Thursday, February 21

A self-repairing rubber band?

A material that is able to self-repair even when it is sliced in two has been invented by French researchers.

The as-yet-unnamed material - a form of artificial rubber - is made from vegetable oil and a component of urine.

The substance, described in the journal Nature, produces surfaces when cut that retain a strong chemical attraction to each other.

Pieces of the material join together again as if never parted without the need for glue or a special treatment. Watch a video of the material in action here

This remarkable property comes from careful engineering of the molecules in the material.

The French researchers are already making kilogramme quantities in their Paris laboratories and say the process is almost completely green, and could be completely so with a few adjustments.

'Tiny hands'

The secret of the substance lies in how the molecules are held together.

A piece of normal rubber, says Dr Ludwik Leibler, who headed the research, is actually a single molecule with billion upon billions of smaller units chemically welded together to form a giant tangled network.


Children are always breaking their toys. Wouldn't it be nice if you could put them back together so easily?
Ludwik Leibler
The elasticity comes from the fact that the strands within the network are buckled like a concertina: pull on them and they straighten and elongate; let go and the buckles reappear.

But break a rubber (or most other solids), and the chemical welds - known as covalent bonds - are also broken.

These cannot be remade. Nor can a piece of rubber be remoulded or reshaped.

"We wanted to see if we could make a rubber-like material using small molecules," Dr Leibler of the Industrial Physics and Chemistry Higher Educational Institution (ESPCI) in Paris told the BBC's Science In Action programme.

The trick was to replace the covalent bonds in rubber with weaker connections known as hydrogen bonds.

These are like hands on neighbouring molecules that can clasp together, but let go when broken.

Dr Leibler quickly realised that this meant not only that the new rubber could be recycled and remoulded many times over, but that if separated by a cut or break, the chemical hands at the fresh surfaces would still be waving about ready to bind again.

Child's play

François Tournilhac, who runs Dr Leibler's laboratories, demonstrated the healing to me.

Using a razor blade he severed a thin strand of the yellowish material (the colour of corn oil), showed me the clean square faces, and then pressed them together.

Almost immediately, the grip was strong enough for him to hold the sample just at one end.

Within an hour the bonds had rebuilt themselves so thoroughly that it was possible to stretch the strand to twice its length without any sign of weakness where the cut had been made.

One obvious use, says Dr Leibler, is for self-healing seals.

Puncture a seal in a compression joint with a nail, and the hole would automatically repair itself.

He also has more playful suggestions.

"Why not use it to make children's toys? Children are always breaking their toys. Wouldn't it be nice if you could put them back together so easily?"

The material was developed with the support of the French company Arkema, which is already investigating whether it can be turned into a commercial product.

Wednesday, February 20

Posting about posts

I recently passed another "blog milestone".

I've received more than 200,000 page hits (for those of you who are wondering, "hits" are a good thing). *grin*

I've been writing on this blog since February 9, 2005.

I've been tracking hits since April 26, 2005.

I've written 619 posts (counting this one).

I've averaged 190 page loads per day since April 26, 2005.

My highest number of page loads in one day came on October 18, 2005 with 756!

The most comments I've received were in regards to this post on October 17, 2005. This correlates with my highest number of page loads also.

I know the posts have slowed down since I've gotten married, but here's to hoping we have many more good "discussions"!

Thanks to all of my readers for your participation and encouragement.

Friday, February 15

*whisper* I've learned a secret!

PSSST...hey...

*whispers*
Guess what!

I've learned a secret!

Not just any secret mind you, but I've learned... *looks fugitively both ways*... Victoria's secret!


And ya know what?! I'll share it with you.

It's actually pretty easy to figure out after you've shopped there a couple times.

Victoria's big secret is that the things she sells in her lingerie stores are shockingly overpriced.

Seriously, there can't be more than $5 worth of labor and material in that bra! That makes for a 900% mark up!

Crazy, crazy, crazy.

And yet I buy. *sigh* oh well.

Friday, February 8

Hurting

Following in the "Children" theme (although not nearly as light hearted as the last post), I've decided to post some pictures and a link regarding the children of Iraq. I came across a web-site that had a bunch of pictures of the children in Iraq in the context of the war we are fighting over there.

They broke my heart.

Too often we let our hearts slide into this "war over there" mentality. We forget that there are real people being affected - People with brothers & sisters and sons & daughters - People who dream and love and hope.

We tend to think of our "War on Terror" as a war that pits us against the bad guys who are trying to terrorize us.

It affects many more than just those people. This war we are fighting affects people. People people. Let's remember to pray for those people.

Following are some pictures of children in Iraq. Here's a link to the full gallery (warning: graphic).










































































































Thursday, February 7

...Or something like that.

I got a kick out of these. I have no idea if they are really 1st grader inventions or not. This is what the website said:

"A first grade teacher collected well-known proverbs. She gave each child in her class the first half of a proverb, and had them come up with the rest. Their insight may surprise you..."

Better to be safe than ....Punch a 5th grader.

Strike while the.....Bug is close.

It's always darkest before....Daylight Savings time.

Never underestimate the power of.....Termites.

You can lead a horse to water but ....how?

Don't bite the hand that ....looks dirty.

No news is....impossible.

A miss is as good as a .....Mr.

You can't teach an old dog new....math.

If you lie down with dogs, you....stink in the morning.

Love all, trust .....me.

The pen is mightier than the....pigs.

An idle mind is....the best way to relax

Where there's smoke there's ....Pollution.

Happy the bride who.....gets all the presents.

A penny saved is....not much

Two's company, three's....the Musketeers.

Don't put off till tomorrow what....you put on to go to bed.

Laugh and the whole world laughs with you, cry and ....you have to blow your nose.

None are so blind as....Helen Keller.

Children should be seen and not....spanked or grounded.

If at first you don't succeed....get new batteries.

You get out of something what you....see pictured on the box

When the blind leadeth the blind....get out of the way.

Tuesday, February 5

Election

I went and voted in Illinois' primary this morning.

I bet you can't guess who I voted for.

Ok, you probably can.

As I was thinking about the election today my thoughts turned to my spiritual election. Romans 9:11 says, "(For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;)".

I thought about how different the election of the saved is from the election of our government. A Christian was voted into heaven, not by the majority of their peers, but by one perfectly just, omniscient, and sovereign God.

Today, as many of us are thankful for the republic in which we live, let us be even more thankful for the Kingdom of which we are a part.

Praise Him.