Biggest Scientific Breakthroughs 2011. Gadgets and Things. Graphene Properties. This two-dimensional form of carbon has properties not seen in any other substance Keith A. Jenkins The Nobel Prize in Physics for 2010 was awarded jointly to Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov of the University of Manchester “for groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene.”
Essentially it was awarded for the discovery in 2004 of the form of carbon known as graphene, which led to an explosion of experimental and theoretical work with the material around the world. It is remarkable not only that the Nobel Prize was given for the discovery of a material (rather than for the elucidation of some physical principle), but also that the material was already in one of the most common substances in human history, and that the prize was awarded such a short time after the discovery. In part, the speed of this recognition is due to the amazing excitement created by Geim and Novoselov’s findings. What is graphene and what are its properties? Cheap, Cool Science Items. Amazon has some awesome Science related products that any Science Geek in you know will love to have.
Here are some of the more affordable gifts that are guaranteed to tickle the fancy of the science geek. The EcoSphere and “Original Ecosphere” are trademark names for sealed blown-glass miniature aquaria produced by Ecosphere Associates, Inc., of Tucson, Arizona, United States. Spherical or ovoid, the aquaria range from roughly baseball-size to soccer-ball-size. They are sold worldwide as scientific novelties and decorative objects. The EcoSphere’s main visual appeal is provided by tiny red-pink shrimp, Halocaridina rubra, between 1/4 and 3/8 inch (or approximately a centimeter) in length. The shrimp swim energetically around the aquarium, eat the brown bacterial and algal scum on the glass, consume the filamentous green algae which sometimes forms a globular pillow in the water, and perch on a fragment of soft coral.
A magnetic scrubber is enclosed in each EcoSphere. Source: Wikipedia. Cromarty Dialect. Universal robotic gripper. Robert Barker/University Photography The human hand is an amazing machine that can pick up, move and place objects easily, but for a robot, this "gripping" mechanism is a vexing challenge. Opting for simple elegance, researchers from Cornell, the University of Chicago and iRobot Corp. have created a versatile gripper using everyday ground coffee and a latex party balloon, bypassing traditional designs based on the human hand and fingers.
They call it a universal gripper, as it conforms to the object it's grabbing, rather than being designed for particular objects, said Hod Lipson, Cornell associate professor of mechanical engineering and computer science. The research is a collaboration between the groups of Lipson, Heinrich Jaeger at the University of Chicago, and Chris Jones at iRobot. John Amend The robotic gripper conforms to the shape of the item it is lifting. "This is one of the closest things we've ever done that could be on the market tomorrow," Lipson said. HackerThings: Products for the discerning hacker.