Category Archives: Materials

Hypersonic: Don’t believe the hype

Falcon program’s Hypersonic Cruise Vehicle
The DARPA Falcon Project’s Hypersonic Cruise Vehicle

Imagine a Mach-20 aircraft capable of flying coast to coast in less time than it takes a passenger to clear security; now imagine the jet lag to follow. If the idea still sounds appealing, bear in mind that the most recent attempt at such a plane flew right out of its own skin before ditching into the Pacific.

Welcome to the world of hypersonic flight.

Of course, that was a military weapons platform; contrary to what some aircraft manufacturers’ flacks would have us believe, passenger planes are likely to remain subsonic or supersonic for the foreseeable future – and for good reason.

Could You Commute From New York to Los Angeles in 12 Minutes?

Light bulbs: They don’t make ‘em like they used to

Old light bulb
Photo by Jane023

Weekend circulars and hardware store ads tout “long-lasting” light bulbs that burn for 10,000-20,000 hours, but they can’t hold a candle to the subject of this story: a bulb that has shed continuous light for over a century.

What’s the Longest Burning Light Bulb?

Tesla: A mind to light the world

Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla

Thomas Edison has long enjoyed the incandescent light of public admiration and textbook domination while Nikola Tesla, the scientist and inventor who pioneered the alternating current that truly powers the modern world, has unjustly languished as a footnote in scientific history. Farsighted, quirky, driven and brilliant, Tesla frequently leapfrogged ahead of his contemporaries to the next step, and the next.

Over the course of his long career, Tesla registered over 111 American patents and around 300 patents worldwide, including radio and alternating current. He designed the Niagara Falls power station that provided electricity to most of the northeastern United States. But his loyalty to his first loves, science and progress, cost him his fame, his fortune and, some argue, his sanity. These are just a few of the …

10 Reasons Why Tesla is a Scientific God

It’s like Dazzler and Tesla had a baby, and it was a t-shirt

Orange Sound Charge T-Shirt
Photo courtesy Orange

The pages of ThinkGeek teem with techno-tees fitted with LEDs, speakers, DIY artwork, virtual instruments and WiFi meters. Meanwhile, companies vie to gin up greener charging methods for cell phones.

Is it time for a mashup? A cellphone-charging tee? Maybe – but good luck wearing one through airport security.

Can a T-shirt turn sound into electricity?

Lave Ferrous: The secret lives of magnetic soaps

There’s an old run of Peanuts in which Charlie Brown is repeatedly confronted by girls skipping “hi-fi” jump ropes or wearing “hi-fi” bracelets. Each strip ends with Charlie Brown loudly questioning how such an object can be hi-fi, but of course we know the answer: marketing.

Magnetic soap has that sort of ring to it, too. But there are actually good reasons for making surfactants – the group of surface-tension reducing substances to which soap belongs – stick to magnets. Imagine cleaning up an environmental disaster like the Deepwater Horizon oil spill without leaving any of your cleanup materials behind, and you’ll begin to see what I mean.

Of course, that doesn’t exampling how soap can be magnetic in the first place. For that, you’ll have to read on.

How Magnetic Soap Works