So some science nerds were schmoozing while playing a game of three dimensional chess and were wondering what could be done with the cool beta-amlyoid proteins that cause the brain plaque linked with Alzheimer’s disease. Not the exact shape of those proteins. You know something similar, but simpler and stronger – Print Your Own Body Armor, A new material that’s stronger than Kevlar could lead to cheap, light — and even printable — body armor
Scientists in Israel have developed the hardest organic material known to man. Tougher than stainless steel and even the previous record holder, bulletproof Kevlar, the transparent material is similar to the beta-amyloid proteins found in patients with memory-robbing Alzheimer’s disease.
The new material could make steel tougher and may also lead to cheaper and lighter body armor.
“In principle it may be possible,” to print body armor, said Ehud Gazit, a scientist at the Weizmann Institute of Science and a co-author of a new article in the journal Angewandte Chemie international edition.
“But we are thinking of more straightforward uses: to improve the mechanical properties of composite structures, such as ceramics and bulletproof glass,” he added.
The fabricated spheres are microscopic and the material is transparent and easy to manipulate, thus manufacture. According to researchers this material is so tough only a diamond-tipped probe could penetrate. Even than it took twice the pressure to penetrate the beta-amyloid protein based material than it does to penetrate Kevlar. Future uses could include repalcing static plagued tin-foil conspiracy helmets and light weight steel.
the lovely shipping containers. the raw youthful sexuality of these containers is obvious. some might describe their depiction as a way to sexually objectify and thus dehumanize shipping containers. while others might say the lust they inspire is an affront to the moral teachings of the flying spaghetti monster.
One of the creationist’s objections – sadly perhaps the closest they even come to a real argument against evolution – is complex systems such as humans, or even eye cannot be explained because of their complexity – “irreducible complexity”. Left to their own devices and millions of years, macromolecules could never come up with an eye or the inner ear. Richard Dawkins arguments in The Blind Watchmaker (1986) were and are particularly gulling to creationist. Dawkins used some computer modeling to prove a point about producing outcomes given a set of building blocks –
Creationists have been fixated for decades on Richard Dawkins’s “Weasel” simulation from his 1986 book The Blind Watchmaker (Dawkins 1986). Unlike real genetic algorithms developed for industry or research, Dawkins’s Weasel algorithm included a very precise description of the intended target. However, this precise specification was used only for a tutorial demonstration of the power of cumulative selection rather than for generation of true novelty. In the Dawkins example, the known target is the phrase from Hamlet, “Methinks it is like a weasel.” The organisms are initially random strings of twenty-eight characters each. Every generation is tested, and the string that is closest to the target Weasel phrase is selected to seed the subsequent generation. The exact Shakespearean quote is obtained in just a few dozen generations. Despite Dawkins’s explicit disclaimer that, in real life, evolution has no long-distance target, creationists of all varieties have latched on to “Weasel” as a convenient straw version of evolution that is easy to poke holes in.
Dawkins proved at a very elementary level complexity can be reducible, but the computer model he used was never meant as a literal stand in for the length of time and the complexity required for the evolution of life. That said Dawkins basic premise is still true. Complexity and fitness – the ability to make in sense in the Weasel model, to survive in a biological model – is still true.
The 2006 “War of the Weasels” was, to say the least, not kind to the ID movement. The central dogma of ID regarding genetic algorithms—the Weasel offense—was definitively and publicly shot down. ID theory’s two main “evolution stoppers”—irreducible complexity and complex specified information—were shown to be child’s play for an evolution-based program that evaluates current function only and is mindless of any specific future optimum. Finally, an ID “theorist” was bested by a program that used evolution to derive solutions. Check out the complete archives of the War of the Weasels on the Panda’s Thumb blog, in the “Evo Math” category.
Ending the Cold War was a big mistake in many ways. The idle hands are the devils workshop theory has never been more prescient. Instead of finding the great Red Menace under their beds conservatives now find everything from radical Muslims, to scientists involved in climate conspiracies, to plots to make America households bare the agony of spotty dishes. Just between you and me there have been some benefits – Cold War Technological Know-How Applied to New Dental Material
The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration last week announced the launch of a new commercial product venture that takes nuclear weapons technology and repurposes it for dental implants.
[ ]…On Friday officials from Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and nearby EDA Labs began production of a new dental implant called nanotitanium, a metal said to be stronger than conventional metal alloys that integrates more quickly with human bone, according to an agency press release. The product should also result in faster post-surgery healing.
The new material, approved by the Food and Drug Administration, was created through a three-year partnership between Los Alamos, several Russian scientific institutes and New Mexico-based Manhattan Scientifics, the release states.
No word in the article about when this new material will make its way into your local dental practice. The current generation of implants and anchored dentures has made tooth replacement, in terms of cosmetic appearance and durability, by way of dentures and zinc based sealants seem antiquated in comparison. That is if you can afford the thousands of dollars to get them.
inkbluesky 