10 USES FOR CARBON NANOTUBES

10 Uses for Carbon Nanotubes
By Julian Taub, Tech News Daily, 30 December 2012.

Carbon nanotubes, miniscule pipes of rolled up carbon atoms, have amazing properties that have taken the world by storm. They are currently being integrated into hundreds of different applications, from green tech to clothing and medicine. Here’s a peak at some uses for this wonder material.

10. Biosensors a.k.a. ‘Nano-noses’

Credit: Monika Wisniewska | Shutterstock

Carbon nanotubes can be modified with protein receptors or DNA that pick up faint traces of chemical. Once the receptor interacts with the chemical, a current surges down the nanotube, identifying the target. It can be used to sniff bombs, search for toxins in the air and water, or be used to test whether someone has skin cancer by checking for a chemical called dimethylsulfone. [More information]

9. Synthetic Muscles

Credit: Ociacia | Shutterstock

They’re strong, they’re elastic, and they have amazing electrical properties. Researchers have created a carbon nanotube aerogel that expands and contracts as it converts electricity into chemical energy. Carbon nanotubes are suitable for artificial muscles since they retain their shape after being compressed thousands of times, in a similar way that soft tissue does. However, in aerogel form the tubes have an extra property: they grow denser under stress, like weight lifting does to your natural muscles. The nanotube muscle can also operate in extreme environments if need be, which could allow them to be used in space.

8. Gecko Tape

Image showing gecko clinging to mussel shell. Geckel adhesive combines the wet adhesive properties of mussel adhesive proteins with the dry adhesive strategy of the gecko.

Geckos climb up smooth surfaces due to the tiny hairs on their feet exploiting the electrostatic force between themselves and the wall. Carbon nanotubes are used in a gecko-inspired tape that sticks to dry smooth surfaces when pressed against them. The tape is amazingly sturdy: Geckos cling on with over 2,000 pounds of force per square foot. The nano-tape quadruples that force. Not only may you be able to climb buildings one day like Spiderman, but you will never have to deal with annoying, sticky tape residue again.

7. Better Displays

From flat screens, to LEDs to flexible displays, nanotubes will increase your viewing pleasure and portability. These tiny pipes of carbon make excellent field emitters or conductive surfaces. They use less energy, are sturdier, and if your machine happens to heat up (which probably won’t happen because they’re amazing heat sinks as well) you’re device won’t even break down. In 2008, Samsung unveiled the first carbon nanotube ‘e-paper’ display, which needs no backlighting. Researchers at the University of Cambridge have also demonstrated a 3D hologram projected by carbon nanotube optical field emitters.

6. Bone Scaffolding

Credit: Praisaeng | Shutterstock

Carbon nanotubes are perfect for allowing damaged bone to restructure itself: they’re strong, lightweight, and can be modified for compatibility with any part of the body. Carbon nanotubes may also help reduce inflammation in broken bone, some studies suggest. Research in Italy last year even used carbon nanotubes to allow the growing back of broken spinal vertebrae in mice.

5. Cell Therapy

Credit: wavebreakmedia | Shutterstock

Modified carbon nanotubes can enter cells and deliver drugs or knock out unwanted genes. Recently, in a cross-collaboration between researchers in France and England, Alberto Bianco and Kosta Kostarelos used modified nanotubes to control the damage created by a stroke. “We have demonstrated that animals could recover their functions after a stroke thanks to the silencing of a gene following intracranial injection of siRNA complexed to carbon nanotubes,” Bianco said. ”The surprise was the efficacy of the system as we could use a very low amount of carbon nanotubes.” [More information here and here]

4. Supercapacitors

Credit: ludinko | Shutterstock

Using carbon nanotubes as the electrodes in capacitors provides more current and better electrical and mechanical stability than other leading materials. The surface area of the tubes also gives them an edge: the energy is stored anywhere and everywhere along the tube, not only at the ends, like in a conventional capacitor. Research labs have been working both in Stanford and MIT to create carbon nanotube ultracapacitors that could replace or rival batteries for cars.

3. Improves Efficiency

Carbon nanotubes are added to increase conductivity in films, but it also increases the organization and useable surface area in countless materials, giving them a greater energy gain while protecting against power surges. A tiny addition of nanotubes (about 1 percent of the weight of the entire material) can increase a products efficiency drastically, whether solar cells, plastics, fuel cells or electric generators.

2. Structural Support

In this file photo, Pfc. Kenneth Closs, right, and Staff Sgt. Demetreus Perez, left, both from Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment, walk on a dismounted patrol near Forward Operation Base Lane in the Zabul Province of Afghanistan, earlier this year.

Carbon nanotubes have been added to strengthen materials for sports equipment, body armour, vehicles, rockets, and building materials. The nanotube create networks within the composite material to bear the load of the weight and strain placed upon it. However, that’s not all the tube can be used for. The University of Delaware’s Centre for Composite Materials received a grant from the National Science Foundation to research using carbon nanotubes as a ‘smart skin’ to sense changes in a structure’s integrity.

1. Water and Oil Purifiers

Credit: nikkytok | Shutterstock

Its size, surface area (500 square meter per gram), and adsorption properties make carbon nanotubes an ideal membrane for filtering toxic chemicals, dissolved salts and biological contaminants from water. This technology can help bring clean water and raise the quality of life for millions of people in poorer countries around the world, and also help extract drinking water from the ocean. Seldon Technologies, a Vermont start-up, has created Nanomesh a carbon nanotube filtration system that they are trying to distribute all over the world. The filtration complies with EPA water-drinking standard. It has also been field tested in both Zambia and Bangladesh.

[Source: Tech News Daily. Edited. Top image and some links added.]

[The Nanotube Site]

Related Post: 8 Incredible Nanotechnologies That Actually Exist Today

8 MOST MIND-BLOWING 3-D PRINTED OBJECTS OF 2012

The Most Mind-Blowing 3-D Printed Objects Of 2012
By Clay Dillow, Popular Science, 31 December 2012.

It was a huge year for 3-D printing technology, which touched everything from sports to chemistry to firearms.

Advances in 3-D fabrication enabled some amazing feats of design and ingenuity this year: on-demand running shoes, labware, even body parts.

As with any ground-breaking technology, controversy arose, whether it was over a 3-D printed key that can crack open handcuffs or a 3-D printed firearm that could give average Joes on-demand access to guns - no five-day waiting period required.

But even the projects that raised ethical questions or exposed our legal framework to gaping grey areas are, in their own ways, technological triumphs - proof of 3-D printing’s vast potential and popular momentum. Frankly, we can’t wait to see what 2013 has in store for us. Until then, click though the gallery below for a quick spin through the best and most mind-blowing 3-D printed objects we saw in 2012.

1. A Lighter, Swifter Running Shoe That's 'Designed To Win'

“Designed to Win” is the brand name of French engineering and design student Luc Fusaro’s 3-D-printed running shoe. It’s also an apt descriptor of this custom-fabricated concept that can theoretically shave 3.5 percent off a sprinter’s time - enough to change his or her position on the medal podium. Using a nylon polymer powder and an additive manufacturing process known as selective laser sintering, Fusaro can turn a 3-D scan of an athlete's foot into a custom-fitting, bare-bones athletic shoe with no extraneous material and a super-lightweight structure. The finished product weighs just 96 grams, or less than three-quarters the weight of Nike’s super-minimalist Mayfly racing shoe. By the time the summer Olympics come back around in 2016, this kind of technology could be everywhere.

2. The World's First 3-D Printed Jaw Implant

Bio-printing - the 3-D printing of biological tissues - is one of the most exciting spaces where this new kind of fabrication has seemingly limitless room to grow. And while we didn’t quite get to that 3-D printed liver or kidney that is the holy grail of bio-printing this year, we did see 3-D printing make an impact on reconstructive medical science via the first-ever 3-D fabricated jaw transplant (technically the procedure happened in 2011, but it wasn’t announced until earlier this year).

An 83-year-old European woman who had developed a chronic bone infection in her entire lower mandible had her natural jawbone swapped for a new laser-sintered titanium one custom fabricated not merely to match her biological jaw but specially designed with dimples to increase surface area and holes and grooves to promote muscle and nerve attachment. One four-hour surgery later (one-fifth the time a conventional reconstructive surgery would’ve taken) she was fitted with her brand new, custom-built jaw. She spoke her first words with it while still in post-op recovery, and went home four days later.

3. Brass Knuckles On Demand

Then there’s the...how should we put it...shadier side of 3-D printing. With the ability to more or less create anything you can design in a CAD program (limited by material and complexity, of course, though those limitations are stretching and breaking all the time), objects are bound to emerge that some people might find of dubious - or even detrimental - societal value. Like 3-D printed brass knuckles, for instance, which aren’t really brass but plastic (and still plenty painful to get decked with, we imagine). According to a Bloomberg Businessweek story, some 14-year-old future engineering geniuses are printing them just for fun. Kids these days. Let’s hope they don’t turn to making more serious weapons.

4. The 3-D Printed Handgun

And then there’s Defense Distributed, a.k.a. the Wiki Weapon Project, the initiative cooked up by a University of Texas Law student and some of his buddies to 3-D print a working firearm. The group’s Indiegogo funding campaign was shut down in the early going and 3-D printer maker Stratasys revoked the lease on Wiki Weapon’s fabricator at one point, but through Bitcoin and other technology providers they’ve managed to keep the project alive and funded.

Last we saw the Defense Distributed boys out on the range, they were firing an AR-15 rifle with a 3-D printed lower receiver - not of their own design, but one that is already available out there on the Web. They managed to get six rounds off before the plastic component broke, but they learned a bit about recoil and stress as they pertain to 3-D printed plastic in the process. These guys seem pretty serious about bringing their own, freely distributed, publicly available printable firearm design into being relatively soon, which could make 2013 an interesting year in terms of ethics and legal infrastructure that are scrambling to keep up with accelerating 3-D fabrication technologies.

5. The 3-D Printing Photo Booth Of The Future

One of the more quirky and consumer-friendly applications of 3-D technology came to us via a Japanese exhibit providing a glimpse of the photo booth of the future. Rather than providing the usual short reel of head shots, this imaging booth takes 3-D scans of visitors and then turns that data into a 3-D printed figurine. It’s you, in three dimensions.

6. Print A House, Or An Entire Neighbourhood

This one is a bit of a stretch since we didn’t actually get to see a finished product printed this year, but the concept was cool (and feasible) enough to warrant mention here. A University of Southern California professor has devised a layered fabrication method he calls Contour Crafting that he believes could be used to print entire buildings. Professor Behrokh Khoshnevis isn’t the first person to suggest 3-D printing structures like this, but his method is novel in that it would also add plumbing, electrical wiring, and other infrastructure as the structure is built, layer by layer, from the ground up. The technology could be used for rapidly-deployable emergency housing, he says, but could someday also be used to generate luxury, built-to-spec homes.

7. Labware Printed To Spec

University of Glasgow chemist Leroy Cronin was growing frustrated with the glassware in his lab. The standardized stuff often wasn’t exactly what he needed to execute an experiment the way he had designed it, and the result was less-than-perfect experimentation under less-than optimal conditions. So he teamed with a 3-D printing specialist to create what he now calls “reactionware” - 3-D printed labware fabricated from conventional silicone-based sealant (the kind you might buy at a hardware store to seal up a bathroom). Now he can print exactly the vessels he needs for any given experiment, as well as take better advantage of other technologies, like sensors that he can print right into the sidewalls of his lab containers.

8. Hacking Handcuffs With 3-D Printed Keys

At a New York hacker conference back in July, a German security consultant known only as “Ray” made something of a mockery of one of law enforcement's most important accoutrement: the handcuff. Using plastic handcuff keys that he printed from CAD files on a 3-D fabricator, he wowed the crowd be easily popping open sets of cuffs designed by multiple European security firms, highlighting the potential for foul play inherent in a technology that makes the sharing of physical objects so simple. Criminals have long made handcuff keys, but doing so required getting one's hands on an actual key and creating a duplicate in a metal shop. With 3-D printing, you just need a digital file - easily shared and duplicated. The capacity to subvert the law is but a mouse click away.

[Source: Popular Science. Edited. Top image added.]

Related Posts:

1. 8 Creepiest 3D Printed Objects

2. Objet1000: The 3-D Printer That Can Print An Entire Bike Frame

3. The Incredible World Of 3-D Printing: 10 Things To Make With Your 3-D Printer

4. Infographic: How Does 3D Printing Work?

6 OF THE BEST ECO-FRIENDLY INNOVATIONS OF 2012

6 Of The Best Eco-Friendly Innovations Of 2012
By Popular Science, 31 December 2012.

The lean, green tech machines of the year.

Here's the latest technology in the eco-universe. We have shirts that require less water in the dyeing process, a backpack that purifies water, a biofuel harvester and more.

1. Grand Award Winner: DyeCoo Textile Systems

It takes between 25 and 40 gallons of water to dye 2.2 pounds of fabric. Multiply that by the millions of T-shirts, track pants, and other textiles made each year, and you get two huge environmental problems: millions of tons of chemical-laden wastewater and depletion of freshwater.

Instead of H₂O, DyeCoo’s process uses supercritical carbon dioxide, which has fluid-like properties. The fabric absorbs nearly all the dye while generating no wastewater, and 95 percent of the CO₂ is recycled into the next batch. Plus, reduced energy and chemical use cuts production costs 30 to 50 percent. Nike, which has a partnership with DyeCoo, used it to dye an Olympic singlet for Kenyan marathoner Abel Kirui, and Adidas put its first 50,000 DryDye T-shirts on sale this summer.

H₂O savings: 100%
CO₂ savings: Up to 60% less emissions
Cost savings: 30–50%

2. Greif PackH20 Waterwear Pack

WaterWear is an elegant solution to a problem faced by millions of people: how to transport drinking water. The collapsible backpack, constructed from industrial-grade woven polypropylene, holds 5.3 gallons - slightly more than a typical jerrican, at one seventh the weight and half the carbon footprint. Plus, the pack’s clear liner can be removed and set in the sun so that UV light disinfects the contents; a spigot at the bottom eliminates the need for dipping cups, keeping the water clean. $10 donation sponsors one pack.

3. OriginOil Model 4 Algae Appliance

OriginOil created this compact unit to lower the barriers to entry for algae harvesting. The Model 4 can process one gallon of algae-rich water per minute, concentrating the algae for later conversion to biofuels and other products. In July, the company shipped the first production model to France, where an urban building complex may use it to farm algae in wastewater. Price: $35,000–$50,000.

4. Fenix ReadySet

The ReadySet portable base station can draw and store energy from a number of sources: A 15-watt solar panel charges its battery in seven hours. Next year, Fenix will release a kinetic generator, which can help a bicyclist do the same in less than an hour, along with micro hydro and wind generators. The company also released a power API and developer platform, ensuring that entrepreneurs can extend the system’s capabilities even further. Price not set.

5. Qbotix Tracking System

To optimize solar collection for both time of day and season of year, the QBotix Solbot slides along a monorail between pole-mounted photovoltaics, adjusting the tilt of each panel along two axes every 40 minutes. A pair of Solbots can replace up to 400 motors on conventional tracking systems, slashing the cost-per-energy-unit of ground-mounted solar by up to 20 percent. In 2013, the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, California, will install the first 50-kilowatt system, with two bots managing 160 panels. Price depends on project.

6. OpenROV

The open-source OpenROV is one of the simplest tools developed to foster personal underwater research, environmental monitoring and exploration. The remote-controlled submarine weighs 5.5 pounds and and costs about $500 in off-the-shelf parts. The vessel is designed to descend to 330 feet, all the while sending images to the surface over an Ethernet tether.

[Source: Popular Science. Edited. Links added.]

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC'S SPACE PICTURES THIS WEEK XLII

Space Pictures This Week: Ice “Broccoli,” Solar Storm
By National Geographic News, 31 December 2012.

Star trails streak over a salt lake, ice blooms into "broccoli," and the sun sets off sparks in this week's best space pictures.

1. Happy Trails

Photograph by Alex Cherney, TWAN

Amateur astronomer Alex Cherney captured these star trails as they blazed above Lake Tyrrell, a salt lake in Victoria, Australia in October 2011 and posted to The World At Night website December 25, 2012.

(See pictures of another Australian salt lake, Lake Eyre.)

2. Tokyo From Space

The sprawling Japanese capital Tokyo looks like a funky computer chip in this image taken by Germany's Earth-observing satellite TerraSAR-X and released December 20.

Launched in 2007, the satellite's radar sensors map Earth from 319 miles (514 kilometres) up in a near-polar orbit.

3. Extreme View

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory snapped this extreme ultraviolet view of an active region on the sun as it rotated into view from December 16 to December 18. Ultraviolet light makes it easier to trace the whorls and loops created by superheated gas, or plasma, and the sun's magnetic field lines.

Active solar regions such as this create space weather that, when aimed at Earth, can disrupt satellite communications and electronics. (See more pictures of solar activity and space weather.)

4. Saturn’s Dark Side

This image of the unlit side of Saturn's S rings, released December 24, was taken with visible light by NASA's Cassini spacecraft.

The shadow of Saturn's innermost major moon, Mimas, is visible as a black oval south of the rings' shadow. For those with completely dust-free computer monitors, Janus, another Saturnian moon, is visible as a tiny white speck above the planet's north pole. (Learn about Saturn's major moons.)

5. A River Runs Through It

The European Space Agency released this picture - taken by Japan's satellite ALOS - of Italy's longest river on December 14.

The Po river and its surrounding fields divide Italy into its northern and southern regions. The Japanese used ALOS, which they lost contact with in late April 2011, to generate precise land maps, monitor disasters, and conduct resource surveys. (Read an excerpt from National Geographic magazine about the Po river.)

6. Glacial "Broccoli"

The Moshniy glacier, located on the Russian archipelago Novaya Zemlya in the Arctic Ocean, calves chunks of ice and debris into a pattern reminiscent of broccoli in an image released December 20.

Novaya Zemlya was a sensitive military area during the Cold War, and was also the site of the most powerful nuclear device ever detonated. The energy released by the 50-megaton "Tsar" bomb was ten times that of all the explosions set off during World War II.

[Source: National Geographic News. Edited.]

THE STUNNING 1,000-YEAR-OLD WOODEN BRIDGES THAT KEEP MODERN CHINA MOVING

The 1,000-year-old wooden bridges that keep modern China moving: Stunning timber structures have withstood test of time
By James Rush, Daily Mail, 31 December 2012.

Still standing and still in every-day use - the arched wooden bridges built in China nearly 1,000 years ago demonstrate the true skill of the master craftsmen who first constructed them.

These stunning structures show how not every part of China has been altered by its remarkable rate of development.

The bridges, suspended between two banks of lush greenery and built from the wood of the trees surrounding them, are still a fully functional part of life in the Fuijan and Zhejiang provinces along China's south east coast…

Read the full article at Daily Mail.

Top image: The Yangmeizhou bridge

THE TOP 14 BUILDINGS OF 2012

The Top 14 Buildings Of 2012
By Morgan Clendaniel, Fast Co.Exist, 27 December 2012.

From a skyscraper that cleans pollution to a re-invented college dorm to a pre-fab house that comes in a shipping container, these are some of the most mind-blowing structures of 2012.

About 40% of all the energy used in the United States is consumed by buildings: lighting them, heating them, cooling them. While we innovate new, clean power sources, it’s also important that we build new offices and houses that don’t waste energy.

Visions to solve these problems include rolling skyscrapers, zero-energy houses, and totally sustainable soccer stadiums. But besides the important work of reducing energy consumption, we also saw building projects in 2012 that worked on making architecture more humane and better able to serve the people using it.

As the work environment changes, people’s houses and offices are starting to combine: What does a new live/work space look like? Can we re-invent the higher-education living experience by building a beautiful dorm that doesn’t feel like a prison? Can we make cheap housing for low-income people that doesn’t look like we’re treating them like second-class citizens?

Take a tour through some of the most exciting buildings of 2012:

1. 8 Insane Skyscrapers Of The Future

Image: eVolo

From buildings sucking water from Himalayan glaciers to round towers that let residents escape from danger, here are 10 ways that architects imagine how the quintessential urban building might look. More information >>

Related Post: 15 Mind-Boggling Next Generation Skyscrapers For A Greener Future

2. The College Dorm You Wish You Lived In

Image: Lundgaard & Tranberg

A university in Denmark has created a circular dorm that will make you incredibly frustrated at the tiny double room where you spent your college years. Bet you didn’t have french windows, balconies, and a bike workshop. More information >>

3. LiveWork: The Future Of Living Where You Work And Working Where You Live

Image: Eric Laine and Suzanne Steelman

America is changing how it works. As more people start their own entrepreneurial businesses out of their bedrooms, is it time to rethink how we divide work and living? This new home design makes space for both. More information >>

4. Brad Pitt’s Make It Right Foundation Completes Its First Frank Gehry-Designed Home In New Orleans

Image: Make It Right Foundation

With a $200,000 price tag, the stunning duplex shows that sustainability and affordability can go hand-in-hand, and will hopefully anchor a rebuilt 9th Ward. More information >>

5. An Office Designed To Keep Employees Working From Home

Image: Plantronics

The headset manufacturer Plantronics doesn’t much care where its employees work, and to prove that, its new offices are outfitted with a cornucopia of features that make telecommuting simple, easy, and encouraged. More information >>

6. Floating Housing (And Golf Courses) For Post-Climate-Change Island Paradises

Image: Dutch Docklands

A new resort development in the Maldives (currently sitting five feet above sea level) will be ready if the country starts to go underwater - the whole thing is already floating. More information >>

7. Low-Income Housing That Anyone Would Love To Live In

Image: David Baker and Partners Architects

Housing for the poor doesn’t need to be horrible. The Richardson apartments in San Francisco [USA] are offering up high-class digs in the hopes of helping to lift its residents out of poverty. More information >>

8. These Gorgeous Sustainable Pre-Fab Houses Fit In A Shipping Container

Image: Connect Homes

Just because a house is pre-fabricated doesn’t mean it’s easy to move. But Connect Homes’ innovation is to make them fit in shipping containers, so high-end green design can end up anywhere on the planet. More information >>

9. A Skyscraper That Scrubs The Air Clean

Image: CTBUH

Sitting above a congested highway, this concept building would use algae to deal with the pollution. More information >>

10. A Prefab Vertical Gym For Urban Slums

Image: Urban-Think Tank

Gyms provide activities that keep kids off the street. But in the sprawling slums of the developing world, where do you find the space to put one? This new architectural marvel stacks all the amenities you could want. More information >>

11. The World’s Largest Sculpture Will Be A 500-Foot-Tall Pyramid Of 410,000 Oil Barrels

Image: Wolfgang Volz © 1979 Christo

Christo, the legendary public artist, has been planning the sculpture called the Mastaba for decades. Is it now about to become reality outside Abu Dhabi? More information >>

Related Post: Mastaba: The Proposed History's Biggest Sculpture In Abu Dhabi Desert That Will Rival The Pyramids

12. The First Net-Zero-Energy Stadium Will Be In The Next World Cup

Image: Castro Mello Architects

In 2014 [World Cup], the world’s best soccer players will be playing in a solar-powered, pollution-eating arena. More information >>

13. In China, New Sustainable Cities Are Rising From Nothing

Image: Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture

China is planning a building explosion of dense, sustainable suburbs, connected to its megacities by public transit. Can these "prototype cities" alter the course of the country’s unsustainable development? More information >>

14. This Breathing Office Building Makes You Feel Like You’re Outside

Image: Gensler

PNC Bank’s new global HQ in Pittsburgh is going to be a skyscraper like no other - including the ability to open windows and even take a walk outdoors, no matter what floor you’re on. More information >>

Top image: Plastic Fish Tower (left) and Mountain Band-Aid (right)

[Source: Fast Co.Exist. Edited. Some images and links added.]