10 Futuristic Materials
Lifeboat Foundation Safeguarding Humanity Skip to content Switch to White Special Report 10 Futuristic Materials by Lifeboat Foundation Scientific Advisory Board member Michael Anissimov. 1. Aerogel protecting crayons from a blowtorch. This tiny block of transparent aerogel is supporting a brick weighing 2.5 kg. Aerogel holds 15 entries in the Guinness Book of Records, more than any other material. Carbon nanotubes are long chains of carbon held together by the strongest bond in all chemistry, the sacred sp2 bond, even stronger than the sp3 bonds that hold together diamond. “Metamaterial” refers to any material that gains its properties from structure rather than composition. We’re starting to lay down thick layers of diamond in CVD machines, hinting towards a future of bulk diamond machinery. Diamonds may be strong, but aggregated diamond nanorods (what I call amorphous fullerene) are stronger. Transparent alumina is three times stronger than steel and transparent. inShare28 Materials
Epoxy Gel Coat
Gelcoats are special resins that are designed to form the first surface of a composite mould or part. Gelcoats are generally applied as a thickness of 0.3-0.7mm and are specially formulated to provide the part or mould surface with properties such as resistance to UV (ultraviolet) degradation, hydrolysis or osmosis (where water is absorbed into a composite over considerable time). Gelcoats also include thixotropic additives to make them thicker and more able to stick to inclined surfaces of moulds. Epoxy gelcoats are based on epoxide resin and polyamine hardener (just like epoxy resin) and should be used when making parts using epoxy resin , if a gelcoat surface is required. Gelcoats are applied to a mould surface and allowed to cure to a certain point before the first layer of laminate is applied. Tooling Gel Coats Tooling gel coats are specially designed to provide a highly polish-able and durable surface to epoxy based moulds.
Don Harper Mills: 1994's Most Bizarre Suicide
This story can be found in many places on the Web, usually without attribution, and claims that it is true. But the story of its origin, and how to spot it must be an UL, can be found at Deconstructing Ronald Opus At the 1994 annual awards dinner given by the American Association for Forensic Sciences, AAFS President Don Harper Mills astounded his audience in San Diego with the legal complications of a bizarre death. On March 23 the medical examiner viewed the body of Ronald Opus and concluded that he died from a gunshot wound of the head caused by a shotgun. Ordinarily a person who starts into motion the events with a suicide intent ultimately commits suicide even though the mechanism might be not what he intended. Further investigation led to the discovery that the room on the 9th floor from whence the shotgun blast emanated was occupied by an elderly man and his wife. When one intends to kill subject A, but kills subject B in the attempt, one is guilty of the murder of subject B.
Les nouvelles technologies façonnent un marché du travail à deux vitesses
Alors que la France est dans une phase de croissance molle ou quasi-nulle, deux visions économiques s’affrontent. Pour l’une, celle du gouvernement français notamment, le retour de la compétitivité ramènera la croissance, qui ramènera le plus important: l’emploi. Christopher Mims, qui publie un article sur Quartz, serait sans doute en désaccord avec ce schéma. Car c’est oublier que les gains de productivité conquis par l’homme grâce à la machine ont eu un effet pervers: le remplacement du travail manuel humain par des machines. Or selon Christopher Mims, les travailleurs des services pourraient connaître le même sort que celui des ouvriers de l’industrie: être remplacés par des automates, en l'occurrence des logiciels. Les travailleurs routiniers de l’économie tertiaire («routine cognitive jobs») risquent d’être les grands perdants de la transformation. Car pour les travailleurs les plus compétents et les plus diplômés, ces changements technologiques sont au contraire une aubaine.
A bright idea to help bike riders be seen and not harmed
Designer Wouter Walmink:"One of the things we wanted to do was to make a helmet that was more exciting to look at". WOUTER Walmink never considered wearing a bicycle helmet until he moved to Melbourne a year ago. But after pedalling through the city's hectic streets, the Dutch designer realised he was going to need a helmet - so he set about making a better one. The result is the LumaHelm, a flashing headpiece with 104 multicoloured LED lights that illuminate like indicators when a cyclist tilts the head left or right. ''One of the things we wanted to do was make a helmet that was more exciting to look at,'' the 28-year-old says. Advertisement The LumaHelm is based on a standard helmet fitted with lights powered by AA batteries and a sensor that measures movement of the cyclist's head. An Arduino microcontroller placed in the cyclist's pocket translates those movements into light patterns. Mr Walmink says his invention could improve cyclist safety. henrietta.cook@theage.com.au
NASA OKs Feb. launch of private space station trip
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A private California company will attempt the first-ever commercial cargo run to the International Space Station in February. NASA announced the news Friday, one year and one day after Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX, became the first private business to launch a capsule into orbit and return it safely to Earth. On Feb. 7, SpaceX will attempt another orbital flight from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. This time, the unmanned Dragon capsule will fly to the space station and dock with a load of supplies. NASA stressed it is a target date. "Pending all the final safety reviews and testing, SpaceX will send its Dragon spacecraft to rendezvous with the International Space Station in less than two months," said NASA's No. 2, deputy administrator Lori Garver. NASA has turned to industry to help stock the space station now that the space shuttles are retired, investing hundreds of millions of dollars in this startup effort. Online: SpaceXNASA
Est-ce que la technologie sauvera le monde
Par Hubert Guillaud le 28/10/10 | 5 commentaires | 8,804 lectures | Impression L’université de la singularité est une étrange école, explique Nicola Jones pour Nature. Elle ne décerne pas de diplôme. C’est une école qui, depuis 2009, propose un cursus de 10 semaines à destination d’une élite d’étudiants provenant des meilleures universités et des meilleures entreprises du monde. La SU a été cofondée par Peter Diamandis (Wikipédia), celui qui lancé la fondation X-prize à l’origine du lancement du premier vol spatial habité privé et l’université spatiale internationale à Strasbourg (qui vise à former les futurs dirigeants des agences spatiales du monde entier) et par le futuriste Raymond Kurzweil (Wikipédia), l’auteur du concept de Singularité, qui soutient que l’accélération des découvertes technologiques va conduire l’humanité à des améliorations exponentielles de la durée et qualité de vie humaine. Elargir l’horizon ou le technocentrer ? Le principe du programme divise. Hubert Guillaud
Singapore scientists create world's smallest gear | Video
