A few years ago, we looked at NASA’s long project to design a paint so black, it would absorb nearly every bit of light around it (that’s it above, in the “D” spot). Now, NASA has finally launched the stuff into space —which means that the six-year effort to make it is finally paying off. So, why is this such a vital project for NASA? Read more…
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Why NASA Launched One of the Blackest Materials Ever Made Into Space
It began rather quietly as a underground fire at a dump in Canada’s remote northern reaches. Then in May, the fire “erupted, ” spewing forth flames and toxic fumes over the city of Iqaluit. Faced with a football field-sized smoldering dump fire, this week the city council finally scrounged up the $2.2 million to put it out. How the hell does a dump fire spontaneously ignite—and why is it so expensive to put out? Read more…
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A "Dumpcano" of Trash Erupted in the Arctic and Won’t Stop Burning
The molten aluminum being poured out onto the thin black fabric is bubbling at a scorching 1500 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s hot. And yet, for all the heat and fire and flame power, the magic fabric easily withstands the burning liquid metal. The fabric doesn’t catch fire, it doesn’t get burned through and there’s not a single hole in it. What is this sorcery? Read more…
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Magic fabric doesn’t catch fire after being doused with molten aluminum
Oculus VR is now owned by Facebook , but that won’t keep them from slurping up some companies of their own. And most recently, Oculus VR has agreed to snap up the Carbon Design Group , the designers behind the wonderful Xbox 360 controller and the original Kinect. Read more…
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Oculus VR Is Buying the Design Team Behind the 360 Controller and Kinect
OneDrive just more than doubled its free-storage offering, bringing it up to 15GB . That’s the same amount you’ll get with Google Drive. On top of that, all versions of Office 365 now come with a full 1TB of storage attached. That’s a lot of spreadsheets. Read more…
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OneDrive just more than doubled its free-storage offering, bringing it up to 15GB.
Perfecting your artistic technique using a stylus is about to get a whole lot more refined. With the introduction of iOS 8 , your screen will be sensitive to the relative width of whatever’s running across its surface. That’s great news for folks who prefer Paper and other drawing apps to, well, paper. Read more…
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iOS 8 Will Make Drawing on Your Devices Way More Intuitive
Zothecula writes “A team of researchers working at Stockholm’s KTH Royal Institute of Technology claim to have developed a way to make cellulose fibers stronger than steel on a strength-to-weight basis. In what is touted as a world first, the team from the institute’s Wallenberg Wood Science Center claim that the new fiber could be used as a biodegradable replacement for many filament materials made today from imperishable substances such as fiberglass, plastic, and metal. And all this from a substance that requires only water, wood cellulose, and common table salt to create it. The full academic paper is available from Nature Communications.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Biodegradable Fibers As Strong As Steel Made From Wood Cellulose
Material scientists have watched crystals grow atom-by-atom for the first time —which will allow incredibly fine-grained control of how their microscopic structures are grown in the future. Read more…
cartechboy writes: “One of the arguments for electric cars is that we are reducing greenhouse gases and emitting less CO2 than vehicles with an internal combustion engine. But Mazda says its next-generation SkyActiv engines will be so efficient, they’ll emit less CO2 than an electric car. In fact, the automaker goes so far as to say these new engines will be cleaner to run than electric cars. Is it possible? Yes, but it’s all about the details. It’ll depend on the test cycles for each region. Vehicles are tested differently in Europe than in the U.S., and that variation could make all the difference when it comes to these types of claims. At the end of the day whether future Mazdas with gasoline-powered engines are cleaner than electric cars or not, every little bit in the effort to reduce our carbon emissions per mile is a step in the right direction, right?” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Mazda Says Its Upcoming Gas-Powered Cars Will Emit Less CO2 Than Electric Cars
Researchers in Japan have developed an incredibly thin wire—just half a micrometer in diameter—made from a new composite material composed of traditional copper and those new fangled carbon nanotubes . But what makes this creation particularly awesome is that the new wire allows over 100 times more current to flow than a traditional copper thread. Read more…
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Tiny Copper and Carbon Nanotube Wires Increase Current Flow 100 Fold