Build and Modify the World Around You with FORMcard | WIRED

I need to buy myself some Formcards (available here in the US - don't search Amazon because their selection is crap and ridiculously pricey).

I really dig the colors, and I'm looking forward to using them to demonstrate the idea of glass transitions in polymers (something we've seen before on the blog).

Snapping a Steel Rod 1000x slower - The Slow Mo Guys

The...

slow...

mo...

guys...

do some neat stuff, and they at least explain some of the science of what's happening along the way...usually...

Just so you know, the actual break happens around 2:30.

We don't actually get much of a science explanation this time, though.

But we do get the braking of a like one (or maybe two-)-inch-diameter rebar rod.

This gel stops bleeding in seconds

Oh, by the way, the video above shows blood.

You know, in case you were queasy about blood or anything...

There are going to be a couple of other blood-centric videos after the jump in a few lines.

The idea that a seventeen-year-old student took algae and developed a blood-stopping polymer makes me think I should probably be doing labs a little more involved with my chemistry students. Sheesh...

Honestly, though, the video up above shows the gel as vetigel, but it's now available as traumagel.

King Tutankhamun's Dagger Was Literally Out Of This World

"That’s right: King Tut had a space dagger."

How cool is that?

An article published in May in the journal Meteoritics and Space Science is titled "The meteoritic origin of Tutankhamun's iron dagger blade".

In the article (sadly behind a paywall but detailed at IFLScience) scientists recount the process of using x-ray fluoroscopy to determine the precise elemental composition of the dagger's blade without any harm to the blade itself.

The scientists were even able to determine the exact meteorite from which the dagger was forged nearly 700 years ago.

Science is stunning.

Rare glass penny from World War II sells for $70K

Who knew?

I'd heard of the steel pennies from 1943. Heck I've had one somewhere along the way (though I've no idea where it is right now.)

But a glass penny, experimental or otherwise?

That's really cool.

During the war, copper was needed for ammunition. The U.S. Mint authorized tests that included making uncirculated pennies from other metals, plastic and rubber. The Blue Ridge Glass Co. in Tennessee made experimental pennies using tempered glass. (source)

Wooden Laboratory - Periodic Table of Videos

Just about every single thing that we do damages the environment.

At the very least - even if we go as neutral and non-pejorative with that idea as we can - everything that we do changes the environment.

Bit by bit we're figuring out that we can't keep doing that with every building that we erect.

Here's a great video of how the University of Nottingham planned out their most environmentally-friendly laboratory building yet.

They used as little steel and cement as they could, made sure their systems were efficient, brought in natural light wherever they could, included photovoltaics with the windows, and tried to find a way to 'do science in a fundamentally different way.'

Separately, I recommend checking out the entire YouTube channel of Periodic Videos from the University of Nottingham. It's more chemistry than it is material science, but it's fun stuff.

HYPNOTIC Video Inside Extreme Forging Factory: Kihlbergs Stal AB Hammer Forging

I don't know that the video is hypnotic. That's overselling things.

It is, however, impressive to watch the forging that's being done here. I'm especially impressed with how much of the forging is done by hand, the pieces moved, rotated, shifted, pierced - all by hand.

Does anybody know the name of the tool used for the notching done at 2:55? Is it a notcher? A notching tool? A notch? A wedge? A notch wedge? Wedge notch? Triangular wedge notching tool? Notch wedge triangular prism with metal handle?