‘Bucky paper’, Future Skins for Cars, Planes and Screens?

It is already a hype for several years and many say it will have a great future. And now seems the time that it changes from hype towards reality and it will change the world. It will (for example) change airplanes, TV, computers, cars etc. What is it? It is called ‘bucky paper’.

Imagine machines smaller than microscopic in size working around us, in us and for us. Imagine them seeking out diseases, cleaning the environment and making the world a better place. Just as a car is a combination of a whole series of separate items, engine, suspension, wheels, electronics, chassis, etc, nanomachines too need to be constructed from a range of components.

One such component is a type of actuator to open and close things, to absorb shock, lift or lower loads and provide other forms of linear movement. It is known that forms of carbon nanotubes can function as actuators, but thanks to some new research we have a better understanding of what they do and how well they do it.

A Fraunhofer Techologie-Entwicklungsgruppe based research team have published a paper looking at an actuation measurement set-up constructed to perform electromechanical characterization of bucky papers. Bucky papers are sheets of carbon nanotubes obtained via filtration process. The research paper has been published in a special edition of the open access journal, AZoJono*. This special edition of AZoJono features a number of papers from DESYGN-IT, the project seeking to secure Europe as the international scientific leader in the design, synthesis, growth, characterisation and application of nanotubes, nanowires and nanotube arrays for industrial technology.

The researchers, Urszula Kosidlo, Daniel Georg Weis, Klaus Hying, Mohammad H. Haque and Ivica Kolaric, constructed a special measurement device and performed their tests in liquid electrolyte to allow the build up of the electrochemical double-layer, which is necessary for the actuation of carbon nanotubes. The measurements are performed with focus on the out-of-plane strain and stress generated by the structure of interest.

The device they designed was found to be useful for characterising electromechanical properties of bucky paper. Using their device, they were able to determine the dependence on applied voltage, electrolyte used as well as performance under additional load applied on the sample. They also concluded that to gain a better understanding of the actuation mechanism of bucky paper, galvanodynamic tests, current/charge controlled should be performed. The device that was used in this investigation is also suitable for this application.

The article is available to view in full in AZoJono at www.azonano.com

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Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.
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CNN "hologram" spinning out of hand?

Did you see the CNN "hologram"? What is your oppion on the so called "hologram" that enabled Jessica Yellin to appear in the studio while really located in Chicago. Was it really a hologram, or is CNN trying to spin a great story??

According to CNN, it was real "hologram" technology that beamed Jessica Yellin, a CNN correspondent from Chicago, to the CNN press center in New York, where Wolf Blitzer could grill her about what was going on in Chicago.

First off, let me say that it wasn't even real "hologram" technology, which annoys me from the start. Don't say it's a "hologram" technology unless it really is. If CNN was truly using a "hologram," it would not have employed a green screen and overlay images. Instead, it would have captured scattered light and then reconstructed it back in the studio.

Oh, and it probably would have bankrupted CNN too.

But I digress. Everywhere I turn, someone is saying how "cool" CNN's so-called "hologram" was. Uh, no.

Allow me to explain something to those who probably also get excited about buying a new hammer or watching a new Starbucks open up in their neighborhood: the "hologram" technique made the show look shoddy and stupid, and made Ms. Yellin look like a well-designed video game character.

Now, I know what you're saying: "But Don, you see, by using its 'hologram,' CNN is embracing technology and taking news reporting one step further."

Sorry, but I think that if you believe that, it's time for you to stop drinking Wolf Blitzer's Kool-Aid.

Nothing about the CNN "hologram" made sense. Part of the value of sending reporters to different areas to cover what's going on is to allow viewers to look beyond the onscreen reporter, and see the raucous environment. And it also affords the reporter the opportunity to walk around and show viewers some of the visual highlights at the event.

But with the help of its "hologram," CNN destroyed the value in sending a reporter, and instead made it, in the paraphrased words of Wolf Blitzer, "a more intimate setting" for the interview that eliminated all the noisy people that would have been standing behind her.

Spoken like a true apologist.

Just because the idea of a "hologram" is interesting, it doesn't mean that every time that someone pretends to use one, we have to think that it's the greatest thing in the world. The "hologram" looked ugly, made Ms. Yellin look awkward, and it didn't provide any real value to the viewer.

I applaud CNN for at least trying something new. But if show producers are smart, they'll shelve their "hologram" idea, and move on to something bigger and better, like transporting Ms. Yellin back and forth between Chicago and New York next time. I think that'll keep them busy for a while, and help us enjoy some quality programming, while they're trying to figure out how to reconstruct atoms.

Credits to CNET NEWS, Don Reisinger