Interested In Science?

March 7, 2008

Fibre-Optical Cables: Now shipping with Black Holes…

Posted by postgradsci under Scary Physics
Leave a Comment

Ok, completely off the beaten track for me and into the world of theoretical physics. Here is a journal from scientists in Scotland and Germany claiming to be able to create the event horizon of a black hole – you know, where light and matter (and my spare car key I assume) are lost forever.

It is believed by some that it will allow them to study the physics of the particles created in/emitted from the black holes we know are more regularly situated in space, as these are invariably surrounded by dust, gases and other space-borne artifacts.

This image can be seen in its original context at http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~ulf/fibre.html.

I love it. I’m scared by it but I am amazed at what they are attempting.
For a more thorough read follow the link above or check out the paper…
The article is appearing in science.

Philbin, T.G., Kuklewicz, C., Robertson, S., Hill, S., Konig, F., Leonhardt, U. (2008). Fiber-Optical Analog of the Event Horizon. Science, 319(5868), 1367-1370. DOI: 10.1126/science.1153625

February 15, 2008

Power Fabrics 2!

Posted by postgradsci under New/Fun Technology
[2] Comments

OK, so you may not count wall paper as a fabric, but go with it…

NewScientists latest inventions feed has reported on the design by Phillips of new wallpaper that contains strips of electrically conducting wire. Their intention is incase you want to change your lighting arrangements you can just stick new lights in at different spots on your wall without having to peel the paper off, remove the plaster, place cables, mount sockets, replas…yawn. I applaud the idea – especially if other devices can use the same principles – TOTALLY wireless devices!!!….As long as they are stuck into a wall…

I am curious to see how a wall of minimalist magnolia would look with loads of pin holes in it from multiple movements of lights though….hmmm.

Conducting Wall paper schematic from NewScientist/Philips

Nice idea – few wrinkles to iron out though I think.

For more see the NeScientist inventions blog (linked above) – absolutely worth a read anyway!

interestedinscience.com interestedinscience.com interestedinscience.com

are you interested in science? nanomaterials? oled technology? fun gadgets?

interestedinscience.com is for you!

February 14, 2008

Power Fabrics 1

Posted by postgradsci under Nanomaterials
Leave a Comment

Nature (and the BBC) are reporting a development in nanowires – their potential for integration into fabrics, which when moved (or worn and moved about in) will allow the build up of charge. The gold-coated nanowires work on a piezoelectric principle – a mechanical input generates a charge, for instance as the nanowires rub against each other.

I think this falls in step behind the cellulose paper covered in nanotubes (paper battery) discovery late last year – infact it is a logical progression of the technology, one which I hope will be pursued; my sony ericsson phone batttery has the life- span of a fruit fly!

Medical applications are bound (internal inplants etc) to be considered, but I want to know when I’m going to be able to plug my iPod into my jeans and when digital cameras come with a T-shirt adapter!?

abc

December 12, 2007

Recent Hiatus 2

Posted by postgradsci under Admin
Leave a Comment

Sorry for the lack of content recently – again an increase in workload is my excuse and for that I extend my apologie.

abc

November 13, 2007

Touch Screen Genius

Posted by postgradsci under New/Fun Technology
Leave a Comment

Ok, so the last but one post was about a new touch screen technology being developed by a lab in the UK under Microsoft. Well, I wasn’t a massive fan and I said as much in my post. The idea of a touch screen laptop with multi-touch sensing is fantastic, but the demonstration video (posted in the blog) didn’t show the technology too well, and I don’t think the design was too intuitive.

Well, I was searching the old youtube.com this morning quite idly, and found this amazing video from a technology conference in the States. The chap doing the demonstration is Jeff Han and must be a professor (says he works at NYU) in computer design/software/hardware GUI application or something. The screen he is using is a 36″ tablet, which allows multi-touch sensing and manipulation of graphics in such an intuitive way that it seems so natural what he was doing nothing was a surprise. Well, there was obviously some surprise at the smoothness of the graphics and the fact that it was such an intuitive system – but the input methods were so obvious it really is a pleasure to watch. So here it is, enjoy!

I will be first in line to buy one of these – I just hope it’s Mac compatible!

November 13, 2007

Nano-products: Dangerous?

Posted by postgradsci under Nano-ledgislation, Nanomaterials | Tags: Cancer Detection, Editorial, Nanomaterials |
Leave a Comment

The reason behind this vague subject matter is the lack of time I have had to concentrate on any single specific development in the recent press (read the ABOUT ME page if you are wondering where my time goes), and simultaneously the fact that recently, in the attempt to find some focus of interest, I have been besieged and, admittedly, a little distracted, by a) the increase in interest in my site (~400 hits per week mainly on OLED hits) and b) the amount of literature being produced out there ‘on the web’ about such a wide variety of subjects WITHIN nanotech (my favourite area of the vast and all-conquering discipline ’science’) that I think it is stupid to try and concentrate on one area when there are issues out there that need to be covered which cover the whole science area.

That incredibly long winded introduction was a means of covering my lazy behind for momentarily focusing on the more recent news in nanotechnology that concern cancer detection, nanotube applications and, of course as is always the case with such ground-breaking, newsworthy innovations their inevitable governing, restriction and enforced guidelines as set down by Uncle Sam (the US gov) and Uncle Keith (UK’s gov with, in my opinion, a particularly apt nomenclature).

Already concerns are springing up over the possible problems caused by the new products and technologies allowed by nanomaterials. Regardless of their potential for amazing advances in the fields mentioned above their possible hazards are being called into question (FDA finds no proof of harm with nanotech products, Editorial: Governments differing over Nanotech safety). Fortunately, the FDA has, as yet, found no evidence that these nanomaterials now being included in everything from cosmetics (eg. sunscreens) to sports equipment (eg. baseball bats) pose a significant threat.

I guess it is a good thing that these things are treated with suspicion, seeing as these nanoparticles are being used to address cancer-detection, and it would be an horrific irony and potential legal-minefield if the detection system helped induce secondary cancers in the patient.

October 19, 2007

New Multi-Touch Displays

Posted by postgradsci under New/Fun Technology
Leave a Comment

We’ve all played on them. Well, I say played, but the fun that can be had with a touch screen is rather limited. You don’t have a keyboard – everything is inputted through pressing the correct part of the screen and the computer reads this input. The touch screen technology is about a decade old, and relies on good old electronic circuit principles to work (metallic layers are pressed together upon touching the screen, which closes a circuit at a pressure point, telling the computer exactly where the screen was touched; very clever but simple).

Well, now there is a new toy under development.

Hands up who has seen Minority Report?

Me too. It’s ok. Nice idea if a bit far fetched, whimsical, and in violation – I am positive – of several human rights laws. Anyway. The screens are the obvious link in this little post; in the film Tom Cruise is seen flicking windows and files and images around on the screen with his hands in some special gloves. Extremely neat, and given the fact touch screen technology has been around for a few years, it’s suprising the idea hasn’t caught on and been flaunted by Apple or some major hardware manufacturer.

Well, now it is becoming more of a reality! And from labs in the UK. And labs run by Microsoft! Bravo.

Here is a link to the film on YouTube which demonstrates it:

I have watched it, and it looks good. However, I have also watched a video of the iPhone….and I’m not taking sides, I’m really not…but it doesn’t look an awful lot different to this new technology. Obviously there are a few cool new aspects coming with the new microsoft screen, namely the sensors ability to ’see’ objects within ~ 1cm away; but in all honesty I don’t know if there’s something to be excited about here yet.

There is more on this at NewScientist.co.uk or, obviously, on YouTube, at the above link.

September 25, 2007

Apologies

Posted by postgradsci under Admin
Leave a Comment

Sorry for the recent hiatus on this site – a move in office and residence has yielded little time to find interest in the world of science, extracurricular or otherwise!

I’ll get back on it as soon as I can, probably by the weekend.

abc

September 1, 2007

Atomic Memory Storage – an iPod storing 30000 movies…?

Posted by postgradsci under Nanomaterials
Leave a Comment

This may sound like madness, but IBM are on the way to discovering how to use single atoms (!) and molecules to store pieces of data. Thus the transistor on computer chips of today is being shrunk to a 1000th of the size!

This is being made possible by the virtue of something called anisotropy, which pertains to a property dependent on direction; in this case a magnetisation effect also referred to through a quantum dynamic property as spin. Due to the spin quantum number of any atom essentially being either up or down (i.e. 1 or 0…ringing any bells??) this property can be exploited towards the storage of binary data!

For more on this break-through read up at ScientificAmerican.com.

August 21, 2007

Nanotube-based Computer Chips

Posted by postgradsci under Nanomaterials, Plastic Electronics
Leave a Comment

As I have covered in Plastic Electronics: Explained and probably several posts about nanomaterials or plastic electronics, silicon based computer chips are approaching their physical limits of ’shrink-ability’. By this I mean the break-down of the quantum abilities of the materials once certain components of them become so small that they are unable to do what they should (namely, the gate-oxide in a silicon transistor is becoming so thin that soon electrons will be able to tunnel through and it will no longer be an insulator).

So as you can imagine, in order to keep up with the infamous Moore’s Law and maintain the linear increase of transistors-per-chip, ways to circumvent this issue have been being researched for several years, from several different directions.

One of the latest efforts to show promise is from a group of researchers in Hong Kong who have incorporated the use of carbon nanotubes instead of the copper or tungsten ‘plugs’ to interconnect the layers of silicon semiconductor. This doesn’t remove the use of silicon, but does take a stab at improving the ability of companies to make ever-smaller/powerful microchips.

Read more here at the patent application, and here at NewScientist.

« Previous Page — Next Page »