this one seems pretty cool - a material lighter-than-air
http://news.yahoo.com/worlds-lightest-solid-takes-inspiration-eiffel-tower-134809070.html
i wonder why they have to hold it up with a dandelion, though - lol
Farabi will like this one...
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/texas-scientist-makes-strands-invisibility-cloak-172115865.html
QuoteThe metal, which is about 100 times lighter than styrofoam, is the world's lightest material, according to a press release by the team.
QuoteA metallic lattice of hair-thin pipes is now the lightest solid yet created — less dense than air, scientists revealed.
QuoteNext, Schaedler and his colleagues etched away the photopolymer with lye, leaving behind a lattice of hollow nickel-phosphorus struts each 100- to 500-microns wide,
Either these "scientists" are just more con artists, or there is an idiot involved in the translation, or both.
:dazzled: I dont believed it. Something like that really do exist. Yeah, glass can absorb photon and deflect it, also water, but making one from a solid material?? Damn, I left behind for a century.
It cost only 80 bucks here for a microscope with 1000 times magnifying in here. Its from Korea, but when Im going to bought it, it sold out. Damn. I bet the price would gone high if they realized many people need that. Mass produce would be useless.
you can probably obtain a good used microscope :U
The interesting thing about these "Small" discoverys is each "May" be the base building block for something really BIG. I remember watching a program on PBS (about early 80's) that traced the origins of major breakthroughs.something as minor as Beer,did indeed contribute to major breakthroughs. That was a great show,and made me aware that every small discovery is a building block to major advances in technology.
I think I found the program on utube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcSxL8GUn-g
Here is the basic premis of the show.
Premise: An absorbing 10-part series on technological interdependence in which science editor James Burke--covering 12,000 years and visiting more than 30 countries--traces the development of `things that surround [us] in the modern world.' He looks at such advances as the plow and electricity, and makes `connections' between such disparate topics as ancient gold assayers and the A-bomb; and 5th-century shepherds and computers. There were a number of follow-up series on the Learning Channel in the '90s.
very nice link :U
that guy, James Burke, has a nice youtube channel...
http://www.youtube.com/user/JamesBurkeWeb