Polymers: "Man-Made Miracles" 1954 BF Goodrich

Edit: Link updated as original video was taken down from YouTube. This version is cropped a bit but seems to be complete. Timing mentioned below may be slightly off.

We're going old-school with today's video, a polymer industry video from B.F. Goodrich's 1954 campaign to convince the world the future is in plastics (or at least in polymers). I know it's a bit of nostalgia (for an era that I've never really known), but I do dig these old, industrial films.

The animation that kicks in (at about 2:30), and things really get kicking.

Was World War II (at least on the eastern front) really all about securing rubber sources? This is the first time I've ever heard that.

Some of the best materials science comes in at around 4:40 when we see the (animated) production process for vinyl chloride then the addition of the top sergeant catalyst. The polymerization reaction really is very well illustrated - and the plasticizer...well, let's just say va-va-vavoom.

How It's Made Acrylic Awards

Wait, the mix monomer with polymer? I'm not sure that's correctly said.

The highlight here comes about 3:00 in when they carve the acrylic cube into a sphere by making shaping cuts on the huge lathe. Just watching the acrylic fly off of the lathe before the award is etched.

How does the laser beam carve inside the alrylic (4:20)?

A Boy and His Atom: the world's smallest movie

On some level this is nothing more than a commercial for IBM.

On some other level, though, this commercial is pretty freaking cool. These scientists, admittedly paid by IBM, used an electron microscope to move individual atoms to then make frames in a stop-motion animated 'movie.'

In terms of materials science, the ability to build materials atom by atom, on a nanotechnology scale, may well be the ultimate destination of materials building, not waiting to see what how the atoms will combine on their own under temperature and pressure.

If only we could work atom by atom to perfect a material.

Mark Shaw: One Dry Demo

The above TED talk isn't bad, though it does sort of make Mark Shaw, the co-president of UltraTech (according to this page on their site), look a little nervous throughout. He should relax, though, because he's got a heck of a product: Ultra Ever Dry. The coating creates a superhydrophobic surface (check 1:15 in the above video for a scientific explanation of what superhydrophobic means) that's apparently also oleophobic, meaning that the coating will repel water and oil, a pretty spectacular combination.

The first video below shows the coating in action with the best payoff (for me, anyway) being the green square of liquid on the glass (shown above at 2:50 but in much higher resolution below). Seriously, many of the demonstrations go so far against what I expect water to do that they look almost like bad computer animation, actions that my brain openly repels against.

I have to get some of the coating for myself to test. If only the coating wasn't about $200 for their smallest size can (plus spray bottles to apply).

I do wonder whether the final demonstration - the one with the TED sign - was tested first. It's a a great demo, but the timing is disappointing.

The Great Glass Taper, Part 1

Source - sci-ence.org (We're clearly waiting for part 2, Maki. See below)

The age-old 'is glass a liquid or a solid?' question shows maybe a little sign of coming to an answer this week with an article in Nature Communications about research on a 20-million-year old sample of amber. I'll readily admit that I have pretty much no idea what the article - at least the summary posted on sciencedaily's website - says or on which side of the line the article falls, but such is life.

The whole solid/liquid debate is a fun one when you get two experts, two materials scientists, two history docents, two whatevers arguing from positions of absolute certainty and knowledge going at each other with no doubts in their mind. Give it a try someday.

And check in on sci-ence.org from time to time for their typically funny, and often informative

Update: Part 2 has been posted along with Maki's commentary on the debate and new article.

Cement Reinforce with Steel Bar for Super Gas Rig Supporting Structure

Flexible concrete - an obvious oxymoron, right?

The video opens with an historical background to the improvements on concrete as well as a base recipe for making concrete - 3 parts aggregate, 2 parts sand, 1 part cement. That's a wonderful mixture for a great material - in (repeat after me) compression.

That's not a mixture for a great support structure for a North Sea oil rig that needs to have enough give to flex with the waves.

Add a few reinforcing bars, though, and the concrete becomes a radically different product.

Steel - great under tension...concrete - great under compression...reinforced steel - the dog's nuts.

British accents - also brilliant all around. Only they can give you that kind of...science.

(Warning, the linked videos there - the Brainiac video - show bad science, faked demonstrations, they should be watched only to show what doesn't really happen unless you lie to your audience. Here's my evidence.)

Crash Test 1959 Cheverolet Bel Air VS 2009 Cheverolet Malibu (Frontal Offset)

Gimme a great, old, heavy car if you're going to whomp me with another car.

Obviously that heavier car will have worse gas mileage, but the mass of the old car will mean that I'll be that much safer.

I swear that my dad said something like this when I was getting my first car. He wanted his boy to be safe, gas mileage be damned.

Turns out that maybe Dad was wrong. Yes, the old cars had more mass, but they also had old engineering. New cars are much, much safer because of great new materials and because of great safety engineering...and Ralph Nader.