Smart textiles survive the spin cycle

New ‘smart’ fibres could be woven into your clothes to give them special properties, such as the ability to clean themselves, or recharge your mp3 player. It’s the fist time these kinds of fibres have been designed to survive washing at high temperatures. “Until now, such multifunctional applications have been limited by the ability to spin important materials into yarns and make sure they stay there even after washing,” says Ray Baughman of the Alan G. MacDiarmid NanoTech Institute at the University of Texas in Dallas.

 

To solve this problem, his team set about making a yarn that could be peppered with “guest” particles of interest – titanium dioxide to create self-cleaning fabrics, for instance – and hold onto them through a hot dunking in detergent.To find out more about this technology, you can read the full news story via the link below  -from the New Scientist –

via Nanotube yarns let smart clothing survive the laundry – tech – 06 January 2011 – New Scientist.

plants could be the ultimate ‘green’ factories

…”Scientists from Dow AgroSciences and the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have reported engineering a plant that produces compounds that could potentially be used to make plastics.

In theory, plants could be the ultimate ‘green’ factories, engineered to pump out the kinds of raw materials now obtained from petroleum-based chemicals, according to the researchers. In reality, getting plants to accumulate high levels of thee desired products has proved elusive – until now.

“We’ve engineered a new metabolic pathway in plants for producing a kind of fatty acid that could be used as a source of precursors to chemical building blocks for making plastics such as polyethylene,” said Brookhaven biochemist John Shanklin, who led the research.”….

via Plastics & Rubber Weekly – News.

SmartFiber project will add intelligence to composites :: WTiN – Executive Intelligence from World Textile Information Network

SmartFiber project will add intelligence to composites
for ADA students Huddersfield , don’t forget you can get the full report and more via our electronic resource subscription to WTin via the library see http://library.hud.ac.uk/wiki/World_Text ile_Information_Network_(WTIN)

“By integrating micro-technologies, the SmartFiber project plans to demonstrate a smart system so small – on the milimetre scale – that it can be embedded into a fibre-reinforced polymer.”

 

 

What the Web of Tomorrow Will Look Like: 4 Big Trends to Watch

What the Web of Tomorrow Will Look Like: 4 Big Trends to Watch

The Social Analyst is a weekly column by Mashable Co-Editor Ben Parr, where he digs into social media trends and how they are affecting companies in the space.

“Did you know that it’s been nearly twenty years since the first website was placed online? Have you ever thought about how the Internet and the web have evolved in time?Ponder it: the Internet, a complex series of interconnected networks, protocols, servers, cables, and computers, has evolved from its early days as U.S. Department of Defense research project into the foundation for the World Wide Web, what we use today to interact with one another via browsers, email, Twitter, Skype, and millions of other online tools.As we approach the imminent launch of the Apple Tablet and analyze new trends coming out of out of this year’s Consumer Electronics Show our full coverage, now is good time to reflect on what the web will look like in the next decade — and beyond.I have four big predictions to share for what the web will look like in the near future. This is what I expect in the evolution of our online lives:”

1. The Web Will Be Accessible Anywhere

2. Web Access Will Not Focus Around the Computer

3. The Web Will Be Media-Centric

4. Social Media Will Be Its Largest Component

Read the rest of the story via What the Web of Tomorrow Will Look Like: 4 Big Trends to Watch.

Light Touch – instantly turns any flat surface into a touch screen

“Light Touch™ is an interactive projector that instantly transforms any flat surface into a touch screen. It frees multimedia content from the confines of the small screen, allowing users to interact with that content just as they do on their hand held devices – using multi-touch technology.”

via Light Touch – instantly turns any flat surface into a touch screen | Light Blue Optics.

CES 2010: Green Gadgets Unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show! | Inhabitat

Inhabitat reports from the Consumer Electronics Show

“The 2010 edition of CES is in full effect in Las Vegas and with it all of the latest gadgets, gizmos and technologies ranging from automotive to internet and wireless. Walking the floor it was clear that green tech is definitely making its way into the mainstream consumer companies more and more. There is an entire pavilion here at CES dedicated to sustainable technologies and products, but peppered throughout the wireless world and innovation areas of the show green products and services were being demonstrated. Read on for some of the cool green tech that caught my eye on this first day of the show!”

via CES 2010: Green Gadgets Unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show! | Inhabitat.

Top 7 Wearable Technology Concepts of 2009 (Vote for the Coolest!) | Ecouterre

Top 7 Wearable Technology Concepts of 2009 (Vote for the Coolest!) | Ecouterre.

“Personal Jetsons-esque jet packs not withstanding, you only need to take a gander at these brilliant examples of wearable technology for proof that the future has arrived. Although pie-in-the-sky concepts like kinetically powered music players and solar-powered beanies abounded this year, we teased out the best ideas that had working prototypes already in place. (Some, likeZegna’s solar-powered jacket and Sonic Fabric’s cassette-tape fedoras are even available for purchase.) Have an inkling of what the next big thing is likely to be? Cast your vote below!”

Natural Fibres ’09

Natural Fibres ’09

14 Dec 2009 – 16 Dec 2009, Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, London, UK

Materials for a Low Carbon Future

Organised by the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining

Natural Fibres ’09 is one of the final events of 2009, in the United Nation’s designated International Year of Natural Fibres.

This three day International Conference will celebrate and highlight the increasing use of natural fibres around the World, raise awareness of their diverse engineering properties and take an in-depth look at the research work that is being carried out to quantify and improve the properties of these environmentally sustainable materials in engineering and textile applications.

This event will offer an opportunity for natural fibre industries to come together to foster international partnership and increased understanding of the role that natural materials can and must play in ensuring a sustainable future.

via Natural Fibres ’09 | IOM3: The Global Network for Materials, Minerals & Mining Professionals.

CONCRETE CLOTH: Flexible Material Makes Durable Disaster Shelters | Inhabitat

When a disaster strikes, it’s often difficult to get shelters up in time for displaced residents. Enter Concrete Canvas’s new Concrete Cloth, a durable waterproof building material made of cement sandwiched between fabric. The cloth, which won Material ConneXion’s Material of the Year 2009 award, can be molded into any shape when bonded with water — and it takes just two hours to set!

via CONCRETE CLOTH: Flexible Material Makes Durable Disaster Shelters | Inhabitat.

Bamboo Encased Computers: A Help or Hindrance to Greener Electronics?

re-blogged from TreeHugger

“As part of the eco-friendlienss factor that computer manufacturers are implementing in their designs is bamboo and wood-cased computers. Feeling the pressure both from consumers and from each other, the greenness of a computer plays in to the current acceptance level of a manufacturers new products…well, at least in part.

But we are curious about what it means to use a resource like wood for products that have become nearly disposable. Does it help or hinder the lifetime of the product, and the life cycle of forests?

We’ve seen a few bamboo-encased notebooks and computers come out. The Asus is beautiful (but not all that special of a laptop) and the Dell Studio Hybrid, with its many eco-factors, also has a bamboo case as an option.. We’ve also seen Fujitsu use forest-thinned cedar as a case for its notebook.

Looking at these options, it seems like two conclusions can be drawn. One is that using renewably sourced wood – especially bamboo – for casing doesn’t play a huge role in the functionality of a computer. It is still up to the manufacturer to make a high-quality, energy-efficient product that incorporates other eco-friendly elements before we can tout it as really meant for TreeHuggers. Wood vs plastic is not the be-all-end-all of the move towards eco-consciousness.

But, here is the second point – it seems that a wood casing could go far in helping a computer’s life cycle last just a bit longer. Wood has the feel of importance, of quality – it harkens back to when things were made with love, care and craftsmanship. And while this is a bit of a stretch for the above computers with their rather sleek-looking cases, there is the potential of a pull on the heartstrings at the idea of tossing out a beautiful wooden product, rather than the nonchalance consumers have for tossing out the everyday cheap plastic stuff.

So, while we have to think about the earth-friendliness of a computer as the sum of all it’s parts – recyclability, quality, energy efficiency, manufacturer ethics, carbon footprint – we can also appreciate when it is made out of materials that look and feel closer to the Earth. It helps to remind us that yes, indeed, we’re using the Earth’s resources when we flip open our laptops, but maybe we’re that much less of a burden.”

via Bamboo Encased Computers: A Help or Hindrance to Greener Electronics? : TreeHugger.