Be sure to visit this top Video Lectures site. , a true centre of excellence in Learning, online and free to all, an open University for students of post high school, graduate, and post grad. Make it one of your Life-Long Centres of Education.
A full range of subject matter both at basic elementary university and advanced level lectures and courses are freely available.
The link has been added to the side bar "Materials Science & Eng. Free Online Journals-Resources."
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Science, Technology, and Society and much more @ MIT OPEN COURSES-Free online
Science, Technology, and Society and much more @ MIT OPEN COURSES-Free online
This was a timely find via twitter search on "Materials Science".
On the principle of "Don't keep a good thing to you" I rushed to share this new and easy to reference presentation of MIT OPEN COURSES-(ie. Free online).
The MIT site spans the full scientific and cultural field an as such may prove to be an indispensable continuous learning tool for students and perhaps even more so for professional Materials Scientists, Technologists and Engineers since their careers evolve and their responsibilities increase in our complex and information abundant world.
An easey access link has been added to Materials Science Free online Resources scroll down the vertical side bar menu.
By a happy coincidence, it so happens that I am currently reading the significance of technology and entreprise in The Industrial Revolution in Great Britain by Roland Marx in French (La revolution industrielle en Grande Bretagne Ed Armand Colin). I expect to find more and more parallels with the current day Industrial and Economic situations (Hindsights-Foresights the focus of my newer management pages This-Above-All
Reference (en référence à ): Free Online MIT Course Materials | Science, Technology, and Society | MIT OpenCourseWare (afficher sur-read on- Google Sidewiki)On the principle of "Don't keep a good thing to you" I rushed to share this new and easy to reference presentation of MIT OPEN COURSES-(ie. Free online).
The MIT site spans the full scientific and cultural field an as such may prove to be an indispensable continuous learning tool for students and perhaps even more so for professional Materials Scientists, Technologists and Engineers since their careers evolve and their responsibilities increase in our complex and information abundant world.
An easey access link has been added to Materials Science Free online Resources scroll down the vertical side bar menu.
By a happy coincidence, it so happens that I am currently reading the significance of technology and entreprise in The Industrial Revolution in Great Britain by Roland Marx in French (La revolution industrielle en Grande Bretagne Ed Armand Colin). I expect to find more and more parallels with the current day Industrial and Economic situations (Hindsights-Foresights the focus of my newer management pages This-Above-All
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Water repellent properties, Biomimicry, Self Assembling Molecules, Network of micro- nanowires, excellent imagery in "Nanomaterials: Cu Water Strider
Charles Mackintosh 1766-1843 finally thwarted by modern science and scientists whose work continues to stir our imagination.
Water repellent properties, Biomimicry, Self assembling molecules, Network of micro- and nanowires-Link to Resources, excellent imagery, it’s all in this short news article from Nature Asia-Pacific (NPG Asia Mater)
The plot.
Chinese scientists have created an artificial water strider to show off the remarkable water-repelling properties of a new material.
Biomimicry
We learn of Water Striders, insects that can float on the surface of a pond due to the microscopic hairs that coat their legs. These hairs trap tiny bubbles of air, giving them enough buoyancy to skim over water.
Self assembling molecules form a network of micro- and nanowires, a simple process!
Wenping Hu, Lei Jiang and colleagues at the Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences1, have now mimicked the insect with the help of an anthracene-based molecule. The scientists made their water-repelling films by simply dropping a solution of the molecule onto a glass plate. As the solvent evaporated, the molecules self-assembled into a network of micro- and nanowires.
Scientific principles made simple
The molecule itself is not particularly water-repellent, since it contains two cyano (CN) groups that can form weak bonds with water. [lower the surface tension of water] But when the molecules are stacked into a wire, these cyano groups are turned inwards, leaving the water-repelling parts of the molecule facing outwards. The team found that water beaded into near-spherical droplets on top of the film (Fig.1 images), and that the wires had a rough surface that was ideal for trapping air bubbles.
These two properties allowed the team to create an artificial Water Strider using copper foil and wires for its body and legs. Although it was roughly the same size as a real water strider, at 260 milligrams it weighed at least 26 times as much.
When the anthracene derivative was coated onto the legs, the strider could stand on water without sinking (Fig. 1-images). By loading the strider with more copper foil, the scientists showed that just a milligram of the anthracene molecule was enough to support more than 300 times as much copper. Further experiments showed that the coating increased the supporting force of the leg by at least 2.4 times.
The scientists hope that their inexpensive and simple technique for making water-repelling films could be applied in a variety of ways, including helping to create water-walking robots.
Post Scriptum-comment and further references
1. Environmental pollution can modify the surface tension of water Woodrow Wilson Foundation Leadership Programme for Teachers Princeton Faculty
2. Surface Tension on Hyperphysics' Site
3. Nano Networks more…
4. Images more science and engineering
Water repellent properties, Biomimicry, Self assembling molecules, Network of micro- and nanowires-Link to Resources, excellent imagery, it’s all in this short news article from Nature Asia-Pacific (NPG Asia Mater)
The plot.
Chinese scientists have created an artificial water strider to show off the remarkable water-repelling properties of a new material.
Biomimicry
We learn of Water Striders, insects that can float on the surface of a pond due to the microscopic hairs that coat their legs. These hairs trap tiny bubbles of air, giving them enough buoyancy to skim over water.
Self assembling molecules form a network of micro- and nanowires, a simple process!
Wenping Hu, Lei Jiang and colleagues at the Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences1, have now mimicked the insect with the help of an anthracene-based molecule. The scientists made their water-repelling films by simply dropping a solution of the molecule onto a glass plate. As the solvent evaporated, the molecules self-assembled into a network of micro- and nanowires.
Scientific principles made simple
The molecule itself is not particularly water-repellent, since it contains two cyano (CN) groups that can form weak bonds with water. [lower the surface tension of water] But when the molecules are stacked into a wire, these cyano groups are turned inwards, leaving the water-repelling parts of the molecule facing outwards. The team found that water beaded into near-spherical droplets on top of the film (Fig.1 images), and that the wires had a rough surface that was ideal for trapping air bubbles.
These two properties allowed the team to create an artificial Water Strider using copper foil and wires for its body and legs. Although it was roughly the same size as a real water strider, at 260 milligrams it weighed at least 26 times as much.
When the anthracene derivative was coated onto the legs, the strider could stand on water without sinking (Fig. 1-images). By loading the strider with more copper foil, the scientists showed that just a milligram of the anthracene molecule was enough to support more than 300 times as much copper. Further experiments showed that the coating increased the supporting force of the leg by at least 2.4 times.
The scientists hope that their inexpensive and simple technique for making water-repelling films could be applied in a variety of ways, including helping to create water-walking robots.
Post Scriptum-comment and further references
1. Environmental pollution can modify the surface tension of water Woodrow Wilson Foundation Leadership Programme for Teachers Princeton Faculty
2. Surface Tension on Hyperphysics' Site
3. Nano Networks more…
4. Images more science and engineering
with reference to : Nanomaterials: Artificial water strider: Reviews : NPG Asia Materials (afficher sur Google Sidewiki
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