"Well, contrary to what you might think, it's not a chemical reaction." ~ 2:17
I'll readily admit that I assumed it was based on a chemical reaction rather than what this video suggests - just after the above quote - the gallium seeps into the grain boundaries between the aluminum crystals and prevents them from holding together as they normally would.
Embrittlement, eh?
I'd eat that for a dollar!
The idea that we can create structural color - akin to that found on the wings of butterflies - using a diffraction grating and some tempered chocolate is pretty amazing.
Diffraction grating isn't too expensive, and chocolate is pretty cheap.
Looks like a fun summer project.
(Or you could just buy yourself some holographic chocolate directly.)
Today's fascinating, possible miraculous composite: ferrock.
From CertifiedEnergy...
Ferrock is created from waste steel dust (which would normally be thrown out) and silica from ground up glass, which when poured and upon reaction with carbon dioxide creates iron carbonate which binds carbon dioxide from the atmosphere into the Ferrock.
Roughly 95% of the Ferrock is made from recycled materials, Ferrock is both stronger and more flexible than normal Portland cement, allowing it to be used in highly active environments where there is a consideration for seismic activity.
From ScienceDirect...
At 28 days, the strength of Ferrock concrete exceeds that of conventional concrete by 13.5 percent for compressive strength, 20 percent for split tensile strength, and 18 percent for flexural strength.
From the University of Arizona...
"This all started from an accidental discovery in a lab, which is actually the way it usually goes," [Ferrock inventory David] Stone says. "That was back in 2002, and I included as much as I knew in my doctoral dissertation. But the work goes on. It has taken years to get just a basic understanding of the chemistry involved. But this shouldn’t be surprising, since scientists are still trying to figure out Portland cement and they’ve had 200 years.
"I am into this for the long haul. Time is on our side, since in this era of global warming unsustainable processes like cement manufacture will have to give way to greener alternatives."
As always, I am guardedly hopeful but skeptical until I start seeing Ferrock showing up in buildings.
I've been to Butte, MT and stood in the shadow of that smelter smokestack.
The legacy of mining in Butte is...complicated.
Clearly the city wouldn't be what it is without its mining past. The richest hill on Earth made this city - at one time, not now - the largest city between Chicago and San Francisco.
But that same mining industry poisoned the land all around that hill, pumping the products of the smelter as high and far as possible from that giant smokestack.
I've posted about the EPA-lead cleanup from the mining industry before, and apparently Anaconda, MT is happy with how the cleanup is going, but it sounds like some of the folks in Butte aren't so happy.
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| Source - VisualCapitalist |
"What yours is mined." ~ tagline on magnets from the College of Earth and Mine Sciences at the University of Utah
I don't have much to add to today's infographic other than it's amazing to me how much more iron ore we mined than all the other metals combined.
