Searching for Starlite

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

I stumbled upon - thanks to YouTube's recommendation algorithms - the video below...




...which references a material named starlite and claims to have reproduced something akin to starlite.

But I didn't know what starlite was...and didn't know why the egg test was a big deal.

So I went looking, and it turns out lots of people are looking for starlite.

And they've been looking for a few years...(from wikipedia)

Starlite is a material claimed to be able to withstand and insulate from extreme heat. It was invented by British amateur chemist and hairdresser Maurice Ward during the 1970s and 1980s, and received significant publicity after coverage of the material aired in 1990 on the BBC science and technology show Tomorrow's World. The name Starlite was coined by Ward's granddaughter Kimberly. 

Despite interest from NASA and other major technological companies, Ward, who died in 2011, never revealed the composition of Starlite, which is still unknown. He once mentioned that his close family knows the fabrication process, but after his death neither his wife nor any of his four daughters have produced any sample to demonstrate that they know the process.

From historic mysteries

According to the New Scientist, Ward negotiated with several leading organizations. Boeing, NASA, and the British Department of Defence all held talks with Ward. It seemed Ward was more concerned that he might not be able to protect himself in a litigation battle. He did maintain the utmost faith in Starlite. However, trying to broker the right deal for himself gave him the unwanted reputation as an unreliable negotiator. Supposedly, he asked for a £1 million one day but upped that price tenfold the following day.

What is Prestressed Concrete?

"And, of course, I built a demo to show how this works" ~ Grady, 4:10 into the above video

The most wonderful part of the Practical Engineering series of videos is the models that Grady makes to illustrate his lessons.

Of course, he's clearly got a heck of a shop around his house to be able to make those models.

How Does a Touchstone Work?

Personally, I prefer aqua reqia to aqua fortis, but that's just me...

I love the idea of just scraping metal on a barely rough surface in order to identify the metal by comparison with a standard.       

Might want to get myself a touchstone to try that out.

Conquering Clear Glass

Just add borax...

No matter how many times I hear how borax is used, I am constantly amazed that there are still more ways to use borax - in the home and in industry.

The above video - from the series called How to Make Everything, a sort of YouTuber's Toaster Project - is the current (as of December when I wrote this entry, I work ahead if at all possible) status check-in on Andy's attempt to make a camera...which requires making a lens...which requires making glass...which apparently requires learning how to make toothpaste.

Man, I can't even make a sandwich...

World-first: Bio-bricks from urine

Source - https://www.news.uct.ac.za/article/-2018-10-24-world-first-bio-bricks-from-urine

Somebody needs to drink more water.

But clearly nobody needs to come up with a more awesome idea than making fertilizer and 'cement' blocks from urine.

Some civil engineering grad students from Cape Town, South Africa have developed a process of taking urine - currently only male urine because “At the moment we’re only dealing with urine collection from male urinals because that’s socially accepted. But what about the other half of the population?” - precipitating out a solid fertilizer, then using the liquid waste to produce bio-bricks  and a secondary fertilizer.

The initial precipitation at the fertilizer-producing urinal uses calcium hydroxide to precipitate out calcium phosphate, a solid fertilizer.

Source - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2213343718306043

After that, the remaining liquid heads to a secondary processing.

The bio-bricks are created through a natural process called microbial carbonate precipitation. It’s not unlike the way seashells are formed, said Lambert’s supervisor Dr Dyllon Randall, a senior lecturer in water quality engineering.

In this case, loose sand is colonised with bacteria that produce urease. An enzyme, the urease breaks down the urea in urine while producing calcium carbonate through a complex chemical reaction. This cements the sand into any shape, whether it’s a solid column, or now, for the first time, a rectangular building brick.

And the strength of the material is simply dependent on time and concentration of urea.

The strength of the bio-bricks would depend on client needs. 

“If a client wanted a brick stronger than a 40% limestone brick, you would allow the bacteria to make the solid stronger by ‘growing’ it for longer,” said Randall. “The longer you allow the little bacteria to make the cement, the stronger the product is going to be. We can optimise that process.”

The liquid waste from the bio-brick production, then, is further processed into a second fertilizer.

That's amazing, turning a waste product into three useful. As the article says, "[t]he overall scheme would effectively result in zero waste, with the urine completely converted into three useful products."

I'm guessing there are a lot of scientists who are pissed that they didn't come up with this idea themselves.

(I'm sorry...)

This improbable membrane can trap flies in a jar - and odor in a toilet

Well that's just cool.

The membrane described above can block small particles but allow larger particles through, a thoroughly non-intuitive method of filtering.

Then again, water is weird. It holds together, 'healing' itself via intermolecular forces. In this case, the addition of sodium dodecyl sulfate - something I've heard called sodium lauryl sulfate - allows the water membrane to be penetrated and then come back together.

In order to break through the membrane, particles need enough momentum (mass times velocity, natch) to break through the membrane, so larger particles have an easier time to get through. Smaller particles, then, have to be moving far faster if they're going to break through.

And automatically, people go straight to the possibility of keeping the poop smell in a toilet.

Because everyone poops.

ASM International "Roof-of-Sky" Video

I love visiting the ASM dome in Materials Park (or Novelty), OH every spring for summer camp training. It's an opportunity to see old friends, but it's also a chance to see one of world's largest free-standing geodesic dome (g'head, search out proof that it isn't). The ASM Headquarters is just a beautiful place.



Check out some beautiful photos or a video or two...

Source - Cleveland.com