The Search For New Materials It seems the work to develop new materials is going ahead full speed. Some of it is coming from China. The problem is China is looking at developing new materials with an eye toward war. If one country finds a material which is far more impervious to explosives or if far more heat resistant that what we have now, or even a material which would make all munitions more deadly by making the explosions more powerful, or by making things like drones harder to destroy, it might make them decide they have such an advantage, they are willing to go to war. The space shuttle’s wing tips reached 4,000 degrees Celsius which is about 7,230 degrees Fahrenheit. That is why the shuttle needed ceramic tiles to protect it on reentry. A new material has been invented by scientists from Brown University which can reach 4,200 degrees Celsius before melting, that is 7,592 degrees Fahrenheit. Now we have a material which would not have to be protected with tiles, although it might need some system to cool it off to protect human occupants. I have often wondered about reentry. If we could reenter slowly, would this solve the high temperatures from friction? If we could have an aerodynamic reentry, or engine reentry used to slow us down, heat probably would not be a problem. This means more fuel would be needed and some sort of reverse thrust rockets, until something better comes along. When we think of strong materials, many of us think of steel. Steel has been the standard for thousands of years. The Romans used steel in their tools. Scientists have found proof that steel was being used in Portugal at least 900 years before the Romans. So far, we have traced steel use back 2,900 years. A chisel was found in Rocha do Vigio, Portugal which dated back to the Bronze Age and upon examination, it was determined to be steel. The scientists were led to believe steel must have been used to chisel the extremely hard silicate quartz sandstone steles, which were upright inscribed monuments. Chinese scientists have succeeded in doing something for the first time. They were able to construct the entire chromosomal-scale genome and complete spidroin gene set of the golden orb-weaving spider. The spider spins a silk like web which is very strong. The silk is lighter and stronger than steel, yet it can stretch like rubber. It has been notoriously hard to produce. The new knowledge which has been gained may make it much easier to make and even be able to improve the silk in different ways. One has to wonder if someday it could replace steel in some or even all structures. When we talk about material science, an article in Singularity suggested if we want to know how much we progressed in this area, here is what they said, “To build today’s smartphone in the 1980s, it would cost about $110 million, require nearly 200 kilowatts of energy (compared to 2kW per year today), and the device would be 14 meters tall.” That would be 45 feet 11 inches tall. A little impractical, but I am amazed we would have been able to do it at all. One of the big material breakthroughs scientists have made is they have figured out how to create 2D transistors. This would mean they could create a transistor on a material which was only an atom thick. This will accomplish three things at least. It will make devices smaller and work on a much smaller electrical charge. It will also allow more transistors to be packed into a smaller space. Maybe this might be useful in allowing devices like cell phones to operate reliably on the ambient electricity in the air around us. Can you imagine a cell phone without a battery? A neural chip played Doom and only used one thousandth of a watt to do it. Scientists in Dublin have figured out how to create an artificial rare earth mineral. Let’s hope it is the first of many, so we don’t have to depend on China for them. Anyway, the scientists have developed a synthetic form of cerianite. It is said to be inexpensive and the synthesis is environment friendly. The mineral is used in treatment of diseases including cancers. A new cathode material has been discovered by the Skoltech Center for Energy Science and Technology in Moscow. The material is a titanium fluoride phosphate which has strong electrochemical potential and stability using high charge and discharge currents, but best of all it outperforms the standard cathode materials of lithium and cobalt and not only is much cheaper, lithium is in diminishing supply. It looks like we might have a replacement for plastic in our future. A new material was discovered by the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden. It is completely biodegradable and is made from cellulose nanofibers which come from wood. It is stronger than steel on a weight basis. Let’s hope we replace all this plastic soon. Speaking of plastic, Harvard University scientists have developed Shrilk, which is a biodegradable replacement for plastic and made from chitosan, which is found in the shells of shrimp. It is as strong as aluminum, but only half the weight. It is also a candidate for implantable medical devices and tissue engineering. A meteorite crashed in Somalia and has been named El Ali. It weighed 15.2 tons. You might say, so what, it was just another meteorite, but you would be wrong. Scientists have found two minerals which have never been seen before. When the curator of the meteorite collection in Alberta University was examining the pieces he received, he noticed something unusual. He couldn’t identify some parts. He went to the experts who then examined the pieces and were surprised to notice at least two undiscovered minerals. The new minerals have been named Elaliite and Elkinstantonite. A new fact has been discovered about Vanadium dioxide known as VO2. It was found the material can remember external stimuli. This excited the scientific community because it is thought it could change the future of computer and storage devices. Scientists are thinking the material could also be a replacement for silicon. It can outperform silicon as a semiconductor. When the material is heated to a certain temperature, it turns from an insulator to a metal. Our future is intrinsically tied to the future of new materials. New materials will be needed if we are to make ourselves a space faring race for example. They are also needed to clean up our planet by replacing polluting materials, some of which are not easy to break down.
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