Archive for April 5, 2008

New Silicon Circuits Invented: Bendy, Stretchy, Rubbery

{ April 5, 2008 @ 12:22 pm } · { Technology }
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stretchy circuits

Scientists have made a discovery that makes silicon cool again: it can now be made into bendy chips. Stiff silicon devices are powerful, of course, but not the best fit for some situations such as advanced medical sensors. Now a team University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has worked out a way to stick 1.5 micron-thick layers of silicon onto rubbery plastic in a way that actually makes it stretchable. Check out the video to see elastic integrated circuits in action.

watch?v=-xLRLZRW-8Q

All very cool, but what will it be used for? Well, stretchiness allows the material to be used in more places than simple “flexible” circuits. Once it’s scaled up into real devices it could be used to make wearable computers, or to dot the exterior of aircraft with sensors. The Illinois team also predict it would be perfect for making sensors that wrap around the brain, making a powerful detector for seizures and other brain activity.

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{ April 5, 2008 @ 9:49 am } · { personal }
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Bulbdial Clock Sundial Concept Makes a Lot of Sense

{ April 5, 2008 @ 9:14 am } · { Gadgets }
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Bulb dial

David from Ironic Sans came up with this Bulbdial clock, a marriage of lamps and sundials that makes an incredible amount of sense to us. It’s not real in the sense that your mortgage is real, but it is a nice design that takes the best of electricity and the best of shadows and makes something we’d definitely buy. The only problem is that it doesn’t work in direct sunlight, which kinda makes this the complete opposite of a sundial.

SMS and Email Pen

{ April 5, 2008 @ 7:59 am } · { Gadgets }
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D:Scribe is a digital fountain pen that allows users to send SMS and email messages from paper. Just write out the message and circle the persons name to send.

This does away with a keypad and allows you to focus on communicating in a more personal way from anywhere as long as you have a bluetooth enabled phone and a surface to write on. The pen also records everything you write which can be accessed on a computer. Of course for the creative peeps, if writing doesnt suit your fancy, the D:Scribe also works with genius and not so genius drawings of brilliance.

sms pen

The design is loosely based on a quill and inkwell where by the quill is the writing apparatus and the inkwell is an electromagnetic induction charger.

Once a message is sent, the status is displayed on the built-in OLED screen. The designers have also expanded its capabilities beyond that of messaging. Should your home electronics and appliances be bluetooth enabled, you could potentially program the pen to input commands by writing in the air. A little abstract but lets pretend this idea is more a patent for possibilities.

Is Hell Exothermic or Endothermic?

{ April 5, 2008 @ 7:49 am } · { Interesting }
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Is Hell Exothermic or Endothermic?

As you study for exams, remember its not the quantity it’s the quantity. And remember there is no substitute for pure unadulterated bull

Dr. Schambaugh, of the University of Oklahoma School of Chemical Engineering, Final Exam question for May of 1997. Dr. Schambaugh is known for asking questions such as, “why do airplanes fly?” on his final exams. His one and only final exam question in May 1997 for his Momentum, Heat and Mass Transfer II class was: “Is hell exothermic or endothermic? Support your answer with proof.”

Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle’s Law or some variant. One student, however, wrote the following:

“First, We postulate that if souls exist, then they must have some mass. If they do, then a mole of souls can also have a mass. So, at what rate are souls moving into hell and at what rate are souls leaving? I think we can safely assume that once a soul gets to hell, it will not leave.

Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for souls entering hell, let’s look at the different religions that exist in the world today. Some of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, then you will go to hell. Since there are more than one of these religions and people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all people and souls go to hell. With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in hell to increase exponentially.

Now, we look at the rate of change in volume in hell. Boyle’s Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in hell to stay the same, the ratio of the mass of souls and volume needs to stay constant. Two options exist:

  1. If hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter hell, then the temperature and pressure in hell will increase until all hell breaks loose.
  2. If hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until hell freezes over.

So which is it? If we accept the quote given to me by Theresa Manyan during Freshman year, “that it will be a cold night in hell before I sleep with you” and take into account the fact that I still have NOT succeeded in having sexual relations with her, then Option 2 cannot be true…Thus, hell is exothermic.”

The student, Tim Graham, got the only A.