Posts Tagged ‘Future’

CIBOR: The future in composites

CiBOR (www.ncibor.org), The National Center of Innovation for Biomaterials in Orthopaedic Research, conducts research and develops certified prototypes of medical products made from composite materials.

Present at the Future: From Evolution to Nanotechnology, Candid and Controversial Conversations on Science and Nature

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Veteran NPR® science reporter and award-winning radio and TV journalist Ira Flatow’s enthusiasm for all things scientific has made him a beloved on-air correspondent. For more than thirty-five years, Flatow has interviewed the top scientists and researchers on many NPR and PBS programs, including his popular Science Friday® spot on Talk of the Nation. In Present at the Future, he shares the groundbreaking revelations from those conversations, including the late… More >>

Present at the Future: From Evolution to Nanotechnology, Candid and Controversial Conversations on Science and Nature

The Current Status and Future of the Carbon Fibre Market

Professor Andrew Walker from the National Certification and Evaluation Facility in the UK gives us a quick run down on what their function is and where he sees the carbon fibre market. he makes specific reference to the transportation industry and the effect of oil prices and how carbon fibre will impact on traditional metareials like aluminium and steel. He also gives his views on what the future holds for carbon fibre composite materials in the future. This interview was recorded at the Carbon Fibre Future Directions conference in Geelong Australia, organised by VCAMM and Deakin University.

Future Technology – Smart Materials

A family of materials with an ability to change few of its original properties by the application of any external stimuli, such as stress, temperature, moisture, pH, electric and magnetic fields are called Smart Materials. Some of the materials which include in this class of materials are piezoelectric materials, magneto-rheostatic materials, electro-rheostatic materials, thermo-responsive materials, pH-sensitive polymers, halochromic materials, electro chromic materials, thermo chromic materials and photo chromic materials. Smart materials are lifeless materials that assimilate different functions such as sensing, actuation, logic and control to adaptively react to alterations in their environment to which they are exposed, in a constructive and mostly recurring way.

To quote a few illustrative examples of smart materials undergoing change in their property due to effect of any external stimuli, we will consider piezo electric materials.Piezo electric materials are those materials which generate voltage due to the application of stress. The reverse effect of production of stress when voltage is applied across the piezo electric materials also holds good. Hence, we find extensive application of piezo electric materials as sensors in different environments. They are mainly used to measure fluid compositions, fluid density, fluid viscosity, or the force of an impact. An example from our day to day life would be an airbag sensor in cars, where the piezo electric material senses the force of an impact on the car and sends an electric charge, there by triggering airbag inflation.

Another example of piezo electric material would be electro–rheostatic and magneto-rheostatic materials, which undergo change in their viscosity. These are fluids which almost change to a solid substance from a thick fluid in a matter of a millisecond, when exposed to a magnetic or electric field. Electro-rheostatic fluids undergo viscosity change when exposed to an electric field whereas magneto-rheostatic fluids undergo similar changes when exposed to a magnetic field. Some common electro–rheostatic fluids are milk chocolate or cornstarch, while magneto-rheostatic fluids are minute iron particles suspended in oil.

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Thermo-responsive materials such as shape memory alloys or shape memory polymers are smart materials which change their shape with change in temperature. Magnetic shape memory alloys experience shape due to considerable changes in magnetic field. pH-sensitive polymers enlarge or collapse when they experience change in pH of the surrounding medium. Halochromic materials change their color in response to change in acidity. One of the most common application of such materials would be in paints which undergo change in their color as an indication of corrosion of the material beneath them. Chromogenic systems change their color due to the effect of electrical, optical or thermal changes. Electro chromic materials change their color or opacity as a result of the application of voltage, thermo chromic materials change in color based on changes in temperature, and photo chromic materials change their color in response to a change in light. An application of electro chromic material would be in liquid crystal displays and an application of photo chromic materials would be in sunglasses which darken on exposure to bright sunlight.

Smart materials find a wide range of application areas due to their varied response to external stimuli. The different areas of application can be in our day to day life, aerospace, civil engineering applications and mechatronics to name a few. The scope of application of smart material includes solving engineering problems with unattainable efficiency and provides an opportunity for creation of new products that generate revenue. Sensual devices which can sense their environment and produce information to make use of in health and usage monitoring systems (HUMS) find applications in aerospace for the purpose of aircraft checking. An airline requires umpteen numbers of man power which conduct routine, ramp, intermediate and most important checks in order to check the health and usage of fleet. These checks involve quite a number of tasks that demands a lot of time. Hence, an aircraft constructed from a sensual structure has an advantage of self-checking its performance to a greater level than that of current data recording, and provide ground crews with improved health and usage monitoring. This would reduce the expenses associated with HUMS and thus such aircrafts could fly for more hours without human intervention.

These sensual structures also find application in the area of civil engineering. They are used to monitor the civil engineering structures to evaluate their durability. They are also used in food packaging to keep a check on safe storage and cooking. However, smart materials and structures are not restricted to sensing but they also adapt to their surrounding environment and such materials have an ability to move, vibrate and demonstrate various other responses, in addition to the sensual aspects. Few applications of such adaptive materials include the capability to control the aero elastic form of the aircraft wing to reduce the pull and improve operational efficiency, to control the vibration of satellites’ lightweight structures, etc.

The Future of Bionanotechnology

When scientists are concerned with the workings of a cell, they are actually studying bio-nanotechnology. Why is this research so important? For one, the more information that scientists and researchers gather, the more information that they have in order to use in the world. This means that the processes for finding abnormalities that could cause disease and other problems, could be caught much earlier. Thus, if the medical world were able to do this much earlier, then they are going to be able to help many more people. Through this research, the disease and problems that plague society could find a resolution to solve these before people died.

Secondly, this research is working to improve therapeutics. Through the use of this science, researchers have the possibility of finding out just how the body could repair itself when disease or illness strikes. In fact, this is a huge field for those that study cancer, as it could hold all the answers for the world within the cells and the material that comprises these cells.

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Through this technology, researchers are hoping that in time it could be possible, to repair tissues, such as muscles, tendons, and so forth through implants that the body would accept as its own. Thus, improving the healing time and improving the amount of use that these people have with these artificial tissues. No longer would people have to lose the use of their bodies, they would be able to go through life completely normal.

The future of bio-nanotechnology is something that has many high hopes. Right now, researchers are using tiny computer cells in order to start the process of identifying just what they could learn from these cells. These small computer cells are being placed in labs in live cells in order to make sure that the cells are able to stay alive. And the researchers found that ninety percent of the time the process does work.

So what will all this information mean for future generations? It will mean that no longer will people have to wonder about their condition of health. Instead, researchers will be able to know from the information contained in the cells in the body that are going to let the medical world know just how to continue with a route of treatment that is going to ensure that they are living. It would be a medical breakthrough unlike any other.

Currently, the field is given a budget of over $14 million each year in order to continue the studies of cells and see what all can be found through these cells in order to improve the quality of life. It is a field that is going to be one that is constantly gaining attention as more and more people realize that finding this information is going to benefit all of man kind.