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IBM's 'Ninja Particles' could stop the rise of superbugs
IBM Research's Jim Hedrick has a great job. His work on polymers -- those repeating chains of macromolecules that make up most things in our world, like the computer or phone you're reading this on -- has led to the creation of substances with Marvel Comics-worthy descriptors. There's the self-healing, Wolverine-like substance that arose from a recycled water bottle and something called "ninja particles" that'll advance the reality of nanomedicine. Both discoveries will inevitably make their way into consumer products in the near future, but it's his team's progress on nanomedicine that Hedrick discussed during my visit to IBM Research's sprawling Almaden lab in San Jose, California.
How a water bottle gave birth to a whole new world of self-healing products
IBM's had a breakthrough in accelerated materials science and it's owed, in part, to a Dasani water bottle. It sounds simplistic, but the discovery of a new polymer that's not only super strong, but can also be made to be flexible and self-healing really was the happy accident of one researcher's focus on "green" chemistry and recyclable materials (i.e., plastic water bottles). Dr. Jeannette Garcia, a principal researcher for the project, was in the lab experimenting with the creation of high-performance materials when she stumbled upon this new polymer. "I made an error weighing out one of my starting materials and found that... [the new material] plugged up," she said. That resulting substance was so tightly bonded, Garcia had to smash the flask with a hammer just to get it out. She also tried hitting the substance with the hammer to see if it would break. It didn't.
3D printing gets metal with European Space Agency's AMAZE project
If you're invested in the future of 3D printing, the London Science Museum was the place to be today, as the European Space Agency and its partners hosted a consortium to celebrate the launch of the AMAZE project. AMAZE, which stands for Additive Manufacturing Aiming Towards Zero Waste & Efficient Production of High-Tech Metal Products (we guess AMATZWEPHMP just didn't have the same ring to it), is a joint effort to take the next logical step in the evolution of 3D printing: manufacturing metal parts. At today's event, components made of tungsten alloy were a particular highlight, as the extremely high temperatures such material can withstand (up to 3,000 degrees Celsius) would make them ideal for use in spacecraft and nuclear fusion environments. The process of 3D printing metal would also allow engineers to design beyond the limits of traditional metal casting, as seen in the Airbus hinges above. If your consortium invitation got lost in the mail, fear not. The museum's exhibit will be open to the public until July of next year.
Transparent gel speaker plays music through the magic of ionic conduction (video)
It may be hard to believe, but that transparent disk in the photo above is actually a fully functioning speaker. A team of researchers at Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences have pioneered a never before seen application of ionic conductivity by creating a see-through artificial muscle that can produce sounds spanning the entire audible spectrum. While ionic conduction isn't a novel idea, it's been considered impractical due to the fact that ionic materials react poorly to high voltage. The team, which included postdoctoral research fellows Jeong-Yun Sun and Christoph Keplinger (pictured above), circumvented that obstacle by placing a layer of rubber between two sheets of transparent conductive gel, allowing the system to work with both high voltage and high actuation, two qualities necessary for sound reproduction. Theoretically, soft machine technology such as this can be used to do much more than play Grieg's Peer Gynt, particularly in the fields of robotics, mobile computing and adaptive optics. To watch it in action, check out the video after the break.
Apple hires carbon fiber expert to posit composites
If you're going to compete in the consumer electronics business then you'd better have a solid grasp of industrial design and materials science. Otherwise, you're just another manufacturer trying to eke profit from drab slabs of commodity plastic. With the exception of the MacBook, Apple's entire Mac lineup is currently cut from aluminum. However, Apple's been caught experimenting with its newly acquired Liquidmetal materials recently, even as rumors swirl around new ultra-lightweight and durable carbon fiber components and enclosures. Speculation about the latter has been fueled by an Apple patent application for a process that would use carbon fiber materials woven into the reinforced device housings of mobile telephones, laptops, desktops, and tablets. Interestingly enough, the patent app was filed by Kevin M. Kenney (developer of the first all carbon fiber bicycle frame) on behalf of Apple back in 2009, a man who changed his job title to "Senior Composites Engineer at Apple Inc." on LinkedIn at some point after March 1st (according to Google cache). Of course, a carbon fiber laptop is far from unique -- just reference the Sony G11 from 2007 or 2008's Voodoo Envy 133 if you want to see how it's done. But if Apple makes a wholesale shift to carbon fiber in the months ahead then you can expect the horde of me-too OEMs to follow suit a year later. See the before and after LinkedIn profiles for Kenney after the break.
New coating may lead to fog- and dirt-free windshields
If you're like us and haven't washed your car since, like, ever, you're probably used to the windshield getting all fogged up (not in the good, make out point way, however) and habitually swiping at the glass with your sleeve while swerving between lanes and praying that your airbag still works. Well thanks to a new coating developed by researchers at Purdue University, your dangerous driving habits may soon be a thing of the past (well, except for those occasions when you're texting your buddies while eating a cheeseburger and fiddling with the radio), as this material has the unique ability to both prevent the formation of water droplets (no more fog!) as well as cause oil-based substances to bead up for easy cleaning (no more road grime!). The science behind this breakthrough is a little boring (i.e. we don't really understand it), but it seems that by covalently bonding a DuPont substance known as Zonyl FSN-100 to ordinary glass, the component polymers are able to change shape and react differently depending on the chemicals they come into contact with. After figuring out a way to apply the coating cheaply through spray or roll-on techniques, the next step for the Boilermakers will be to coax the material into repelling other nasty substances, making it suitable for use on the gadgets and glasses we geeks hold so dear.
Shape-shifting paper could help tiny bots take flight
A new breakthrough in materials science may pave the way for those inevitable swarms of tiny flying robots that will one day darken the skies and strike fear into us all, as researchers in South Korea have succeeded in coaxing specially-prepared cellophane paper to rapidly curve and straighten itself in an insect-like flapping motion. Although scientists have apparently known since the 1950's that wood was piezoelectric, meaning that it bends slightly when exposed to electricity, it took a team from Inha University with help from Texas A&M to discover that the same property also holds true for other cellulose-based material. By coating both sides of a sheet of cellophane with thin layers of gold, the researchers were able to create so-called Electroactive paper (EAPap) so sensitive that the voltage from a microwave beam provides enough power to trigger its unique shape-changing abilities. Oddly enough, no one is quite sure of the physics behind the transformation -- theories center around pressure changes resulting from the movement of ions -- but regardless of how it works, we're sure that more than a few governments will be most interested in deploying this technology to beef up their domestic and international surveillance programs.[Via Roland Piquepaille and ScienceNOW]
