MEDOLOGY
- Man of Steel or Super Non-Newtonian Fluid?
- Oru – The Origami Inspired Kayak
- Tesla Motors develops creepy robotic tentacle to charge electric cars
- Check out Messner's impressive mountain-top museum
- New solar battery achieves an energy saving of 20% over regular batteries
- Neuroscientist shows how to control someone else's arm with your brain
 A few years back I watched a great documentary titled The Science of Superman and it answered a lot of questions about the man in blue. Recently I was reading about the researchers working at Moratex in Poland who invented a non-Newtonian fluid for use in complex body armor and it got me thinking. A non-Newtonian, shear thickening, or a dilatant material is one that is soft and flexible until a force is quickly applied to it. These materials are solids that have been suspended in liquid without dissolving. When stirred slowly the mixture acts like a liquid and is fluid but if you try to stir it too fast you won't be able to generate enough force to do it. Basically the faster the force is applied the harder the material becomes. Cornstarch and water is a perfect example and if any of you have attended a child's science fair you know how cool it is to play with. Dip your finger in it slowly and it acts like a liquid but hit it with a hammer and it acts like a solid! This video made by the University of Chicago explains all about Newtonian versus non-Newtonian materials and shows a cornstarch and water experiment for illustration. Since the early 2000's when the researchers in Poland began their work with non-Newtonian fluids more and more uses have been found for the technology. Patents are popping up all over the world and not just for body armor. There are way too many shear thickening fluid applications to list but here's one video that was put out by the Association of Research Libraries to give a couple of good examples of the applications that are out there. What all this means of course is that Superman's suit could have been made with fabric (perhaps Kevlar or nylon) that was impregnated with a dilatant fluid! I'm not saying that shear thickening technology answers all the questions about the power behind the Kryptonian fabric but it could explain why it's impenetrable. |
| When Oru designer and founder Anton Willis moved into a San Francisco apartment he didn't have room for his fiberglass kayak so he had to put it in storage. Having space limitations inspired him to find a solution and he began thinking of the Japanese art of origami or folded-paper. If only he could design a kayak that could easily shape-shift into its very own compact carry box. The greatness of the solution would have to be two-fold. The strength at the folds would allow the kayak's shell to double as a frame and it could be folded from a single sheet of material. A second sheet would be unfolded creating a sturdy floorboard to help reinforce the cockpit. Then it would need bulkhead panels, straps, and buckles to hold the folds together and complete the design.   In November 2012 once the final design was fully tested, Oru created a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter and the money poured in. Their financial goal of $80,000 was very quickly exceeded and since then the company has been growing their family of quality collapsible kayaks and kayak accessories.  If you're wondering how waterproof Oru kayaks are than have no fear. Willis chose a tough, resilient, abrasion resistant 2-ply corrugated polypropylene made by Coroplast. The material technology combined with the folding design makes Oru kayaks just as waterproof as any other ones on the market. There is only one seam and it's above the waterline so unless it's raining only drips and dribbles from the paddles can get in. Depending on the model, Oru's listed kayaks will only add between 26lbs and 34lbs to your load and hold up to 400lbs. When folded up they are compact enough to store in a closet, take on a plane, or pack in a car and that's pretty cool for a kayak! Oru Kayaks are safe, convenient, and fully recyclable. If you'd like to learn more about Oru kayaks and accessories visit their website at www.orukayak.com. If you like this article and want to learn more about origami inspired engineering check out these cool article links. |
| Tesla CEO Elon Musk wants their electric cars to be as convenient as a regular fueled car and a good part of this convenience is making charging the vehicle simple, so Tesla's research department showed a slightly odd solution to that. The idea is that you should be able to drive your Tesla into a automated charging station that would do everything independently without your help.  And how is it done? – One might ask – With a tentacle that looks like it came out of some sci-fi movie. The concept was actually hinted by Musk on tweeter last year when he said, "Btw, we are actually working on a charger that automatically moves out from the wall & connects like a solid metal snake. For realz." Tesla announced that the system is still only a prototype but the system design does make sense, you will never have to get out of your car and go through the hassle of charging it yourself and the tentacle is the ideal robotic design to search for the charging port in order to plug itself in. This also means that the same charger could be used for different car models without the need of any adaptation. Source: Science Alert |
| One of the greatest mountaineers in the world, the Italian Reinhold Messner, famous for being the first person to climb Mount Everest without an oxygen tank among many other adventures, is now dedicated to creating museums intended for mountaineering culture. Among the projects already undertaken by Messner, the latter has drawn the attention not only of mountaineering lovers, but also lovers of the incredible architectural design done by the famous architect Zaha Hadid.  Located 2275 meters above sea level, the Messner Mountain Museum Corones sits on top of Mount Kronplatz in Italy, and is the final project of the six mountain-top museums in the rockfaces of the Dolomites. The museum devoted to alpine history, which is already open to the public, brings together information, photographs, videos and objects collected by mountaineers during their adventures in various parts of the world. The 1000 m² building is composed of rectangular concrete blocks encrusted in the mountain. The concrete, which was chosen to give a futuristic appearance, also makes up the embedded furniture (cabinets and benches) and internal walls, which are 50 cm thick. In addition to the exhibition halls and an auditorium, the museum features outdoor terraces with panoramic views toward the city of Bolzano. Check out the breathtaking pictures of the project:            Source: Messner Mountain Museum Corones, Telegraph Images source: Zaha Hadid Architects |
| Less than a year ago, a team at the Ohio State University (OSU) in the United States lead by Professor Yiying Wu, presented a solar battery capable of capturing and storing energy. The device is a solar cell and a rechargeable battery, but has the potential to be better than the two combined.  [Credit: Kevin Fitzsimons/Ohio State University]This is possible because, in addition to collecting, converting and storing solar energy as chemical energy, the solar battery eliminates losses that occur between it's multiple components – achieving an energy saving of 20 percent. But when trying to turn this prototype into a practical solution, the researchers had a few problems: its electrolytes were made of organic solvents, not soluble in water, in addition to not being environmentally friendly. The good news is that the team has just solved this problem by replacing the organic solvents by an aqueous water solution of lithium-iodide (Li-I). Therefore, the new version is what they are calling an "aqueous solar flow battery", resulting from the combination of the Li-I battery wand the dye-sensitized solar cells. "The truly important innovation here is that we've successfully demonstrated aqueous flow inside our solar battery," Yiying Wu from Ohio State University, said in a press release. "It's also totally compatible with current battery technology, very easy to integrate with existing technology, environmentally friendly and easy to maintain."  [Credit: Kevin Fitzsimons/Ohio State University]The researchers' calculations indicate that new solar battery shows energy savings of nearly 20 percent. While the typical battery had to be charged to 3.6 volts to discharge 3.3 volts, the solar flow battery was charged to only 2.9 volts to discharge the same 3.3 volts. But the team will have to continue the research in order to reach 100 percent energy savings, which would make it a fully solar-chargeable battery. "This solar flow battery design can potentially be applied for grid-scale solar energy conversion and storage, as well as producing 'electrolyte fuels' that might be used to power future electric vehicles," one of the team, doctoral student Mingzhe Yu, said in the press release. Source: Gizmag |
| The brain is a wonderful and complex system in the human body. Still, very little is known about the brain. The neuroscientist and engineer Greg Gage is trying to change that and make neuroscience more accessible to all, including students of all educational levels.  "The brain is an amazing and complex organ. And while many people are fascinated by the brain, they can't really tell you that much about the properties about how the brain works because we don't teach neuroscience in schools." said Gage during his TED Talk presentation in Vancouver. Gage showed a modification of SpikerBox – a simple non-invasive device that can be used in high schools in order to teach student more about the electrical impulses of the nervous system. The SpikerBox was the first of many products developed by Gage's company Backyard Brains, which aims to entertain and engage children in learning about the capabilities of the brain, in order to stimulate an early interest in neuroscience. The device, which he demonstrated during his presentation, requires two volunteers and is arranged to be connected only by electrodes and a computer system that detects electrical signals and uses the brainwaves of the controlling person to cause the other one to involuntarily move their arm. As nerves are close to the skin, the process is non-invasive and as such, the device is perfectly safe for children to use and requires only self-adhesive sticky pads and conductors attached to the arms for the device to work. "One out of five of us, that's 20% of the entire world will have a neurological disorder. And there are zero cures for these diseases. And so it seems that what we should be doing is reaching back earlier in the education process and teaching students about neuroscience so that in the future they may be thinking about possibly becoming a brain scientist." Gage said. Source: TED Talks |
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