A new material developed by scientists at UC Irvine is described as the “world’s lightest material”, so light it can perch atop a dandelion clock without disturbing the seeds. The material is documented in the Nov 18 Science.
The new material redefines the limits of lightweight materials because of its unique “micro-lattice” cellular architecture. The researchers were able to make a material that consists of 99.99 percent air by designing the 0.01 percent solid at the nanometer, micron and millimeter scales. “The trick is to fabricate a lattice of interconnected hollow tubes with a wall thickness 1,000 times thinner than a human hair,” said lead author Dr. Tobias Schaedler of HRL.
The material’s architecture allows unprecedented mechanical behaviour for a metal, including complete recovery from compression exceeding 50 percent strain and extraordinarily high energy absorption.
Multidisciplinary team of researchers develop world’s lightest material (Thanks, Fipi Lele!)
(Image: Dan Little, HRL Laboratories LLC)
Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
George Harrison had two personalities: self-effacing spiritual seeker and cocaine-addled adulterer. The latter made him a cliché, the former made him the most unlikely rock star... more
Can cows sense magnetism? The debate continues via Boing Boing by Maggie Koerth-Baker
In 2008, some scientists proposed that cows can sense magnetism and actually line up in fields along Earth’s magnetic lines. It’s the sort of paper that everybody in the media wants to talk about for, roughly, two weeks … and then never mention again.
Image: Cows, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from 35463710@N06's photostream
But that’s not how science works. One research paper does not an unquestionable fact make. Luckily Discover’s Discoblog has been kind enough to update us on the current state of magnetic cow research. Shorter version: This issue is far from settled, with a second research team attempting to poke holes in the original study. Nevertheless, outside researchers say, the original findings still look strong. There is evidence that herds of cows stand along magnetic lines, and fail to stand along those lines in the presence of magnetic-field distorting high-voltage power lines. Whether this is absolutely the case and, if so, why, remains a bit of a mystery. Needs more research.
... an analysis of Google Earth images by another team finds no such lining up. In a back-and-forth over the last year in scientific journals, the first team reanalysed the second’s data and said that half of the images were useless, since they were near high-voltage power lines or contained hay bales or sheep instead of cows. Plus, the first team points out that the second team looked at single cows within herds instead of herds as a whole, and it’s pretty clear at this point that animals in herds and flocks aren't operating as independent entities. The second team retorts that their images were too okay to use, and the first team may have been looking at the wrong pictures.
Illustrated Pepsi Ads, 1950s via HOW TO BE A RETRONAUT by Chris
Totally cringe-making imho!
Thank you to the American Art Archive (site suspended - er?)
anyway a good selection is available via Retronaut
Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
The university is broken. Students learn little and take on big debt to pay for an education that, intellectually, doesn't amount to much... more
How to Grow a Heart: Transforming Cells Into Human Organs via Big Think by Megan Erickson
Unlocking the human genome is a little like learning the alphabet. It gives you all the essentials - but in order to actually put your knowledge to use, you need to know more. You need to understand the rules of language, how to form words from letters and sentences from words.
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Technical Cutaways, 1940s, by Frank Soltesz via HOW TO BE A RETRONAUT by Chris
All images by Frank Soltesz
Thank you to Gawno - where you can see other stunning images.
Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
The 19th-century social network. To enjoy the crowd, Baudelaire told us, one must have masks. His love of observing was at war with his fear of being seen... more
Earth’s Oceans Delivered by Comets? via Big Think by Big Think Editors
During observations made with the powerful Herschel Space Telescope last year, astronomers found frozen water on a comet called Harltey 2. More recent analysis shows that the molecular composition of the comet’s water – specifically, its deuterium-to-hydrogen …
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HIV/AIDS Treatment Breakthrough via Big Think by Big Think Editors
A Californian biomedicine company has developed a cell-treatment therapy that, for the first time ever, can reduce the amount of HIV in the body of an infected person. While previous therapies have been limited to extending the life of the patient, this new treatment …
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