Neat. :nerd:
http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/innovation/strong-titanium-cheap-dirt-new-steel-alloy-shines-n301226
QuoteStrong as Titanium, Cheap as Dirt: New Steel Alloy Shines
The strength of steel is proverbial, but that doesn't mean it can't be improved. It's heavy, after all, and there are stronger metals out there. But researchers in South Korea have created an alloy that's as strong as titanium, lighter than ordinary steel, and cheap to boot. The new alloy, described in the journal Nature, is created by allying the steel with aluminum — this lightens the steel, but also makes it weak. To counter that weakness, the team added a dash of manganese and a sprinkle of nickel, while modifying the way the metal crystals form at the nanometer scale. This new alloy has no flashy name just yet but is referred to as High Specific Strength Steel. It has an even better strength-to-weight ratio than the far more expensive titanium.
This may bring steel back to industries where light, strong materials have become key, in particular the manufacturing of cars and planes. There's already interest in getting HSSS to the production line, so you may expect to see it (or ride in it) within the next few years.
Steel isn't strong, boy. Flesh is stronger.
But at least you can trust it.
In other noteworthy materials science, I seem to have missed this last year. Sweet :)
http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/innovation/lab-accident-yields-ultra-strong-material-recycles-cleanly-n105686
QuoteLab Accident Yields Ultra-Strong Material That Recycles Cleanly
By Devin Coldewey
Plastics. That was the famously anticlimactic word that failed to captivate Dustin Hoffman in "The Graduate."
And indeed, it's a bit hard to get excited about a science in which the best stuff was invented half a century ago. But a serendipitous accident in an IBM Research lab (also straight out of the movies) may be turning the world of plastics, gels and polymers on its head with a super-strong, super-light, and super-recyclable new material. It may soon find its way into everything from airplane wings to spacecraft.
Polymers, long chains of small, strongly-bonded molecules called monomers, are everywhere, from the kitchen to the International Space Station. But all the cool, unique materials were invented what seems like ages ago: Nylon in the '30s, Styrofoam in the '40s, polypro in the '50s, and so on.
"It's really considered quite a mature field," said James Hedrick, head of IBM's materials lab. The last big jump, he estimated, not counting tweaks to make something less toxic or more flexible, was at General Electric in the early '80s.
That is, until a good old-fashioned "absent-minded professor" lab accident resulted in a new family of materials.
IBM researcher Jeannette Garcia forgot to add a component to a fairly straightforward polymerization reaction, but instead of blending into a toxic slurry, it formed a polymer — and to everyone's surprise, a very strong one.
"I couldn't even get it out of the flask. I had to break the glass with a hammer," Garcia recalls. "The polymer actually survived the glass breaking, so I hit it with the hammer, and it didn't seem to break. I thought, 'Hmm, there could be something to this.'"
What they discovered when they studied the material further astounded them.
"It's stronger than existing thermosetting plastics by about threefold," explained Garcia. "Even without reinforcement, we're reaching 14 gigapascal's on Young's Modulus."
That's the standard test for strength, by the way: Take a thin slice of a material, be it plastic wrap or aircraft-grade aluminum, suspend it and apply force to the middle, and see when it gives way. Fourteen gigapascals surpasses the score of bone (a benchmark historically) and approaches steel.
Garcia described the material and process in a paper appearing in this week's issue of Science.
IBM's "computational chemistry" techniques also revealed that there was a hidden, stable precursor to the material, meaning it could be further tweaked and added to. Cure the stuff at high temperature and it's rigid enough to serve in aerospace. Cure it at low temperature and you get an "organogel" that sticks to itself, healing gaps and scratches.
But the biggest surprise was yet to come. Both these materials (nicknamed "Titan" and "Hydro" at the lab) can be reduced to their component monomers, the tiny molecules strung together to make the polymers, by incredibly simple methods. Titan disappears in strong acid, and Hydro in ordinary water.
The greatest asset of such super-strong materials is generally also their greatest liability: Nothing affects them.
"They have incredibly great stability — mechanical, chemical, thermal — but it kind of goes in tension with the idea of recyclability," explained Tim Long, a professor of chemistry at Virginia Tech. "If you're going to reduce it back to monomers, that demands that the molecule be unstable."
So for decades, you've had to choose: strength or reusability? The question is not a simple one at, for example, Boeing or NASA, where expensive, high-performance materials must be made to astronomical levels of precision — and if they deviate a tiny bit, or take the slightest damage, they must be discarded.
That's no longer necessary, as IBM has proven. "We can begin as scientists to design molecules that are incredibly tough, incredibly durable, but still recyclable," enthused Long. "Those things don't have to be in tension."
We can have our cake and recycle it too, in other words. Simply showing it's possible may set off a rush of research to make the new, cheaper, more eco-friendly shopping bag or water bottle.
So what can't this wonder material do? Well, you probably won't have it in your kitchen, for one thing. Titan isn't the kind of thing you wrap your extra asparagus in — more like structure reinforcement for a moon lander or the body of a military drone. Hydro's tendency to form little capsules full of whatever fluid it's formed in might find it a spot in cosmetics, but that's still a ways off, too.
What had Long, Hedrick and Garcia excited wasn't the materials they have now, but the ones yet to come. Titan and Hydro aren't just better versions of existing polymers — a slightly lighter kevlar or more transparent PET — they're the first fruits of an entirely new process. In a world where the best methods have been around for the better part of a century, the importance of such a discovery to industry is hard to estimate — but its impact on the Earth's ecosystem may be even greater.
Quote"It's stronger than existing thermosetting plastics by about threefold," explained Garcia. "Even without reinforcement, we're reaching 14 gigapascal's on Young's Modulus."
:nerd: This is all very cool, the new metal and plastic discoveries.
I am still waiting for transparent aluminum to appear :)
Quote from: Monoriu on February 06, 2015, 10:38:34 AM
I am still waiting for transparent aluminum to appear :)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium_oxynitride
Timmay, you got me at "nanometer scale".
What about Graphene?
Quote from: Siege on February 06, 2015, 10:44:10 AM
What about Graphene?
Unlimited possibilities
http://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/wonder-material-graphene-just-getting-started-researchers-say-n236766
Quote'Wonder Material' Graphene Is Just Getting Started, Researchers Say
By Devin Coldewey
It makes batteries charge faster and last longer. It can detect light better than the best sensors. It could lead to flexible, impossibly thin touchscreens, super-strong composites and implantable electronics. It's called graphene, and although physicists have known about it for almost 70 years, it's only now that the wonder material is set to make a big debut.
Graphene, a lattice of carbon atoms so thin that it's referred to as "two-dimensional," is at the heart of dozens of advances in as many branches of technology.
"Almost every week there is a lab or university that has some amazing result or prototype," said Andrea Ferrari, graphene researcher at Cambridge University and chairman of the executive board at the European Union's billion-euro Graphene Flagship project.
That's no exaggeration: In October alone, researchers showed that it could enable transparent, nontoxic brain implants, a powerful new tool for analyzing DNA, and stretchable batteries for use in flexible devices.
"There is such an array of interesting properties, and so many possible applications, it is almost a duty to investigate it," Ferrari said.
But perfect, unbroken, single-atom-thick sheets are the most difficult and expensive to create. The race is on now, not to find new uses for the material, but a way to make it without breaking the bank.
Old idea, new material
Graphene may be new to the average Joe, but physicists have long known about it — the flat honeycomb structure is a natural configuration that carbon atoms assume under certain conditions — like carbon fibers or "Buckyballs." In fact, the graphite we call pencil lead is billions of layers of graphene, a fact that led to a "eureka" moment in 2004.
Andre Geim and Kostya Novoselov of the University of Manchester managed to isolate a sheet of graphene simply by putting some graphite between pieces of Scotch tape and pulling it apart a few times. They announced this faintly comical (but effective) method ten years ago last month, and their follow-up work establishing a number of graphene's remarkable properties won them the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics.
They also set off a veritable frenzy of studies as researchers tested the real-world properties of this long-theorized material. The possibilities multiplied:
"The great thing is it's like any other nanomaterial, you can tune it, you can change the dimensions of it — and on top of that, it's carbon-based," said Danielle Buckley, an expert in physical chemistry with the American Chemical Society. Many other useful materials are also toxic, building up in our bodies or in the soil when discarded — but carbon? We're made out of it!
The trouble is that you can't meet global demand with pencil lead and scotch tape.
Supply and demand
"When a new material is being produced, it takes 20 to 40 years before it is in everyday use," explained Ferrari. "But the clock is ticking."
Graphene is facing growing pains just as every amazing new material does: it was a long time before nylon, polypropylene, kevlar, and carbon fiber were used anywhere but heavy industry.
Even now there are thousands of tons of graphene being produced, but there is no one best way to make it, as there might be for a simpler, less exotic material.
"You can do it chemically, or by putting some graphite in a liquid solution and using sound waves to break it apart, then there's what's basically a super-powerful blender," explained Buckley. Each method has its merits: speed, cost, volume — but also its drawbacks: small or flawed sheets, toxic byproducts.
Fortunately, even the tiniest bits of graphene can be used — recycled into larger patchwork pieces, suspended in a liquid to give it special properties, or used as a powder-like conductive coating. And a whole industry is being created from scratch to handle the material and its byproducts. One of the biggest projects attempting to get a jump on that is the EU's Graphene Flagship.
Flagship and beyond
"The Graphene Flagship is a ten-year program, and this week is the first year anniversary," explained Ferrari. A billion euros are scheduled to be doled out — a little now, more later as the industry becomes more established.
"By the end of the ten years, we hope to have products on the market," he said, likely first in strong, conductive polymers and then in advanced sensors.
If that sounds like a long time, remember that graphene is still a baby, even compared to other nanomaterials. There's a lot of work to be done.
There are the challenges of competition and manufacturing as well as questions regarding long-term environmental and health effects — which the Flagship and graphene programs around the world are also investigating.
But even as they settle down to bring graphene to your living room, scientists are hard at work on the next next big thing.
"There are 500 or more materials that are layered like graphene so you can extract a 2-D flake," said Ferrari. "Anywhere they say graphene studies, they always mean graphene and related 2-D materials. In fact, some of the work being done right now is to mix them."
In other words, no matter how you look at it, we're just getting started.
"We don't want to claim that we're going to solve all of humanity's problems," cautioned Ferrari, "but we are in for a very interesting next ten years."
First published November 4th 2014, 10:51 am
What's the next tech level to research after this? :P
Quote from: 11B4V on February 06, 2015, 11:34:54 AM
What's the next tech level to research after this? :P
Sexbots
Pretty sure those are already being researched.
I don't think we want our sexbots to made out of titanium. Or even graphene.
Quote from: Valmy on February 06, 2015, 12:01:41 PM
Pretty sure those are already being researched.
Convert a city's Elvis to a scientist.
Quote from: 11B4V on February 06, 2015, 11:34:54 AM
What's the next tech level to research after this? :P
As the Powerful Argue AI Ethics, Might Superintelligence Arise on the Fringes?
By Jason Dorrier
ON Jan 31, 2015
Last year, Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking admitted they were concerned about artificial intelligence. While undeniably brilliant, neither are AI researchers. Then this week Bill Gates leapt into the fray, also voicing concern—even as a chief of research at Microsoft said advanced AI doesn't worry him. It's a hot topic. And hotly debated. Why?
In part, it's because tech firms are pouring big resources into research. Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and others are making rapid advances in machine learning—a technique where programs learn by interacting with large sets of data.
But it's here that a critical distinction should be made. Machine learning is what's called 'narrow artificial intelligence'. Machine learning programs that can identify discrete features in images, for example, are being used to analyze images of tissue for the presence of cancer. Those Amazon and Netflix recommendation systems are a form of narrow AI. Google search learns from its interactions with users to improve search results.
The debate Musk, Hawking, and Gates are wading into is about the future of AI (just how futuristic is also controversial) when general AI emerges. General artificial intelligence would match and then (maybe very quickly) exceed human intelligence. It is, in fact, an old and oft-recurring debate with newly fresh legs.
In his book Superintelligence, released last year, Nick Bostrom argues that there are good reasons to believe artificial superintelligence could be very alien, very powerful, and as it seeks to achieve its goals, could wipe human beings out.
Bostrom goes on to say that AI, ironically, may offer the best safeguard.
We aren't smart enough to train an AI—but it could train itself. "The idea is to leverage the superintelligence's intelligence, to rely on its estimates of what we would have instructed it to do."
Though most experts agree artificial intelligence research should be pursued carefully—and in fact, many also believe general AI may emerge this century—Bostrom's argument isn't universally accepted. And we won't resolve the debate here. But it's the weekend, so maybe a sci-fi short film on the topic would be more entertaining.
Director Henry Dunham's "The Awareness" summons up dark visions of Skynet and Terminator. And it notes that while the powerful publicly debate ethics and safety, they can't prevent or control advances being made on the fringes. That's the beauty and terror of democratized digital technology. Set in a dark and grimy warehouse, the offices of a struggling tech startup, the lead programmer sums it up when he says: "I created the future on a $30 table."
http://singularityhub.com/2015/01/31/as-the-powerful-argue-ai-ethics-might-superintelligence-arise-on-the-fringes/ (http://singularityhub.com/2015/01/31/as-the-powerful-argue-ai-ethics-might-superintelligence-arise-on-the-fringes/)
Quote from: Ed Anger on February 06, 2015, 12:03:54 PM
Quote from: Valmy on February 06, 2015, 12:01:41 PM
Pretty sure those are already being researched.
Convert a city's Elvis to a scientist.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlTIk80uBPg#t=359
Quote from: Tonitrus on February 06, 2015, 12:03:41 PM
I don't think we want our sexbots to made out of titanium. Or even graphene.
Graphene would do.
Better than silicon.
If it's superintelligent why wouldn't it keep humans around as sex slaves?
Our sexbots need to be programmable brains inside human bodies grown in vats.
Damn the future is going to be so fucked up.
Quote from: Valmy on February 06, 2015, 12:19:18 PM
Our sexbots need to be programmable brains inside human bodies grown in vats.
Damn the future is going to be so fucked up.
Star Trek Holodeck-like technology would work better than physical sexbots. No gooey fake flesh or broken silicon parts. Just nice, clean force fields.
Quote from: Tonitrus on February 06, 2015, 12:26:24 PM
Quote from: Valmy on February 06, 2015, 12:19:18 PM
Our sexbots need to be programmable brains inside human bodies grown in vats.
Damn the future is going to be so fucked up.
Star Trek Holodeck-like technology would work better than physical sexbots. No gooey fake flesh or broken silicon parts. Just nice, clean force fields.
Garbon disapproves.
Yeah, but he is gay. They don't have all the heterosexual relationship hangups that make automated sex so appealing.
Quote from: Tonitrus on February 06, 2015, 12:31:37 PM
Yeah, but he is gay. They don't have all the heterosexual relationship hangups that make automated sex so appealing.
What with the ability to have automated sex at any given moment.
Don't try and undermine my hyperbole with your sarcasm. :mad:
I don't undermine; I underline. :yeah:
Quote from: Tonitrus on February 06, 2015, 12:26:24 PM
Quote from: Valmy on February 06, 2015, 12:19:18 PM
Our sexbots need to be programmable brains inside human bodies grown in vats.
Damn the future is going to be so fucked up.
Star Trek Holodeck-like technology would work better than physical sexbots. No gooey fake flesh or broken silicon parts. Just nice, clean force fields.
Before that, Oculus Rift's virtual reality will allow for cyber sex to go to the next level.
VR seems to be maturing as a technology. There are companies planning to work entirely in a VR enviroment (google and facebook). This would be revolutionary, the moment people start to use VR as the next computer interface, replacing the monitor-keyboard-mouse trinity.
Carpel tunnel would be vanquished forever!
Virtual reality was already a joke more than 20 years ago.
Beneath A Steel Sky: "Virtual reality? Not that old turkey!"
Sam & Max Hit the Road: "This is virtual reality? I may be sick."
Quote from: The Brain on February 06, 2015, 01:37:43 PM
Virtual reality was already a joke more than 20 years ago.
Beneath A Steel Sky: "Virtual reality? Not that old turkey!"
Sam & Max Hit the Road: "This is virtual reality? I may be sick."
What you mean? You haven't seen what VR can do these days?
Google Oculus Rift. Microsoft has Hololens, but that one is more enhanced reality than VR, somewhere between the Oculus and Google Glass.
Quote from: The Brain on February 06, 2015, 01:37:43 PM
Virtual reality was already a joke more than 20 years ago.
Beneath A Steel Sky: "Virtual reality? Not that old turkey!"
Sam & Max Hit the Road: "This is virtual reality? I may be sick."
What I mean is, people made fun of cars at the beginning, slower and pricier than horse carriages. Look at the roads today.
Same with VR.
All technologies have maturation process.
It disturbs me that my faith and confidence in technology to solve the worlds problems has me aligned with Siege so much.
Quote from: Valmy on February 06, 2015, 01:48:55 PM
It disturbs me that my faith and confidence in technology to solve the worlds problems has me aligned with Siege so much.
Same
Oh well. You can always go and be a fuckin caveman believing all kinds of millennial fairy tales.
The entire history of mankind is the history of technological development, and our destiny is to conquer not our little solar system, not even our galaxy, but the entire fuckin universe.
Well, not literally. Post singularity civs don't need to conquer. They don't have the economic or ideological motivation to expand. But at least we will explore the universe, in our invisible nanoscale starships, crewed by a single AI, most likely an uploaded human mind, enhanced of course.
Quote from: Siege on February 08, 2015, 03:27:57 AM
Oh well. You can always go and be a fuckin caveman believing all kinds of millennial fairy tales.
The entire history of mankind is the history of technological development, and our destiny is to conquer not our little solar system, not even our galaxy, but the entire fuckin universe.
Well, not literally. Post singularity civs don't need to conquer. They don't have the economic or ideological motivation to expand. But at least we will explore the universe, in our invisible nanoscale starships, crewed by a single AI, most likely an uploaded human mind, enhanced of course.
When Siege posts like this, I can't tell whether he is abandoning his moron schtick, or taking it to a new level. :D
Quote from: grumbler on February 08, 2015, 03:12:39 PM
When Siege posts like this, I can't tell whether he is abandoning his moron schtick, or taking it to a new level. :D
It's both at once.
You know what was stronger than Titanium last night? My Neurontin fueled erection.
Quote from: Ed Anger on February 08, 2015, 06:48:09 PM
You know what was stronger than Titanium last night? My Neurontin fueled erection.
Man of steel, woman of kleenex.
Oh shit, Man of Steel. Now I get it.
Those dudes in unhollywood need to become more open in their sexuallity.