Tag Archives: Gallium
Melting Metal LEGO Minifigs Like Mini Terminators
What you’re about to watch is either a James Cameron movie with a VERY low budget, or a bunch of LEGO minifigs made out of gallium and melted for fun. It’s actually the latter, and it is very fun to watch. YouTuber DaveHax used LEGO minifig shaped ice molds to make some figures, then melted them like little T-1000s. It may just be the best thing ever.
Gallium is a solid metal at room temperature but has a melting point of around 86°F (30°C), and that’s what allows the magic to happen so easily. Minifigs look awesome in gallium, but they look even cooler when they melt. Too bad Dave couldn’t find a way to make it wear a tiny police uniform.
First, he tried to put them on a hot tray, but only the feet melted. Then he tried candles under the tray, but still no Terminator melting. They did melt, but not in the coolest way, but once he leaned it against the back of the tray, that’s when he got that sweet Terminator action. Check it out:
BTW I love Dave’s sciency voice.
[via The Awesomer via Geekologie]
Stretchy circuits will make for better wearables and robots
Smart clothing and robots alike might soon get better thanks to a breakthrough from a team of Swiss researchers. They created relatively thin electronic circuits that can be stretched like rubber up to four times their original length in any directio...
Inkjet-printed Liquid Metal Electronic Circuits Enable Soft Robotics and new Wearables
New research out of the Purdue University shows how inkjet-printing technology could be used to mass-manufacture electronic circuits made of liquid-metal alloys enabling soft robots and flexible...
University of Michigan makes silicon from liquid metal, aims for low-cost chips
Forming silicon normally requires extreme temperatures of more than 2,000F, with the expensive energy to match. The University of Michigan has developed a technique involving liquid metal that could shed most of the heat -- and cost. By coating a liquid gallium electrode with silicon tetrachloride, researchers can generate pure silicon crystals through the gallium's electrons at a comparatively cool 180F. While the crystals are currently small, bigger examples are at least theoretically possible with new metals or other refinements. Any eventual commercial success could lead to much easier, and likely cheaper, manufacturing for processors and solar cells; given that silicon still forms the backbone of most technology, real-world use can't come quickly enough.
Via: Phys.org
Source: University of Michigan
NC State builds stretchable wires from liquid metal, keeps headphones humming (video)
More than a few of us have had that moment of panic when our headphone cords catch on an object and cut the listening short -- sometimes permanently. Researchers at North Carolina State University could help mitigate those minor musical catastrophes with wiring that stretches up to eight times its normal length. The method fills an elastic polymer tube with a liquid gallium and indium alloy that delivers the electricity. By keeping the materials separate, unlike many past attempts, the solution promises the best of both worlds: the conduction we need, and the tolerance for tugs that we want. NC State already has an eye on stretchable headphone cords, as you'll see in the video after the break, but it also sees advantages for electronic textiles that could endure further abuse. As long as the team can eventually solve a problem with leakage when there's a complete break, we'll be glad enough to leave one of our common audio mishaps in the past.
Filed under: Portable Audio/Video, Science, Alt
Via: North Carolina State University
Source: Wiley Online Library
New process for nanotube semiconductors could be graphene’s ticket to primetime (video)
In many ways, graphene is one of technology's sickest jokes. The tantalizing promise of cheap to produce, efficient to run materials, that could turn the next page in gadget history has always remained frustratingly out of reach. Now, a new process for creating semiconductors grown on graphene could see the super material commercialized in the next five years. Developed at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, the patented process "bombs" graphene with gallium, which forms droplets, and naturally arranges itself to match graphene's famous hexagonal pattern. Then, arsenic is added to the mix, which enters the droplets and crystallizes at the bottom, creating a stalk. After a few minutes of this process the droplets are raised by the desired height. The new process also does away with the need for a (relatively) thick substrate to grow the nanowire on, making it cheaper, more flexible and transparent. The inventors state that this could be used in flexible and efficient solar cells and light emitting diodes. We say forward the revolution.
New process for nanotube semiconductors could be graphene's ticket to primetime (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 30 Sep 2012 12:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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NTNU | Email this | Comments New iPad with IGZO Display comes this Summer claims Chinese Paper
Apple is almost certainly not releasing a new iPad this summer. Still, Digitimes, a Chinese-language paper dubbed Apple Daily, is saying just that based on sources.The new iPad would use Indium...