Writable – Table With Writing Surface by Tianyu Xiao. Write on a Table The Writable is a fun and interactive look at how we can spark up the conversation around the coffee table. Three flip panels at the centre house chalkboards on the underside with a chalk discreetly held in place. I love the way it changes the outlook of a simple structure to something more eloquent. Definitely a conversation starter! Designer: Tianyu Xiao. News ::: Columbia Engineers Prove Graphene is Strongest Material. July 21, 2008 Columbia Engineers Prove Graphene is the Strongest Material Research scientists at Columbia University’s Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science have achieved a breakthrough by proving that the carbon material graphene is the strongest material ever measured.
Graphene holds great promise for the development of nano-scale devices and equipment. It consists of a single layer of graphite atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice, similar to a honeycomb. Until now, graphene’s estimated strength, elasticity and breaking point were based on complex computer modeling theories. “Our team sidestepped the size issue by creating samples small enough to be defect-free,” said Columbia Professor Jeffrey Kysar. The studies were conducted by postdoctoral researcher Changgu Lee and graduate student Xiaoding Wei, in the research groups of mechanical engineering professors Kysar and James Hone.
IdeaPaint: Turn Your Entire Office Into a Whiteboard. Why didn't you think of this? John Goscha, at the ripe old age of 25 ditched a job offer at Goldman Sachs, and instead began marketing IdeaPaint, which is simply a paint that turns any paintable surface into a dry-erase board. The benefit--besides being able to brainstorm on almost every inch of your office--is that the paint is half the cost of whiteboard and better-performing--you can leave marks up indefinitely, and they won't stain the wall. Of course, it takes a bit of time--you may have to sand the wall and prime it--but one other benefit is that you're not incurring all the carbon involved in manufacturing and shipping a whiteboard.
[Inc. via Dieline] Convert Plastic Back into Oil. Turn Photo Negatives Into Artsy, Personalized Lamps. Red marbled ring - Dorothy Perkins. Roberto Cavalli Oversized Labradorite Ring. A DIY “look for less” LOVE! | The Adventures of an Urban Socialite™ Top two images from Honestly… WTF (total cost about $5)/ Bottom image from Oak– retail $372.00 Love this clever project from Erica and Lauren of Honestly… WTF… so much so I might even attempt it– I love these bracelets!
The best part is, there are tons of options in terms of hex nuts (they have bronze, steel, etc.) and twine color, size, etc. and the project is super straight-forward. Have fun! Via MCSpice. How To Cut A Glass Bottle Using A String. The Happy Machine by Physalia Motion Graphics Studio | Design Blog. Backyard Office. OfficePOD is a modern cubicle designed for people who work from home. Having a dedicated workspace in your backyard will allow you to create a very important mental and physical boundary between home and work.The POD comes with integrated desk for your laptop, plenty of storage space, and secure locking system.
For more office designs, check out: Unusual and Creative Offices. Magic mushroom growing for dummies. Tutorial: Ready to Flash... Your Product? Via U! Photography Blog. How Solar Cells Work" You've probably seen calculators with solar cells -- devices that never need batteries and in some cases, don't even have an off button. As long as there's enough light, they seem to work forever. You may also have seen larger solar panels, perhaps on emergency road signs, call boxes, buoys and even in parking lots to power the lights. Although these larger panels aren't as common as solar-powered calculators, they're out there and not that hard to spot if you know where to look. In fact, photovoltaics -- which were once used almost exclusively in space, powering satellites' electrical systems as far back as 1958 -- are being used more and more in less exotic ways.
The technology continues to pop up in new devices all the time, from sunglasses to electric vehicle charging stations. The hope for a "solar revolution" has been floating around for decades -- the idea that one day we'll all use free electricity from the sun. Is Solar Power Worth It? Paper-Thin Solar Cells Show Promising Early Results. Generate Green Electricity from Your Balcony. Wind Power Without the Blades: Big Pics. Researchers advance toward hybrid spintronic computer chips. Researchers here have created the first electronic circuit to merge traditional inorganic semiconductors with organic "spintronics" -- devices that utilize the spin of electrons to read, write and manipulate data.
Ezekiel Johnston-Halperin, assistant professor of physics, and his team combined an inorganic semiconductor with a unique plastic material that is under development in colleague Arthur J. Epstein's lab at Ohio State University. Last year, Epstein, Distinguished University Professor of physics and chemistry and director of the Institute for Magnetic and Electronic Polymers at Ohio State, demonstrated the first successful data storage and retrieval on a plastic spintronic device. Now Johnston-Halperin, Epstein, and their colleagues have incorporated the plastic device into a traditional circuit based on gallium arsenide. Two of their now-former doctoral students, Lei Fang and Deniz Bozdag, had to devise a new fabrication technique to make the device.
Video: Jelly-Like Artificial Muscles Improve Robotic Flexibility With Rotary Motion. Replacing some of the nuts and bolts in robots' bodies with stretchy artificial muscles would allow them to be more flexible and lifelike than ever. Researchers at the Auckland Bioengineering Institute in New Zealand have succeeded in using such soft muscles in a motor that creates continuous rotational force. The motor uses only a few parts beside the muscle and needs no gears, cogs or bearings.
These jelly-like muscles are so elastic thanks to an insulating polymer film that can stretch to more than 300 percent of its original size. On either side of the film is a layer of conducting carbon grease. Upon application of a voltage, one layer accumulates a positive charge and the other a negative charge, attracting the layers to each other and squishing the polymer insulator in between them. The polymer layer contracts and expands as voltages are applied and removed.
[New Scientist] Visible-Light Lens Can See Objects Tinier Than The Light's Wavelength. Today in clever science tricks: a new kind of microscopy that can see down to resolutions smaller than the wavelength of the imaging light itself. On its face, this shouldn't be possible; the smallest resolution you should be able to get in the visible spectrum is about 200 nanometers because of the lower limits of visible light's wavelengths.
But with a special lens, Dutch researchers have used 561-nanometer laser light to image gold nanoparticles just 97 nanometers across. It's the first lens to provide a sub-100 nanometer resolution with visible light. So how do you cross that wavelength limit and image something smaller than the wavelength of the light itself? The Dutch team (they're from the University of Twente) measures this light distortion using a CCD chip, which gives them a reading of the distorted light's shape. But that's not the trick. For the entire paper on the imaging method, check out arXiv. [Technology Review] Video: Turning A Massive Touchscreen Display Into a Multitouch Microscope. Mashing web-based virtual microscopy and a massive multi-touch display surface, Finnish researchers have created a new interface for laboratory science that allows researchers to pan and zoom around a microscope sample via a tabletop or wall-mounted touchscreen, zooming in so close that sub-cellular details can be seen.
Given the fact that the minimum size for the screen is 46 inches--and it can be much larger, like the size of a conference table or even an entire wall--the device is capable of making the very small very large. The multitouch surface can recognize the touches of several different people at the same time, adding a whole new dimension to collaborative science and lab instruction. This isn't just an overblown iPad app--files can be up to 200 gigabytes, so there's some real computing power backing the multitouch microscope. But from a technology standpoint, it's not so very complex. [Eurekalert] Video: 360-Degree Fog Display Creates a 3-D Image Observable From All Angles. A new, truly 360-degree 3-D display has been developed by researchers at Osaka University. The fog display is created by three projectors each beaming a different image into a column of thin fog, making the resulting image appear 3-dimensional from all angles.
This technique means that viewers can physically walk around the display to see it from different vantage points without losing the 3-D effect. As we see in the video, the image quality is still a little shaky, but researchers say their next step is to make the technology "more stable. " Applications for the 360-Degree Observable Fog Display are not exactly clear, but researcher Asuka Yagi says in the video that they hope to apply it in "healthcare and entertainment. " [CrunchGear] Algae could replace 17 percent of US oil imports, study finds.
High oil prices and environmental and economic security concerns have triggered interest in using algae-derived oils as an alternative to fossil fuels. But growing algae -- or any other biofuel source -- can require a lot of water. However, a new study shows that being smart about where we grow algae can drastically reduce how much water is needed for algal biofuel. Growing algae for biofuel, while being water-wise, could also help meet congressionally mandated renewable fuel targets by replacing 17 percent of the nation's imported oil for transportation, according to a paper published in the journal Water Resources Research.
Researchers at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory found that water use is much less if algae are grown in the U.S. regions that have the sunniest and most humid climates: the Gulf Coast, the Southeastern Seaboard and the Great Lakes. Crunching the numbers Next, the researchers gathered 30 years of meteorological information. Water for oil. Chance discovery may revolutionize hydrogen production. Producing hydrogen in a sustainable way is a challenge and production cost has so far proven to be too high. Now a team led by EPFL Professor Xile Hu has discovered that a molybdenum based catalyst is produced at room temperature, inexpensive and efficient. The results of the research are published online in Chemical Science.
An international patent based on this discovery has just been filled. Existing in large quantities on Earth, water is composed of hydrogen and oxygen. It can be broken down by applying an electrical current; this is the process known as electrolysis. To improve this particularly slow reaction, platinum is generally used as a catalyst. Industrial prospects The new catalysts exhibit many advantageous technical characteristics. It's only by chance that Daniel Merki, Stéphane Fierro, Heron Vrubel and Xile Hu made this discovery during an electrochemical experience.
The next stage is to create a prototype that can help to improve sunlight-driven hydrogen production. Wiki. RepRap is humanity's first general-purpose self-replicating manufacturing machine. RepRap takes the form of a free desktop 3D printer capable of printing plastic objects. Since many parts of RepRap are made from plastic and RepRap prints those parts, RepRap self-replicates by making a kit of itself - a kit that anyone can assemble given time and materials.
It also means that - if you've got a RepRap - you can print lots of useful stuff, and you can print another RepRap for a friend... RepRap is about making self-replicating machines, and making them freely available for the benefit of everyone. Reprap.org is a community project, which means you are welcome to edit most pages on this site, or better yet, create new pages of your own. RepRap was the first of the low-cost 3D printers, and the RepRap Project started the open-source 3D printer revolution.
RepRap was voted the most significant 3D-printed object in 2017. About | Development | Community | RepRap Machines | Resources | Policy. Video: Three Hacked Kinects and One 3-D Printer Make You Into Your Own Souvenir. Remember those little wax figurines you'd get as a kid at zoos and aquariums? The ones in the shape of a lion or whale, stamped out of a machine, which you'd lose within a few weeks? This project, from freeform experimenters BlablabLAB, is sort of the modern version of that--with a trio of Kinect sensors and a 3-D printer in place of hot wax and whale-shaped molds. The best part: The figurine is modeled after you.
Why let those dumb whales get all the glory? Earlier this year, BlablabLAB set up a sort of interactive art installation on La Rambla, Barcelona's iconic pedestrian street. The user stands in the structure, surrounded by three towers with hacked Kinect sensors inside. The actual mechanics of the project are fairly simple, using already established equipment and software. [BlablabLAB on Vimeo] Don't forget to check out our rapidly growing coverage of Kinect hacks, and our essential guide to setting up the Kinect. The How-to Manual That You Can Edit.