Fluffy "Fe"

Uniform bubbles enhancing metal strength: Metal Foam

When you think of a metal, you probably aren't going to think of something that can be squished.

That was then, this is Metal Foam. The material that could replace modern steel in nearly every aspect.

The concept of air pockets in metal materials has been around for a while, making use of the voids within the material to make the metal more elastic. But just last month, a new discovery was made that can make this already useful material even better.

Bridgette Meinhold of Inhabitat said that the discovery was made at North Carolina State University. Dr. Afsaneh Rabiei, head of the project, has devised what is being called "the strongest metal foam ever.". The trick, as she put it, is to keep a uniform distance between the air pockets to create a greater overall strength.

Able to withstand up to 80% compression while retaining its original shape as well as its lightweight qualities, the possibilities for this new material are numerous. John Farrier of Neatorama noted from Dr. Rabiei a potential use of her metal foam. If used as the bumper for a car, a vehicle collision at 28mph would feel like a bump at 5mph.

This lightweight and flexible metal has other important uses that extend beyond car parts. Its maleable quality would make for a welcomed material for use in surgical replacement surgeries. Also, Steve Tarlow of Personal Money Store thinks that if the buildings in Haiti were built using metal foam, destruction and death tolls would have been drastically reduced.

Live Science has a video that covers Dr. Rabiei and her metal foam.

Nebulous Voice

We Interrupt your regularly scheduled science expedition to showcase the story of a reporter turned PR agent.

Shifting from newsroom to newsroom, a reporter that leaves a trail of success and progress in her wake.

As the Coordinator of Internal Communications at Oregon State University, Theresa Hogue holds the reigns of two powerful PR papers that come from the community for the community.

A graduate of Portland State University, Hogue took her Professional Writing and English degrees with her to a Forest Grove publication and further to the Gazette Times. During her stay at each newsroom, she managed to make major changes in the processes that had hampered them in the past.

At Forest Grove, she pulled the printing and planning style from the paper cutter into the digital design model. At the Gazette Times, she became the first in the Corvallis area to set up a Podcast.

“There was no one that could help me,” She said, “Some people didn’t even know what a Podcast was.”

Her Podcast is something she still maintains today, though it is more a “labor of love” at this point.

Currently, Hogue works as the driving force behind the web-zine of Oregon State University, "Life@OSU". She gathers information about calendar events, scholarships, and tasty tidbit stories from faculty and students around campus and uploads them onto the website. Those who subscribe get a daily email containing the previously mentioned information.

Coming from a background of journalism gives Life@OSU a more natural and story oriented feel, she said. While her work demands a quality to show the most impressive side of OSU, it hasn't stifled her creative nature. As a writer, she still has a "nebulous voice," that influences the way stories are told and what makes it into Life@OSU.

She has confidence in a bright future and remains humble by keeping her goals centered on the stories for the benefit of her readers and the students of OSU.

"Our obligation is to the students."

Programmable Matter: Next Generation Hardware

Imagine a situation where you need a hammer, a wrench, a car model, and an origami crane. Now imagine that all those things can be crafted from the same material. Move over MacGyver, programmable matter is changing the playing field.

New discoveries in nanotechnology give rise to new tools that can be manipulated to serve a number or purposes at any given time.

DARPA has begun work on a material that can shift at the will of the user. Dr. Mitchell R. Zakin, the program manager in charge of this project, said that the soldier of the future will need to be able to adapt to an ever-changing battlefield. To do so, he will need a tool that can adapt with him. He references a, "paint-can like object," in the back of a soldier's vehicle. Within would be the maliable material. By uploading a set of instructions from an on-board computer to said container, the materials inside would reform into the requested device. Once the task is completed, the object can be returned to the bucket and reprogrammed into something different.

A Harvard team working on this project has managed to create the first step towards this device. Dan Smith of Popular Science said that Harvard's prototype is "self-folding origami", which looks like a series of triangles on a small square surface. (See above image)
Also, researchers in MIT have developed tiny motors that can, "Control the assembly of objects underwater or in space." Said Smith.

While DARPA considers a morphing tool, Intel is working on designing a similar product that has the ability to create real-time, malleable holograms. Objects that can be created from digital data and made into a tangible model. A report released by CNN documents a group of business people seated around a car model built from a pool of, what can be assumed is, programmable matter. They pinch, pluck, and peel at the little car and it responds by shifting to their commands.

It can be assumed that the demonstration was a CGI rendering, but the message was clear, they wanted to design a substance that could change in real-time from human interaction.

Though this idea was much farther fetched than the research done by DARPA, Dr. Andrew A. Chen, Vice President and Director of Research at Intel, feels confident that this research will greatly impact our daily lives. Taking items that normally would be a hassle together and making it possible to change them to fit perfectly. He references a pair of sunglasses and a Bluetooth earpiece being able to fit comfortably together as long as they can shift to meet one another.



[I think it bears presenting the URL of one of my sources: http://www.popsci.com/military-aviation-amp-space/article/2009-06/mightily-morphing-powerful-range-objects]

The Inkless Printer: PrePeat

When cell phone chargers started piling up in landfills, companies went the eco-friendly route and switched to USB universal chargers. Environmental Office Solutions shows that e-waste, like ink cartridges, is taking up more and more space each year.

One company is making a step forward to cut down on that statistic. Based in Japan, SANWA has created a printing machine that can print on reusable copy paper. Not only that, but it will do so without using an ink cartridge.

The PrePeat printer uses a combo of specialized reusable paper and a high-intensity heating device to print at a resolution of 203 dpi (dots per inch) according to the website. It's like an Etch-a-sketch. You can tweek the design all you want, and it is still a simple process to change the overall look at any point. Only, you can't shake the paper to clear it off and the images will wont degrade over the number of uses.

Among the laundry list of improvements over the standard printing machine, like waterproof paper and improved hygenics, SANWA also boasts a savings of up to 666,000 yen a year. That ominous number rounds out to about $7,400 a year.

Christen da Costa of Gadget Review said, "...this might not only be a way to appease the Eco Nazis, but your company’s CFO as well."

Although this product is mainly being solicited mainly to big companies that run through printed paper on a frequent basis, Mathew of Gadget Venue believes that good sales will promote the production of a home version.

Of Booze and Bones

Liquor has a number of profound effects on the body. Ranging from a warm buzz to sudden lack of consciousness. A recent study released adds another trait from the most common of hops creations.

Beer can help reduce bone loss.

The husks of the hops used in brewing beer contain a soluble silicone known as orthosilic acid or OSA. This substance has been traced to improve the structure of bones and help fight against osteoporosis, says the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Jennifer Warner of WebMD says that of 100 commercial beers tested, the SI levels on average ranged from 6.4 to 56.5 milligrams per liter.

This is great news for people growing older. The mainstream way of obtaining silicon is through foods like apples, cherries, celery and especially whole grains. The trouble with whole grains is that your stomach must be very acidic in order to absorb the OSA, says Faith McGee from eHow, which can be taxing on an aged stomach. Also, most grains are thrashed from the husk, which Dr. Charles Bamford said is the most important part. Dr. Bamford is the chief author of the study and in a segment by Sciencedaily.com he pointed out that it is the brewing process that truly brings out the potential from the grains used. Since brewing uses bits of the husk as well as the hops, greater amounts of OSA are retained in the final product.

Beer has an OSA rating of 50% bioavailability (the ease at which nutrients are absorbed into the body) making it a major contribution to Si intake in the Western diet. However, silicon overdoses can lead to chronic fibrosis of the lungs. So, as always, please drink responsibly.

Bionic Arm Research for Soldiers

Since WWII, prosthetic arm designs have functioned around a hook in place of a hand. The Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) has begun a project to redesign prosthetic arms to replicate a natural human hand.

Soldiers who have served and are serving overseas are returning home maimed from the scars of war, Ker Than of livescience.com said. Medical technology has managed to keep them alive, but now is turning to the chances of returning to a normal life. The traditional design of a hook on the end of a plastic arm analog, while allowing for limited continual interaction, has drawbacks. There is no way to control the grip and a very limited way to even angle the hook itself.

DARPA is working with a large grant from the Pentagon to craft a revolution in the prosthetic inudstry called the DEKA. As of late, a new advancement has allowed for legs to think on their own and auto correct much like the gyroscopic powered Segway, Scott Pelley of 60 Minutes said in his broadcast. Within the team of researchers is Dean Kamen, the mind behind the Segway, who at first had adverse thoughts to the idea of artificially recreating a human construct. Regardless, Kamen has worked with teams of engineers and managed to solve a few of the logistical problems. Like bearing with the weight of the analog. By using a system of small inflatable pouches spread over the shoulder and chest, the nine pound device can be carried with relative ease.

Current programming attempts have been using a series of switches in the base of the shoe to control the grip of the DEKA arm. Future tests are going into setting the controls directly into the body of the user. Dr. Geoffrey Ling, a leading neurologist and army colonel said that it would be taking the ball of nerves in the shoulder and hooking a program to read the electronic impulses that are still sent by the brain. Such impulses are the cause of what is known as "phantom limb." When an amputee feels the limb that is no longer there.

Apart from a great sense of motor control, another aspect of the new technology is the ability to receive impulses from the object through the prosthetic. Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University are working on designs on prosthetic limbs that use a more invasive procedure that includes injecting electrode sensors into the user's body, Erik Sofge of popularmechanics.com said.

Using these new devices wont be difficult for those who have lost their limbs through accidents. Jonathan Kuniholm, one of the 300 engineers on the project also faces the difficulties of having lost an arm and is working on tapping into the nerve centers for better control of the DEKA arm. He relates that the use of the arm wont be difficult to get used to. Instead of the programmer having to work with the computer, it is the computer that is working for the programmer. By sending the signals as he would if he had his hand, he only needs to tell the computer to recognize those impulses as certain movements.

"I'm not really learning, so much as the computer is."

The pricetag on this effort is in the hundreds of millions, but the success of this project would mean more than just a success for the American Armed Forces. As said by Pelley, "...this is another gift of the American taxpayer to the entire world."

Quantum Power on your Desktop?

With technological demand in full swing, engineers are tasked with keeping up the progressive pace.

One of the powerful steps into the world of tomorrow is the quantum computer. The derives from its baffling power to calculate quantum mechanics as they would be observed in nature, as opposed to how they would work under assumptions. Cause you know what they say about assumptions. Makes an "ass" out of "u" and "umptions".

Experts from Harvard and the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia have begun the design of a computer that can use highly complex algorithms to compute the quantum mechanics, according to Charles Petit of Science News. The head of the Harvard group, Alán Aspuru-Guzik, had been working on algorithms of this power, but never had the kind of technology to test his theories. Collaborating with the University of Queensland allowed him to work with actual hardware to program and test. On principle, the quantum computer would be, "about the size of a fingernail," according to a physicist at University of Queensland, Andrew G. White. For the sake of ease, they spread it out over a square meter of the lab. Smaller isn't all better, sometime you just need to be able to twist and crank with your bare hands.

The revolutionary breakthrough that this team has accomplished is the alteration of the binary system. A classical computer will use a "1" or a "0" for its codes. The new quantum system will incorporate both "1" and "0" as well as numerous combination of the two, such as: 1+0, 01, or 0-1. According to Science Daily, these quantum computing factors, or qubits, will expand the processing power far beyond that of conventional computers. With this computer in use, physicists are able to record the data of the entangled photons of a hydrogen atom at 20 quantum measurements for highly precise data.

Using the Schrödinger's cat theory, University of Washington professor Boris Blinov states that quantum systems will be able to create a parallel example of molecular nature. With two correlating cats in separate boxes given the same situation, you need only observe one of them to know what would be happening to the other. These types of algorithms would allow physicists to create mock-ups of natural occurrences and compute their respective outcomes.

This kind of power has other "real world" uses outside of the science community. We could use this processing power to quickly eliminate passwords that would otherwise need years of brute computing, says Matt Buchanan of Gizmodo. He goes on to explain that companies that run search engines, like Google or Yahoo, would benefit from the boost in processing power.

Unfortunately, the quantum computer is still but a dot on the horizon. There are still issues regarding the capabilities of this computer and just how reliable they can be. When computers first switched from tubes to transistors, there was a backlash of failures from the relatively new hardware. Following that trend, it will be a long time until anyone will sit down with a quantum laptop.

~Sept

Science of Disaster, Haiti Quake

The disaster that struck in Port-au-Prince has shocked the American population. However, there are those amongst the masses who are viewing the situation with a critical eye. Geologists are analyzing the factors of this quake and are unsurprised that such an event managed to happen.

The effects of this magnitude 7.0 earthquake included toppling houses and bringing down long-standing buildings, devastating the entire city. It would normally take an earthquake of much greater magnitude, in the range of 8.0 or higher, to do such damage. However, the foundation of the city must be taken into account.

When you step onto a dirt pathway, your steps will remain steady. If the dirt has been compromised, due to loosening or wetting from rainfall, your foot might just sink into the pathway. In the case of Port-au-Prince, the foundation of the city was already weak. Another facet in the equation is the fault line that runs through the Caribbean islands.

The Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault had been storing potential energy at 20 millimeters per year since a huge quake in 1760, said Paul Mann, a research scientist at the University of Texas. To put this into perspective, the Nevada Seismological Lab reported a comparison chart to regard the power of magnitudes on a more recognizable scale. At 1.5 and under, the power is equal to six ounces of TNT. The power of a 7.0 magnitude is equal to 32 million tons of TNT. On that fated Tuesday, the people of Port-au-Prince were sitting on a massive payload of energy that went off all at once.

This event may seem detached from us in the contingent America, but we in the Northwest have reason to shudder. We too rest upon a fault line. One that has likewise been storing up great energy. Hopefully, this disaster will be learned from and scientists will keep a keen eye on the activity of our home for any warning signs.