Saltwater Brewery “Edible Six Pack Rings”

Saltwater Brewery "Edible Six Pack Rings" from We Believers on Vimeo.

I watched most of this video, though I will warn you that there are some pretty horrific images of ocean animals being girdled by traditional, plastic six-pack rings. Those, I might've watched out of the corner of my eye while glancing at the NBA playoffs.

The idea of using industrial byproducts - here barley and wheat leftovers - for useful products makes sense environmentally as well as economically. Less waste into the landfill, lower cost of waste handling, fewer environmental hazards for marine life?

Sign me up, folks.

Color: a spectrum of possibilities for your ring

I desperately want a titanium ring, and I'm really curious to get one that's anodized in some gorgeous color(s).

I just can't figure out which ring I want. There are tons of choices.

The titanium, then, can be oxidized to produce gorgeous colors. The process of creating an oxide coating on a metal via application of electrical current is called anodizing.

One of these years I'll get around to trying to do some anodizing myself, but I'm going to have to get a steady supply of titanium before I can use it as a class lab. Titanium's kinda expensive and really, really hard to cut - something that I need to consider, too.

When I do get around to it, though, I'll check back on these instruction pages.

As a warning, there isn't really any color to the oxide layer. It's caused by light wave interference. Check the science out if you really want to know.

If you were thinking of a gift for your favorite material science blogger, I'll need to measure my ring size first, but this one's the current choice.

3D-Printed Ceramics | PopMech

I appreciate the intricacies of 3d printed parts. There are forms that can't be made by casting, carving, forging, or any method other than via 3d printing.

I've seen 3d-printed materials in various polymers, chocolate, sugar, and lots of metals, but 3d-printed ceramics are new to me.

We continue to eek closer and closer to the Star Trek replicator every day.

Solid Gold Lego Han Solo vs Darth Vader - untold Star Wars story

I'm not a Star Wars guy. I am, however, a Lego and molten metal kinda guy. I have a couple of Lego casts in tin via the Lego ice cube trays, but tin is a lot different from gold.

Gold is something to brag about and to throw down in a comparison.

Gold is something else.

If anybody ever wants to thank their favorite material science teacher for all the work he (or she, but definitely he this time) does on his or her favorite material science video blog, a gold Lego figure would be a fine choice.

Might I recommend a gold Benny instead, though?

Non-Newtonian Ball of Concrete

First off, I think that's a ball of cement not concrete, but I'm just saying that because of all the cool stuff I've learned about ceramics and composites in my material science learning.

I'd heard somewhere along the way that cement can - in the right mixtures and proportions - form a non-Newtonian fluid, but I've never played around enough to see what that mixture is.

By the way, in researching this post (seriously, I do research - it's how I learn stuff) I came across what looks to be a mildly scholarly (but still mostly understandable to me) chapter on non-Newtonian fluids  - what they are, how they work, application of them, examples - that I need to read through in more depth. Check it out yourself if you're so inclined.

National Crystal Growing Competition Handbook (pdf)

National Crystal Growing Comp Handbook Eng

The original source is here, but I went ahead and reposted it here.

I'd always heard that in Canada there was a contest for high school students to grow the best/largest single crystals (thank you, Chem13, for introducing me to that one). Admittedly - and offensively, I'm sorry - I would typically follow that up with some repetition of Jim Carrey's "Canada" routine (thanks, Becky Heckman, for introducing me to that one).

Since I've gotten into the material science course and the CuSO4 crystal-growing world myself, however, I've been kind of interested in playing along.

Anybody wanna get something like this started in these here United States of America?

Oil Absorbing Polymer

My students asked me during the height of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill why they weren't using the oil-absorbing polymers that we talked about in class.

Here Steve Spangler tackles just that very issue. Turns out there's a lot more to cleaning up a large oil spill than just some sprinkling...