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from the glass-turns-opaque-in-front-of-ads dept.
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[...] The self-healing polymer, created by researchers at the University of Tokyo, was initially discovered by accident while they were studying new adhesives.
During the research, one of the team noticed that the polymer he was examining for use as a glue had the ability to adhere to itself when cut, compressed and held together for 30 seconds at room temperature (21 degrees Celsius, or 70 degrees Fahrenheit).
[...] It's not the first time researchers have designed self-healing materials like this, but what sets the new polymer apart is that it's structurally robust, like glass, but also capable of self-healing – properties that are often mutually exclusive in engineered compounds. What also makes the glass unique is that it performs its self-adhering function at room temperature, whereas other self-healing materials often require heating to induce their bonding behaviour.
Source: Scientists Have Developed Glass That Heals Itself When You Press It Together
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Wednesday December 20 2017, @05:02PM (5 children)
This is how modern technology destroys technology. Electricity has made actual welding arcane. Take a look at pattern-welded Saxon swords, or Japanese katana. "Rod-welding" is kind of the "duct-tape" of metalwork. I await instruction by Arik on Roman glass.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 20 2017, @10:10PM (1 child)
Is she holding a class? Where can we sign up?
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Wednesday December 20 2017, @10:25PM
There was mention of a pop quiz. It is a cruel teacher who gives a pop quiz without first presenting the material, in this case silicon dioxide, that is to be quizzed upon.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 21 2017, @01:49AM (2 children)
> "Rod-welding" is kind of the "duct-tape" of metalwork.
Duct tape was invented for ducts (which may be metal, but aren't welded) -- and (in part because of duct tape) we have near-universal central heating, at least in most of the cold parts of the world. Your Greek masters may have had central heating in their palaces, but if they used forge-welded ducts that would explain why only the 0.01% could afford it in your era.
Ever looked at a welded tubular steel aircraft fuselage, as pioneered (I believe) by Tony Fokker? A thing of austere beauty and structural efficiency. Here's one reference http://pioneersofflight.si.edu/content/tubular-steel-fuselage [si.edu]
but this may be too new? Does a technology have to be in use several centuries before you acknowledge it??
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Thursday December 21 2017, @02:54AM
You mistake my point! It is not that recent tech is somehow inferior in general, but just that it tends to promote a forgetting of the technology of the past. Not suggesting that current tech should be forgotten! And besides, sheet metal is way too labor intensive without massive roller mills. In ancient times it was limited to things like armor plate. But nowadays things like forge welding are something of a lost art. And now we have hammer-welding of glass to look forward to!
(Score: 3, Informative) by Aiwendil on Thursday December 21 2017, @10:07AM
No, duct tape wasn't invented for ducts, it was invented to seal ammunition boxes. It just is that the family of duck tapes (older product - used to protect shoes and cabling) is insanely useful, but in the modern sense of tearable waterproof sealing with a masking tape adhesive was to seal ammunition boxes.