100 percent alloy

Great pedantic comment on the Amazon website. Component was made of “100% aluminium alloy”. If people don’t know what alloy means, why are they so keen to claim they are using it? Just because they think ‘alloy’ means it is good.

Fictional Materials: Transparant Aluminium

Transparent aluminium is used in ‘the Star Trek Universe’ to make exterior windows of star ships. This material features strongly in the plot of the movie Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. The crew of the enterprise has gone back in time to bring back a pair of whales to communicate with an alien probe. [...]

Fictional Materials: Vibranium alloy

An alloy of ‘Vibranium’ and steel created by accident, this industructable alloy was only made once, in the shape of a test piece which was then presented to Captain America to use as a shield. The indestructible nature of the alloy means it is not possible to characterise. Attempts to recreate the conditions of the [...]

Boeing 787 Dreamliner Launch

The Boeing Dreamliner was launched for the first test flight yesterday. The Boeing 787 is around the same size as 767-300. However the 787 is planned to be 20% more fuel-efficient than the 767. The efficiency comes equally from improvements in the engines, aerodynamics and reduced weight by use of composite materials, and the use [...]

View FCC Austenite in three dimensions

Channel 4 seem to be showing some 3d programs on t.v. the consequence is you can get 3d glasses for free in sainsburys, and you can use them with the Jmol sorfware to view molecular models in three dimensions.