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Issue no. 22, 2007 Published: Jun 29, 2007
Roll up for better hydrogen fuel storage
Scientist touts big efficiency improvement for data centre cooling
Giant microwave turns plastic back to oil
US researchers promise organic semiconductors
Artificial skin 'cuts scarring'
Japanese firm develops glove that 'feels' 3D images
Shape-shifting aircraft

Roll up for better hydrogen fuel storage
The thorny problem of how to store hydrogen fuel safely could be solved by simply storing it in nanoscopic scrolls of carbon. Scientists at the University of Crete say they have found a way to make so-called 'carbon nanoscrolls' store more hydrogen than any other material. By adding impurities to rolled sheets of carbon in detailed computer simulations, they found they could control how tightly the scrolls wind up and, hence, how much hydrogen they adsorb. Hydrogen is touted as the clean fuel of the future. But its low density makes it difficult to store in sufficient quantity. Liquefying hydrogen by placing it under great pressure is both expensive and potentially dangerous. The idea is to find materials with high surface areas that soak up hydrogen at much higher densities than previously possible, and without the need for extreme cooling or pressurisation. To address this problem, the researchers carried out computer simulations to see how the hydrogen uptake of carbon nanoscrolls could be affected by adding quantities of different alkali metals. These impurities cause the atomic distance between the layers of a scroll to vary. Their findings suggest that adding lithium ions should increase the uptake of hydrogen at atmospheric pressure and room temperature from 0.19% to 3.31%. Furthermore, hydrogen uptake should increase as the temperature is reduced, the researchers say.
New Scientist / Nano Letters Jun 25, 2007	back to top

Scientist touts big efficiency improvement for data centre cooling
A former defence scientist has figured out how to use satellite technology to cool data centres, and he has reported unprecedented results. Stephen Fried, CTO and co-founder of Microway, a manufacturer of high-end servers and InfiniBand connectivity, said he has proof of concept for a new provisionally patented cooling system. The breakthrough is significant in an industry focused on saving energy to cut costs, increasing the efficiency of high-powered data systems, and going green, while adding more and more processors. Fried will not release all of the details yet, but he would say that ammonia is part of the equation. He claims he has proven that the system reduces the amount of energy required to cool data centres up to 50%. Ammonia will not damage computer and data centre components, he said. If Fried's system proves popular the impact could be huge. According to a recent study the energy consumed by data centre servers, cooling equipment and related infrastructure more than doubled from 2000 to 2005. Fried says that 40% of the energy used to cool data centres is used to remove water vapour from the air and then put it back in. His methodology employs liquid cooling, without the need for chilled water quick disconnects to replace failed nodes.
InformationWeek Jun 22, 2007	back to top

Giant microwave turns plastic back to oil
A US company is taking plastics recycling to another level - turning them back into the oil they were made from, and gas. All that is needed, claims Global Resource Corporation (GRC), is a finely tuned microwave. Key to GRC's process is a machine that uses 1200 different frequencies within the microwave range, which act on specific hydrocarbon materials. As the material is zapped at the appropriate wavelength, part of the hydrocarbons that make up the plastic and rubber in the material are broken down into diesel oil and combustible gas. GRC's machine is called the Hawk-10. Whatever does not have a hydrocarbon base is left behind, minus any water it contained as this gets evaporated in the microwave. For example copper wiring could be easily stripped from its plastic casing. Not only does the process produce fuel, it also makes it easier to extract the copper for recycling. Gershow Recycling, a scrap metal company based in New York will be the first to buy a Hawk-10. Gershow collects metal products, mainly from cars, shreds them and turns them into usable pure metals. For every ton of steel that the company recovers, 226-318 kg of 'autofluff' is produced, containing plastics, rubber, wood, paper, fabrics, glass, sand, dirt, and various bits of metal. GRC says its Hawk-10 can extract enough oil and gas from the left-over fluff to run the Hawk-10 itself and a number of other machines used by Gershow.
New Scientist Jun 26, 2007	back to top

US researchers promise organic semiconductors
Chemists at Carnegie Mellon University have discovered that grease can greatly increase the electrical conductivity of some innovative plastics, potentially paving the way for organic semiconductors. The discovery could become widely adopted to produce next-generation switches for transistors used in RFID tags, flexible e-book screens and debit or key cards. The new process involves adding a little grease in two ways. The first step involves chemically combining an inherently conducting polymer (ICP) with a grease-like chemical. The second step involves depositing this hybrid material, called a block copolymer, onto a greased platform. ICPs make good electrical conductors on the surface layer of a transistor that provide the switch element for a transistor to turn on and off. But ICPs are by nature brittle. To counter this, the scientists chemically linked ICPs with grease-like elastic polymers to make block copolymers.
VNUnet UK / Advanced Materials Jun 27, 2007	back to top

Artificial skin 'cuts scarring'
A prototype artificial skin used to heal wounds has been developed by researchers at UK-based company Intercytex. They say the skin seemed to incorporate itself much better with real tissue than any other skin substitutes tried in the past. Currently the best way of treating serious burns and large wounds is to take skin from part of a patient's body and graft it on to the damaged area. But this is not ideal, and there have been attempts to create a form of artificial skin. However, some doctors say that the failure of these to fully integrate with the wound have rendered these efforts of limited value. Intercytex believes its latest version weaves into wounds much better. The skin is created from a matrix made up of fibrin, a protein found in healing wounds. To this is added human fibroblasts - cells used by the body to synthesise new tissue. In a process that effectively replicates the way the body makes new skin, the cells produce and release another protein, collagen, which makes the matrix more stable. It is in this form that the 'skin' is implanted into a wound. The researchers say that because the matrix is in a stable form, it is more able to withstand changes that take place during the healing process.
BBC News / Regenerative Medicine Jun 26, 2007	back to top

Japanese firm develops glove that 'feels' 3D images
Ever dreamed of being drawn close to a smiling Marilyn Monroe or feeling the muscles of fitness guru Billy Blanks? A Japanese firm this week unveiled a system that enables you to feel 'the shape and softness' of three-dimensional images using a sensor-loaded glove. The 'tangible 3D' system creates graphics that seem to burst out of a screen and has a glove that allows users to 'feel' them, according to NTT Comware, the software development unit of telecom giant Nippon Telegraph and Telephone. Without any need for awkward 3D glasses, users could feel a far-away object as if it were right in front of them, according to NTT. The developer is exploring commercial applications that could include videophones. If a person linked to the system moves in another place, his or her three-dimensional image also moves in real-time. The user would feel as if they were being pulled along if the image moves while grasping your hand. The dead could also be 'resurrected' by the system and museum visitors could 'touch' precious exhibits sealed in showcases.
Middle East Times Jun 27, 2007	back to top

Shape-shifting aircraft
Shape-shifting aircraft are one of the hottest areas of aeronautical research at the moment because the best shape for aircraft flying at low speed is different to the sleek-winged shape that most suits high-speed flying. Switching between different shapes requires complex, mechanical, power-hungry structures. And traditional control surfaces such as ailerons and rudders only change the shape of a wing by clumsy mechanical means. So NASA has been looking at so-called 'multistable structures' - simple sheets of material that snap from one stable shape to another and back again, just by twisting. NASA suggests that multistable materials could replace hydraulically operated ailerons or rudders. A multistable structure would move the aircraft's control surfaces by flipping from one shape to another. Flying then becomes, quite literally, a snap.
New Scientist Jun 25, 2007	back to top