DailyDirt: Materials That Make You Go Hmmm

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Tue, Dec 14th 2010 5:00pm — Michael Ho

We've come a long way from the Bronze Age, folks. Nanotubes and metal foams may soon become commonplace materials. Petroleum-based plastics are sooo boring now. Okay, not really, it could make a comeback just like Gorilla Glass. Materials never really go out of style, and here are a few links to prove it.

Carbon nanotubes can form a rubbery material that stays rubbery over a really broad temperature range. It's not flubber, but it's still pretty cool. [url]
~~Cement~~Concrete is a ubiquitous building material -- imagine if it also sequestered CO2. This isn't exactly a new idea, but it would be cool if it could actually scale. [url]
Titanium foam for replacing your bones doesn't sound as cool as Adamantium. Maybe titanium teeth will be the next trend for rappers, though. [url]
Don't mess with Pyrex! Soda lime glass just doesn't cut it like borosilicate. [url]

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: cement, flubber, glass, nanotubes, pyrex, titanium

15 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Darryl, 14 Dec 2010 @ 5:22pm

Cement is a component and the building material called concrete
Why do people constantly make such a basic and stupid error..

Cement is a very fine, dry powder, cement itself could not be used as a building material, unless you tried to make a sand castle out of it.. (not that it would even work for that)..

NO,, you get cement, you mix it with water, sand, aggrigate, and some other things, PLUS cement..

and you mix it up and you end up with CONCRETE, not cement..

and concrete that absorbes CO2 has been around for about 20 years now.. I know it can take a little while for you to catch up..

but please, try to keep up..
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Michael Ho (profile), 14 Dec 2010 @ 5:39pm

Re: Cement is a component and the building material called concrete
Sorry, Darryl... didn't mean to offend your building material sensibilities. I *did* say that this isn't a new idea -- I knew CO2 absorbing concrete has been around for a while. (And as the link points out, nature has been creating coral -- and for much longer than people have been using concrete.) Using it to try to significantly reduce carbon emissions, though, would be some feat if that actually became practical.

Thanks for pointing out my mistake! I'll get that fixed...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
scarr (profile), 14 Dec 2010 @ 5:45pm

Re: Re: Cement is a component and the building material called concrete
Your correction is imprecise.

Cement is a material used in making concrete, and is thus also a building material. Furthermore, the PopSci article makes this distinction very clear, and points out that it's a change in the process of making the *cement* that has the potential benefits.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
The Mighty Buzzard (profile), 14 Dec 2010 @ 6:20pm

Re: Cement is a component and the building material called concrete
Cement is still cement if water is added and it dries and hardens. It's only when sand, rock, etc... are added that it becomes concrete. Granted, that is usually the case. But not always.

I blame the popular misnomer on cement trucks that primarily deliver concrete. The words say one thing, the facts say another. Much like "buying" software or an ebook.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it

Anonymous Coward, 14 Dec 2010 @ 6:42pm

Artists Submit Petition for Copyright Compensations
Off topic but if anyone is interested...

Here in Finland there's a levy on blank media (CDs, DVDs) and now the "artists" are complaining such levy is not placed on USB sticks, mobile phones, etc, and they want compensation.

Artists Submit Petition for Copyright Compensations
http://www.yle.fi/uutiset/news/2010/12/artists_submit_petition_for_copyright_compensa tions_2217640.html
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 14 Dec 2010 @ 10:30pm

Finally some concrete facts to cement the whole story.

:)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Darryl, 15 Dec 2010 @ 12:31am

Re: Re: Re: Cement is a component and the building material called concrete
yes, water is also used in making concrete, but you do not classify water as a building material, unless your building an Iglu :)

But I only reacted by working at the civil engineering department of a university, the first thing they will say is "its not cement".. I guess im conditioned..

Its a common mistake, its no biggie, im sure everyone could work out what Mike ment.. I was just sticking up for all those civil engineers, who would whip you for calling it concrete..

but its no biggie, its just good to be accurate.. and now it is..

so water, sand, gravel, are also building materials, you cannot build a cement wall, you can use Cement, and other stuff, to make concrete, and make a concrete wall..

Go to a hardware store and ask for concrete, they will either say they do no sell concrete, or they will sell you a bag of cement.. some gravel, some sand, some water, and a cement mixer, mix it all up, and put it in place, wait for it to dry and it is concrete, cement is a very fine powder, its hard to build much from it alone..

But dont worry its not biggie, If you dont know the technicalities of the real world, that is ok, as long as you get along.. :)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Darryl, 15 Dec 2010 @ 12:37am

Re: Re: Cement is a component and the building material called concrete
it may not be a new idea, but the point is its a very good idea, there can be no argument about that.

Its good that you bring it to peoples notice, its not well known..

You dont have to aappogise for my sensibilities.

I'm quite impartial, rarly are my sensibilities involved, just logic, law and common sense. with a few facts thrown in.

thankyou for caring :)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Darryl, 15 Dec 2010 @ 12:46am

Re: Re: Cement is a component and the building material called concrete
I thought it was because of the Bevelly Hill Billies, and Jeffro's "cement pond" :)

That bank manager, or Jane Hathaway should have told him it was a concrete pond, or gangsters, with their "technically incorrect" "cement shoes" :)

Cement trucks
Cement mixers,

its easy to see why its said,
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Miles (profile), 15 Dec 2010 @ 3:36am

Wife: 0. Me: 1. FINALLY!
A few months ago, my wife cracked her Pyrex baking dish and this meant a replacement was mandatory.

We found a new one and as I was placing it in the cart, I said, "Dear, this feels different. Are you sure it's Pyrex?" She went on and on about the name, good quality, blah blah blah.

I've already sent her the URL.

The "I WIN ONE! FINALLY!" celebration is today. Everyone's welcome to attend... except the wife, who will know nothing of this celebration. Right? Right.
;)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
scarr (profile), 15 Dec 2010 @ 7:30am

Re: Re: Re: Re: Cement is a component and the building material called concrete
Let me paraphrase some other building parlance for you: read twice, comment once.

Both my post and the original article made the distinction between concrete and cement clear. I'm not sure why you were compelled to repeat the difference. You described it correctly, but it isn't relevant here.

My point is, the article (and the link to it) cited the cement as the source of the innovation, so talking about the cement (not the concrete) is more accurate. It isn't the water or the aggregate which traps the CO2.

To put it another way, the next time you go to the university, try talking to the CivEs about the process of heating limestone to make concrete. I'm sure they'll correct your misunderstanding of "real world technicalities" very quickly.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
James Carmichael (profile), 15 Dec 2010 @ 9:15am

Love these posts, keep 'em coming!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Borosilicate Joe, 22 Dec 2010 @ 9:04am

Pyrex rumors
Shame on Techdirt for not properly vetting the Pyrex story. A quick Google search would have shown that the original news story was a regurgitation of an internet rumor that has been going around for *years*.

Some relevant links:
http://www.snopes.com/food/warnings/pyrex.asp

From Pyrex:
http://www.pyrexware.com/index.asp?pageId=30

Fact-checking... it's not just for old-school reporters anymore.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Michael Ho (profile), 22 Dec 2010 @ 10:30am

Re: Pyrex rumors
Even in the Snopes article you link to -- Snopes notes that borosilicate glass is more resistant to thermal shock breakage than heat-treated soda lime glass. The part that is undetermined is when the switch to soda lime glass happened.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Michael Ho (profile), 22 Dec 2010 @ 10:41am

Re: Pyrex rumors
It's not just an internet rumor that borosilicate glass is more resistant to breakage... borosilicate glass is still used in lab glassware because it performs better.

But apparently the environmental impact of manufacturing borosilicate glass is prohibitive for general use bakeware:
http://thestatsblog.wordpress.com/2008/02/29/pyrex-soda-lime-borosilicate-and-the-environ ment/
[ link to this | view in thread ]