology, streaming video
This video describes in detail something that winter sports enthusiasts care about during this time of year!
edyong | April 13, 2009Our teeth are a mystery. The set we grow during late childhood stays with us throughout our lives, biting and chewing thousands of times a day. They can withstand forces of up to 1,000 newtons and yet, the material that coats them - enamel - is little tougher than glass. How does this extraordinarily brittle substance not shatter into pieces every time we crunch a nut or chomp on an apple?
Herzl Chai from Tel Aviv University found the answer, and it's a surprising one. At a microscopic level, our teeth defend against fractures by developing with cracks already built in. These pre-made…
gregladen | February 15, 2009"The Giants' Shoulders" is a monthly science blogging event, in which authors are invited to submit posts on "classic" scientific papers. Information about the carnival can be found here.
The last Giants' was hosted at The Questionable Authority, here. The next issue will be hosted at The Evilutionary Biologist: All Science, All The Time, which resided here.
Since this is Darwin Month in Darwin Year and almost, indeed, Darwin Day, we start with ... Paleontology. We'll get to Darwin at the end.
Early palaentologists and the Giant killer lungfish from Hell as well as the Revenge of…
edyong | May 20, 2008
In the late 19th century, asbestos became a building material of choice. Resistant to heat, electricity and corrosion, it found many uses including home insulation, brake pads and ship-building. By the time that the first health problems were reported, the material was commonplace. In the UK, the material was only restricted in 1983 after thousands of people were exposed during the post-war era. The result is a latent epidemic of related diseases including a rare type of cancer called mesothelioma, which is becoming more common and is only expected to peak in incidence over the next…
edyong | March 27, 2008
Imagine that you hand is made of jelly and you have to carve a roast using a knife that has no handle. The bare metal blade would rip through your hypothetical hand as easily as it would through the meat. It's clearly no easy task and yet, squid have to cope with a very similar challenge every time they eat a meal.
The bodies of squid, like those of their relatives the cuttlefish and octopus, are mainly soft and pliant, with one major exception. In the centre of their web of tentacles lies a hard, sharp and murderous beak that resembles that of a parrot. The beak is a tool for killing…