Tag: materials

Butterfly buildings

By Edward Willett in Blog, Columns, Science Columns
October 20, 2012
4 mins to read
Leave comment

At the end of August and beginning of September, I and my wife and daughter were in Chicago for the World Science Fiction Convention…and a fair bit of touristy sightseeing, including taking in the (highly recommended) architectural river tour offered by the Chicago Architecture Institute. In the little over a decade since the last time …

Wooden bones

By Edward Willett in Blog, Columns, Science Columns
April 15, 2010
4 mins to read
Leave comment

[podcast]https://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/upLoads//2010/04/Wooden-Bones.mp3[/podcast] It’s easy to not think very much about your bones. After all, they’re securely hidden away inside your body; not visible, except as hard lumps beneath your skin. Funny thing, though: once you break one, it’s hard to think about anything else. When first I wrote about bones, back in a 1993 instalment of …

Spray-on liquid glass

By Edward Willett in Blog, Columns, Science Columns
February 4, 2010
4 mins to read
Leave comment

[podcast]https://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/upLoads//2010/02/Spray-on-Liquid-Glass.mp3[/podcast] “Spray-on liquid glass” sounds like a product you’d see advertised at two o’clock in the morning in an infomercial. It sounds even more like a 2 a.m. infomercial product when you see headlines about it that claim it is “about to revolutionize everything.” Maybe it’d sound more impressive if I used its more formal …

Super clothes

By Edward Willett in Blog, Columns, Science Columns
August 12, 2003
5 mins to read
Leave comment

Choosing what to wear in the morning is about to become even harder. Should one choose the bullet-proof blouse, the colour-changing cardigan, or the self-heating sari? Clothing is about to be revolutionized by a slough of new technologies. Imagine, for example, fabric that can change pattern or colour on demand. International Fashion Machines, a small …

Sandcastle science

By Edward Willett in Blog, Columns, Science Columns
July 16, 2002
5 mins to read
Leave comment

One of the great joys of childhood is making sandcastles on the beach; and oddly enough, part of the fun is also watching a wave wash them away. It’s a little startling to find out, then, that something instinctively understood by children–that damp sand sticks together–was only recently explained scientifically in 1997. Dr. Peter Schaffer, …

Smart fabric

By Edward Willett in Blog, Columns, Science Columns
February 20, 2001
5 mins to read
Leave comment

A new technology developed by the Canadian Space Agency to help control the new robot arm on the International Space Station may soon be finding its way into your car, your couch, and even your clothes. It’s called smart fabric, because it turns fabric into a sensitive computer interface. The underlying technology, called Kinotex, was …

Teflon

By Edward Willett in Blog, Columns, Science Columns
January 30, 2001
5 mins to read
Leave comment

The first time I saw a Teflon-covered pan, when I was four or five, I thought it was magic. Now that I cook, I’m even more impressed by non-stick surfaces. Teflon was discovered by accident by Roy J. Plunkett, 27, a DuPont scientist who was trying to develop a new chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) for use as …

Potholes revisited

By Edward Willett in Blog, Columns, Science Columns
May 2, 2000
5 mins to read
Leave comment

I hope this doesn’t come as a shock to anyone, but Regina has a seasonal problem with potholes. But there may be hope for our pothole problem, and similar problems all over the world, thanks to the work of two University of Washington State University civil engineering professors. Dr. Thomas Papgiannakis and Dr. Eyad Masad …

Platinum

By Edward Willett in Blog, Columns, Science Columns
September 14, 1998
6 mins to read
Leave comment

Residents of Cardiff, Wales, were bemused (and probably amused) not to long ago to see a respected geologist out on the streets of town early one Sunday morning, sweeping road dust into a dustpan. Fortunately, Dr. Hazel Prichard hadn’t been forced to take up stree-sweeping because she had lost her job at Cardiff University; instead, …

Flooring

By Edward Willett in Blog, Columns, Science Columns
October 23, 1995
5 mins to read
Leave comment

“Keep your feet on the ground” is good advice for anyone–unless, of course, you’re inside, in which case you can only keep your feet on the ground if you happen to live in a sod shanty. Otherwise, you’re going to have to keep your feet on some kind of flooring: and most likely, that flooring …

Wax

By Edward Willett in Blog, Columns, Science Columns
October 9, 1995
5 mins to read
Leave comment

We wax floors, cars and skis; make wax paper and wax candles; use wax in the creation of batik wall-hangings, lost-wax bronze sculptures and wax-crayon masterpieces; use mustache wax and at Hallowe’en have even been known to wear wax lips. Which, naturally, brings up the question, “What is this thing called wax?” “Wax,” says the …

Potholes

By Edward Willett in Blog, Columns, Science Columns
March 13, 1995
6 mins to read
Leave comment

It’s spring in Regina, and we all know what that means: snow is melting, water and funny-looking guys in shorts are running, and the potholes are in bloom. Everyone knows that Regina has a pothole problem, and for once, what “everyone knows” is right. But don’t blame the city. Especially, don’t blame Harlan Ritchie, Manager …