What Captain America Can Teach Us About Science

It was my understanding that Cap's shield was made entirely of vibranium, but I guess it's a vibranium/steel alloy.

I appreciate that Dr Mathaudhu doesn't go into the fictional element vibranium's history and existence. Instead he just mentions that a 'mystery element' falls into the experiment and solidifies into what would later become Cap's shield.

Mathaudhu then goes into the connection that he "seeks to design materials that can live in these extremes" - just like Cap's shield. He mentions the switch from a steel to an aluminum alloy in the F150 frame.

He also explains that if a material scientist creates an awesome material but can't reproduce it - like the creator of Cap's shield did - then that wouldn't be a very successful material scientist.

The shield, by the way, is not quite unbreakable in the Marvel universes, but it's certainly a scientific marvel.

Boeing says it created lightest metal ever

Apparently strong, lightweight materials matter when building airplanes?

Either that or the Boeing engineers just want to dominate their kids' egg drop challenges at school.

From a cnn.com article about the microlattice...

The microlattice weighs only about one tenth as much as carbon fiber, and is actually slightly lighter than air itself, said Bill Carter, the director of the Sensors and Materials Laboratory at HRL.

It will likely first be used on space rockets that Boeing plans to build in about five years, and it should make its way into commercial planes about five years after that, said Carter. He said the cost of manufacturing will have to come down a little more before it is economically feasible to use on cars.

2003 OSU PSA's GSD

I feel like the commercial is lacking in a dramatic arc for the guy listening to Glenn Daehn. Yes, Dr Daehn is dropping some serious knowledge, but the guy listening doesn't really respond with anything more than a slightly-glazed stare. He could yell, scream, even just saying a simple, "whut?" to earn his SAG paycheck.

My thought is that Dr Daehn has been on the weight loss kick for a lot longer than his new endeavor, LIFT, has been around. We'll get to more about LIFT in the next few posts, but for now let me just say that it's an effort to help us save money and energy by lightening up our materials a bit.

Dieting is always so hard...