In this week’s Nature Physics an international team, led by
Oxford University scientists, report that a short pulse from the FLASH
laser ‘knocked out’ a core electron from every aluminium
atom in a sample without disrupting the metal’s crystalline structure.
This turned the aluminium nearly invisible to extreme ultraviolet
radiation.
''What we have created is a completely new state of matter nobody
has seen before,’ said Professor Justin Wark of Oxford University’s
Department of Physics, one of the authors of the paper. ‘Transparent
aluminium is just the start. The physical properties of the matter we
are creating are relevant to the conditions inside large planets, and
we also hope that by studying it we can gain a greater understanding of
what is going on during the creation of 'miniature stars' created by
high-power laser implosions, which may one day allow the power of nuclear fusion to be harnessed here on Earth.’
In 2005 I wrote a profile
of an old friend, Tim Kehoe, a toy inventor who’d spent 10 years trying
to solve what should be an easy problem: How do you make colored soap
bubbles that don’t stain whatever they break on? If you’re thinking,
“Oh that’s easy, just do X,” you’re wrong. Tim tried X. Didn’t work. In
fact, it blew up the kitchen and permanently colored the dog.
But as of today, you can buy his colored bubbles, called Zubbles, at zubbles.com and through his iPhone app.
And even if you’re not a bubble man, these things will blow your mind.
Thanks to some seriously novel chemistry, the stain they appear to
leave when they break vanishes in seconds. If only he could make pizza
sauce do the same thing.
A former IBM engineer says his latest invention can
turn regular cars into plug-in hybrids for between $3,000 and $5,000.
He could be on to something.
It fits into a wheel hub and can double a car's fuel economy. That's
the claim of Dr. Charles Perry, who says his plug-in hybrid retrofit
kit can save America 120 million gallons of fuel per day. Big talk. But
then, inventors betting on revolutionary uphevals need to talk as big
as they think. The former IBM electrical engineer designed the kit to
transform existing automobiles into hybrids by placing an electric
motor inside each wheel. Perry recently took first prize for his
invention at a green energy competition at the Tennessee Technology
Development Corp. The plan is to develop the kit into a product selling
for between $3,000 and $5,000.
As part of the prize, Perry received a $50,000 grant, which will be
matched by Palmer Labs LLC of Reston, Va., whose goal is to
commercialize the inv
The material is infused with ultra-thin circuitry and an electronically-controlled ink available in a wide range of Pantone colors, which are conveyed in “print quality.” As in all e-ink displays, a current passes through the substrate to activate the ink; otherwise, the eSkin is transparent to reveal the surface underneath. The eSkin material are flexible and can be manufactured in large-scale rolls rather than individually, making them cheaper and ensuring that our eyes will not have to suffer through looking at any static, information-less screen in the future.
Tokyo-based Nakabayashi offers everything from bookbinding services, child car seats and office products. But the newest (and certainly coolest) product of the 2,000-man company is an in-office machine , which turns used copier paper into toilet rolls, right there in the office. Brillant.
The toilet paper machine is able to produce two rolls per hour from around 1,800 sheets (or 7.2kg) of used A4-sized paper, which would have usually been just thrown away. At 600kg, it seems to be a dangerously massive piece of hardware.
Distribution in Japan begin in August and Nakabayashi wants to sell 60 units in the first year. Good luck with that, as each machine comes with a price tag of $95,000. Unfortunately, there is no information on operating costs yet, but I can’t imagine these being in proportion.
A new method of gently tearing apart the chemical constituents of wood has been discovered.
The historic krafting process is a potent chemical process that operates at over a hundred degrees Celsius. It is not easy to work with at all.
Again t
AK-47 receivers made from super-secret molded sythetic using a reinforcement matrix. "What is that", you ask? Just the same stuff the military is planning on using to armor their next generation war-fighting vehicles.
Hong Kong film makers are preparing to leave filmgoers goggle-eyed by releasing the world's first pornographic movie in 3D, a news report said on Sunday.
If it survives its first test flight, the Terrafugia Transition, which can transform itself from a two-seater road car to a plane in 15 seconds, is expected to land in showrooms in about 18 months’ time.
Nothing inspires innovation like a seven-figure check, which is why more and more private and government sources are offering big money for creative technologies -- and plenty of Americans are rising to the challenge.
One of Archimedes's creations was saved, though. The general took back to Rome a mechanical bronze sphere that showed the motions of the sun, moon and planets as seen from Earth.
Endeavour astronaut Don Pettit, a self-described tinkerer who served as the space station's flight engineer in 2003, invented a zero-gravity cup that wicks liquids along the sides of a piece of folded plastic, eliminating the need for a straw.
The suspects told police they bought the "jammer" -- which sends out a powerful radio signal that makes it impossible for phones within a 10-metre radius to communicate with cell towers -- on eBay.
Next time you're down at the diner you might try out the CupSpeakers from Dmitry Zagga. His minimalist speaker design consists four paper cups, a couple of toothpicks and an iPod.
Australia, is planning to sell solar cells that can double as the facades on buildings. Both companies have already developed dye-sensitized solar cells based on earlier technology, but the recent advances could make the cells cheaper and significant
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