7 Man-Made Substances that Laugh in the Face of Physics. The universe is full of weird substances like liquid metal and whatever preservative keeps Larry King alive.
But mankind isn't happy to accept the weirdness of nature when we can create our own abominations of science that, due to the miracle of technology, spit in nature's face and call it retarded. That's why we came up with... #7. Ferrofluids What do you get when you suspend nanoparticles of iron compounds in a colloidal solution of water, oil and a surfactant? A ferrofluid is a liquid that reacts to magnetic fields in trippy ways that make you think that science is both magical and potentially evil. Tell us that didn't look like the birth of the most sinister dildo ever.
What happens is that when a magnetic field is applied to the fluid, the particles of iron compound inside align to it. What the Hell is it Used For? #6. It's not the brick in the picture up there, it's the stuff under the brick. Every once in a while, science rules. #5. Chemists fabricate 'impossible' material. (PhysOrg.com) -- When atoms combine to form compounds, they must follow certain bonding and valence rules.
For this reason, many compounds simply cannot exist. But there are some compounds that, although they follow the bonding and valence rules, still are thought to not exist because they have unstable structures. Scientists call these compounds "impossible compounds. " Nevertheless, some of these impossible compounds have actually been fabricated (for example, single sheets of graphene were once considered impossible compounds). In a new study, scientists have synthesized another one of these impossible compounds -- periodic mesoporous hydridosilica -- which can transform into a photoluminescent material at high temperatures.
Like graphene, periodic mesoporous hydridosilica (meso-HSiO1.5) consists of a honeycomb-like lattice structure. Demonstration of the Lotus Effect. Nano Carpet & Cushion Coating. Nano Structured Glass. Donald Ingber on Tensegrity Architecture and Cell Structure. Architectural dynamic prototype video 2. Spray-on clothing. Kukkia & Vilkas: kinetic electronic garments. Hylozoic sculpture breathing pore details. Memory polymer Fabric BY Grado Zero Espace. Shape Memory Textiles. Heat sensitive fabric. The 10 strangest facts about graphene. When first discovered, graphene was odd.
Now odd is too small a word for a material seemingly set on winning all the records a material can win. In the first part of our series, we looked at what graphene is and how it was discovered. In part two, we explored the different techniques we can use to make graphene. But what is it that makes this material so remarkable? Here are 10 of the strangest facts about graphene. 1.
So says Professor James (Jim) Tour of Rice University in Texas, and who are we to argue with that? Everyone you ask about graphene's amazing properties says the same thing: it is really hard to pick one feature when the material is so astonishing. 2. This makes graphene a wonderful candidate for use in photovoltaic (PV) cells, for instance, because it can absorb photons with energy at every frequency — photons of different frequencies of light are converted to electrons with matching energy levels. It is possible to induce a small band gap in graphene by doping it. 3. Oricalco fabric - thermal shape memory textile. Highly Conductive Film That Can Stretch : DigInfo.