Selling Science On The Space Station

Commercial space company Nanoracks allows its customers to do advanced scientific research on the International Space Station for a fraction of the cost.

Why Graphene is the Material of the Future

The EU has pledged a billion euros for research into graphene at a consortium of institutions across the continent. The amazing material is strong, flexible, an excellent conductor of electricity and heat. Some say graphene may well revolutionize computing, telecommunications, and engineering.

Rust brings boost to solar energy potential

Using the power of sunlight, Swiss scientists are developing methods of extracting inexpensive, safely transportable, hydrogen fuel from iron oxide - commonly known as rust. The process essentially converts solar power into hydrogen, vastly increasing the potential of solar energy to serve as a viable renewable energy source across the world.

The Science behind Hyperpolyglots or Superlinguists

Imagine being able to master more than 10, 15, even 20 languages. It seems rare but these super language learners do exist. They’re called hyperpolyglots and 16x9 searched the country to bring together the most proficient linguists.

Ceramics surprise with durable dryness

Coatings that repel water are found in myriad applications — they keep car windscreens clear in storms, for example, and ensure that rainswept hikers stay snug and dry. But they quickly wear away in harsh environments, such as the insides of power-station turbines, where condensation reduces efficiency. As a result, engineers are eager to get their hands on tough materials that are intrinsically hydrophobic.

Now they can, following the discovery that a well-known family of durable ceramics can repel water. That is surprising because most ceramics are hydrophilic. When water meets a ceramic such as aluminium oxide, the water’s oxygen atoms share some of their electrons with vacant electron orbitals on the aluminium atoms, and the oxygens in the ceramic share their electrons with hydrogen in the water. This binds the two together.

But what if a ceramic failed to accept electrons from water? Then the ceramic might actually be hydrophobic, reasoned Kripa Varanasi, a materials scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge. He looked to the oxides of the lanthanides — the row of metals nestled almost at the bottom of the periodic table, from cerium to lutetium. The lanthanides’ empty orbitals are buried beneath shells of other electrons, which should make them much less attractive to water’s oxygen, thought Varanasi.

Proving that sometimes the simplest experiments are the best, he and his colleagues tested the idea by making small ceramic discs of the oxides of all the lanthanides except radioactive promethium. The team then dropped water onto the pellets and watched what happened.

Every single one repelled the liquid. When water condensed on to the discs, it did so in neat droplets rather than the films that would form on non-hydrophobic materials such as silicon. And cerium oxide — the cheapest and most widely available of the lanthanide oxides — remained hydrophobic even after a two-hour sauna at 1,000 °C, or a thorough grinding with abrasive silicon carbide.

“Superomniphobic” nanoscale coating repels almost any liquid

A team of engineering researchers at the University of Michigan has developed a nanoscale coating that causes almost all liquids to bounce off surfaces treated with it. Creating a surface structure that is least 95 percent air, the new “superomniphobic” coating is claimed to repel the broadest range of liquids of any material in its class, opening up the possibility of super stain-resistant clothing, drag-reducing waterproof paints for ship hulls, breathable garments that provide protection from harmful chemicals, and touchscreens resistant to fingerprint smudges.

Made up of a mixture of rubbery plastic particles of “polydimethylsiloxane” (PDMS) and liquid-resisting nanoscale cubes containing carbon, fluorine, silicon and oxygen, the coating is applied to surfaces using a technique known as electrospinning, which uses an electric charge to create fine solid particles from a liquid solution. These solid particles that hug the pore structure of the surface it is applied to and create a finer web within those pores.

Smart clothes for the future

In the future, it seems everything will be smart. We’ve got smart homes, smart cars and smart phones. It’s time for our clothes to grow a brain too.

Michio Kaku: The Universe in a Nutshell

What if we could find one single equation that explains every force in the universe? Dr. Michio Kaku explores how physicists may shrink the science of the Big Bang into an equation as small as Einstein’s “e=mc^2.” Thanks to advances in string theory, physics may allow us to escape the heat death of the universe, explore the multiverse, and unlock the secrets of existence. While firing up our imaginations about the future, Kaku also presents a succinct history of physics and makes a compelling case for why physics is the key to pretty much everything.

Music for the deaf

It sounds impossible: music for the deaf. But that odd sounding concept is exactly what Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra are trying to achieve. Scientific studies show that, under the right conditions, the brains of deaf people show a similar enjoyment of music to the brains of people who can hear perfectly well.

Scientists use urine to make stem cells

Chinese scientists from the Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health have converted cells found in urine into pluripotent stem cells that can be used to create neurons and brain cells. The researchers say the find holds huge potential for the rapid testing and development of new treatments for neuro-degenerative disorders.