Applied Physics

Spider-Man Webbing: How Many Calories Does It Take To Produce All That Silk?

Spider-Man's breakfasts must be unreal levels of eggs. warriorpoet By Mark Lorch, University of Hull While stuck in a hotel room I got sucked into watching the 2002 "Spider-Man" movie. And it struck me that Peter Parker must have an enormou ...

Article - The Conversation - Jan 28 2015 - 3:01pm

Ultralight Material Can Hold 100,000 Times Its Own Weight

By: Marsha Lewis, Inside Science (Inside Science TV) – They may look flimsy, but the materials printed with 3-D printing technology are one-of-a-kind, light-weight and super-strong. Materials engineers at LLNL have created a material with a special 3-D pr ...

Article - Inside Science - Feb 5 2015 - 1:01pm

DIY Super Selfie Stick

My wife bought me a “ selfie-stick ” (sometimes called Wand of Narcissus), which is ironic since I so rarely actually take selfies. But, once I took a look at its simplicity of design, I couldn’t leave well enough alone and decided to create the “Super Se ...

Article - Steve Schuler - Feb 3 2015 - 8:00pm

Turing Patterns At The Nanoscale

The world of single atoms and molecules may seem to be governed by chaotic fluctuations, but a team of researchers has found that the spontaneous formation of Turing patterns- responsible for the irregular yet periodic shapes of the stripes on zebras' ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 7 2015 - 8:30am

Shamsheer: Indian Sword Is A Masterpiece Of Bladesmithing

Indian swords don't get a lot of cultural respect compared to the works of Spain or Japan but a new study used two different approaches to analyze a shamsheer, a 75-centimeter-long sword from the Wallace Collection in London, and found that it was mas ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 10 2015 - 11:36am

Making Safer Lithium-Ion Batteries

A nonflammable electrolyte may bring us safer lithium-ion batteries.  “With current lithium batteries safety is engineered through the battery management system,” says Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory researcher Nitash Balsara, co-founder of Blue Curr ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 10 2015 - 1:53pm

In Gas Turbines, Some Cracks Are A Good Thing

Gas turbines are used for the production of electricity and in aircraft engines and they are sprayed with a surface coating to increase their lifespan. The coating consists of two layers, one of metal to protect against oxidation and corrosion, and one cer ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 11 2015 - 9:00am

Acoustic Power: The Surprising Efficiency Improvements In The Violin Over Time

Some of the most prized violins in the world were crafted in the Italian workshops of Amati, Stradivari, and Guarneri in the 17th and 18th centuries. They produced increasingly powerful instruments in the renaissance and baroque musical eras. This Cremones ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 10 2015 - 10:12pm

Ultra-High-Frequency Radio Waves Mean A New High-Power Microwave Generator

High-powered microwave devices are designed to transfer energy to targets via ultra-high-frequency radio waves, in civil applications, such as radar and communication systems, heating and current drive of plasmas in fusion devices, and acceleration in high ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 11 2015 - 11:30am

Erector Set Magnetic Optical Mount For Laser Pointer

I’ll demonstrate how to build a simple magnetic optical mount for a cat toy (laser pointer). Though it is simple—that is, there aren’t any fine tuning mechanisms one would find on an optical bench—it is, nonetheless, inexpensive and flexible enough to use ...

Article - Steve Schuler - Feb 20 2015 - 1:47pm