RE-INVENTING THE WHEEL post by Andrew Corbin

Have you ever gone on road trip, and in the middle of nowhere you get a flat tire? Michelin has a solution for you. They have more or less re-invented what we know as the modern rubber tire. Michelin and companies like Resilient Technologies, LLC, have engineered a hybrid wheel tire. In fact, Michelin actually calls their invention the "Tweel." The practical use for this hybrid wheel is for situations when a flat tire is just not an option.

Our US armed forced use these new wheel designs on Humvee vehicles overseas in Iraq. This allows those vehicles to stay mobile and not leave our troops as sitting ducks. Michelin has said it will be another 10 years before their Tweels will be available on the market.














The basic design of one of these tires can be seen above. From the outside, the tires are the same as regular, inflated tires. However, once you start moving in on the design, the typical design is thrown out the window. After the rubber tread layer, there is a shear band that acts like the inner layer of a run flat tire. This band acts when there is a hole or a tear in the outer layer and fills the opening temporarily. Next in, is the first structural layer. This layer provides the elasticity and flex of the tire. Finally, there is the core of the tire that attaches to the axel of the vehicle.

This new design allows for a lot less waste of rubber in manufacturing tires and can also improve gas mileage. The reduction in weight of the tire full of air and metal rim or wheel, could save a significant proportion of the tire’s weight. Also, the core of the tire can be made from any material that can withstand the stresses and hazards of the environment the tire would act in. This allows for different models in different sizes to provide the right tire for the right job.

"Airless Tire Promises Grace Under Pressure for Soldiers." Scientific American. Web. 1 May 2012.

"Tweel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Web. 1 May 2012.

GRAHAM HAWKEES AND UNDERWATER FLIGHT post by Virquan Harold

Hey bloggers! Have any of you guys heard of Graham Hawkes? Well, his subs are currently the holder of the deepest recorded dive of 36,000 feet. His submarines are actually like airplanes that can go underwater. The interesting thing about this is the MATERIAL! Their underwater vehicles actually are positively buoyant and they use propellers to dive. The buoyant forces want to push it back to the surface. If they would turn their propels off, they would float back up to the surface unlike traditional submarines that are immensely heavier than water. The Deep Flight Challenger was one of there most interesting subs because it was designed to go down the deepest trench in the world, the Mariana, and engineering the material for that was so key because of the immense pressure. Just think about 60,000 pounds of pressure pushing down on you; you would be flat as pancakes or even thinner. The actual hull was made out of a custom-designed carbon fiber and it is said that the pilot would not be subjected to any pressure difference when diving. Its interesting to wonder the process of designing the material and how they came up with the material to be used. If you want to check out more about Graham Hawkes and the Deep Flight Challenger go to www.deepflight.com. It is pretty cool website and it shows some of the different underwater vehicles his has built.

EASY TO REMOVE BANDAGES post by Elizabeth Sweeny

Researchers and scientists are currently manufacturing ways to make bandages easier to remove.  According to Penn State food scientists, a process that spins starch into fine strands could take the sting out of removing bandages, as well as produce less expensive and more environmentally-friendly toilet paper, napkins and other products. Bandages that are currently on the market are often painfully removed but starch bandages would degrade into glucose, a substance the body safely absorbs. "Starch is easily biodegradable, so bandages made from it would, over time, be absorbed by the body," said Kong. "So, you wouldn't have to remove them."  The article is posted below.  It is interesting to see how materials can better something as simple as taking off a bandage. There is so much more in store for the future of materials science.

 http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120501100033.htm

Just For Fun – Interactive Post for the class - Flubber post by Elizabeth Sweeny

Flubber, gluep, glurch, or slime are common names referring to a rubbery polymer formed by cross linking of polyvinyl alcohol with a boron compound. Making flubber from polyvinyl-alcohol-based glues, such as Elmer's Glue, and borax can be done as an elementary science education experiment. The formation of a gel may be due to hydrogen bonding between boric acid hydroxyl groups and the diol groups in polyvinyl alcohol. Hydrogen bonding, as opposed to covalent bonding, would account for the physical properties of the gel.  Flubber is a non-Newtonian fluid that flows under low stresses, but breaks under higher stresses and pressures. This combination of fluid-like and solid-like properties makes it a Maxwell solid. Its behavior can also be described as being viscoplastic or gelatinous.  Flubber was a movie made about a fluke science experiment that created a very bouncy “slimy ball” that had a mind of its own. Flubber helps a struggling basketball team win the championship game because they can run fast and jump high.  I think it would be so neat if there really was a material that could do the things flubber could do!  What types of things would you want to do with a flubber material??

Nanotechnology Makes Paper Into Waterproof Super-Paper post by Harrison Pickett

I was searching the internet the other day and I was reading about nanotechnology and how its suppose to change the world around us. Thus, in doing so I came across this article  waterproof super-paper. This simple but extremely crucial invention could change everything to do with paper and even maybe the entire business world.
Despite moving toward a paper-free society, we still use paper fairly often in our daily lives. And to be honest, paper isn’t that great. It’s easily ruined by something as simple as a coffee spill and can spread disease by virtue of its tendency to transmit bacteria and other nasty things. But if we could apply new technology to the very old material, perhaps it could be revitalized. The Instituto Italiano di Tecnologia in Genoa, Italy has created a nanoparticle coating that could be applied to individual paper molecules to make paper antibacterial, waterproof, magnetic and even fluorescent.

The process works by creating an itty-bitty “shell” around each fiber of the paper. The new properties of the paper depend on which nanoparticles are used: silver for antibacterial and iron oxide for magnetic, for example. After the polymer is applied to the paper fibers, the paper continues to act like normal paper. You can write and print on it, fold it up, even recycle it just like always. The antibacterial paper could be an incredible advancement for food packaging, and other enhancements could help create more secure currency or protect important documents.

http://gajitz.com/nanotechnology-makes-paper-into-waterproof-super-paper/

LIQUID METAL BATTERY - A BLUEPRINT FOR INVENTING INVENTORS post by Monica Fikes

At TED 2012 Conference this past March Material Scientist and Engineer Donald Sadoway, a professor at MIT, gave a talk on the missing link to renewable energy. He argues the best way to solve current energy problems is to work together promoting innovation. As a way to provide an inexpensive and efficient alternative power source Sadoway and his team of students successfully created a liquid metal battery using some of earth’s abundant resources such as metals-liquid aluminum, and molten salt. His team is able to get metal from virgin ore at about 50 cents a pound. I found his philosophy on rethinking think big, think cheap and invent to the price point of the product’s market a inspiring. I heard it before, but his spin  had a unique flavor to it, making it seem new. One of Sadoway’s lines was, “If you want to make something dirt cheap, make it out of dirt.”

The basics of a battery = light metal on top of molten salt on top of a dense metal. The metals were chosen by density and earth abundance. He chose Magnesium for the top layer and antimony on the bottom layer. The metals blend to form an alloy. The process of the metals blending into and out of an alloy produces the current to power the battery.

Benefits of the liquid metal, silent, emissions free, designed to run at high temperatures , reduces cost by producing fewer but larger batteries. Watch to see how he ties everything together and also check out other TED Talks on the site!

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/donald_sadoway_the_missing_link_to_renewable_energy.html

KAKU AND STRING THEORY post by Yang Wang

Dr. Michio Kaku is one of my favorite scientists in the world. I admire his creation of string theory and most importantly, his imagination of how science affects us. The first time I know him is from a television show from which he tries to design a teleportation device. His humor and wisdom gives me a great impression.

In one of the videos from bigthink.com, he talks about the idea of strongest material known to man. It is made by nanotechnology. It is possible to create some extremely strong life-sustaining nanorobots.  This reminds me of the popular video game Crysis. The guy in it has a Nano Suit which can give him some unbelievable powers.

Nano technology is really cool. It is unbelievable how strong it can be even in such a tiny scale.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zroyr-Q9f_o

About Michio Kaku: http://mkaku.org/home/?page_id=5