Thin, elastic iron alloy means safer surgeries and buildings

This super-elastic iron alloy has two very different potential applications. It can be used to prevent blood vessels from collapsing and to return earthquake-deformed buildings to their original state.

The alloy is described as having a super-elasticity which allows it to "return to its original form and gives it additional properties, such as ductility and a change in magnetization." This means that it could be used in surgeries to place tubes which keep blood vessels from collapsing as well as to construct "quake-proof structures" which would go right back to their original shapes after an earthquake.

[Pop Sci]

1,000hp V8 and Nanotubes!

Koenigsegg has just revealed its new supercar, the Agera. It's a Challenge Stradale-style track version of the Swedish firm's 1,000hp hypercar.

The Agera sports aerodynamic "blades" in each corner; numerous wings, vents and Audi-style LED headlights; and aluminum buttons with embedded nanotubes that emit light when turned on.

Engineers make computer modeling 100,000x faster!

A quantum physics breakthrough that can predict the kinetic energy of electrons in simple metals—and semiconductors—will enable computers to simulate the behavior of new materials up to 100,000 times faster than they currently can.

Princeton engineer Emily Carter led the project, which took an equation by Llewellyn Hilleth Thomas and Enrico Fermi that calculates how many electrons are distributed in a theoretical gas with evenly distributed electrons and figured out how to apply it to real, imperfect materials:

"The equation scientists were using before was inefficient and consumed huge amounts of computing power, so we were limited to modeling only a few hundred atoms of a perfect material," said Emily Carter, Princeton engineer who led the project.

"Important properties are actually determined by the flaws, but to understand those you need to look at thousands or tens of thousands of atoms so the defects are included. Using this new equation, we've been able to model up to a million atoms, so we get closer to the real properties of a substance."

The results of that effort mean that principles of quantum mechanics, previously limited to small bits of matierals, can now be applied on a large scale. Modeling, then, for anything from fuel-efficient cars to electronic devices, will happen exponentially faster than it does today.

PopSci

Scientists invent "elastic water!"

According to the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), Japanese scientists have invented “Elastic Water”. Japanese scientists from Tokyo University invented a new substance that consists of 95% water. It was created by adding two grams of clay and a small quantity of some organic matter into normal water. This new substance is jelly-like and is considered proper for usage in medicine for the long-term to stick tissues together.

The study period is scheduled to end in September 2010, if the scientists can succeed in increasing the density of the substance, it can be used to produce ecologically clean plastic materials.

A report has already been published in the latest issue of British scientific magazine “Nature," too.