Follow Slashdot blog updates by subscribing to our blog RSS feed

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
United Kingdom

Scientists Have Developed a Material So Dark That You Can't See It 238

Posted by samzenpus from the none-more-black dept.
gbjbaanb writes A British company is developing a new material that's so black it absorbs all but 0.035 percent of the visual light, making it the darkest material ever created. Of course, apart from making album covers, it conducts heat 7 times better than copper and is 10 times stronger than steel. "The nanotube material, named Vantablack, has been grown on sheets of aluminium foil by the Newhaven-based company. While the sheets may be crumpled into miniature hills and valleys, this landscape disappears on areas covered by it. 'You expect to see the hills and all you can see it's like black, like a hole, like there's nothing there. It just looks so strange,' said Ben Jensen, the firm's chief technical officer.

Comment Re: WUWT (Score 1) 441

by aquabat (#47355669) Attached to: Researchers Claim Wind Turbine Energy Payback In Less Than a Year
Yeah, it's pretty cool. I used to be all fanatical about that stuff back in the 90s. The idea with the thermal mass is that the sun comes in through the windows and heats up the walls, and then, at night, the walls radiate the heat back into the house. It's like a thermal storage battery. If you want it cooler, you draw the curtains and open the roof vent. You have buried air pipes at floor level that go outside, so the hot air escaping from the roof vent draws in cool air via the floor vents, with the earth around the pipe also cooling the intake air. Works really well in desert environments, where the days are hot, and the nights are cold, but I've read about people building them in places like northern Ontario too, where the winters are -40C. The biggest issue with the winter climate ones actually seems to be too much solar gain, instead of not enough, and also controlling the humidity. If you're hard core about living off the grid, it's viable, and as a bonus, your house will look like something out of a '70s scifi flick.
Biotech

Scientists Successfully Grow Full Head of Hair On Bald Man 109

Posted by Soulskill from the not-for-patrick-stewart dept.
realized writes: "A man with almost no hair on his body has grown a full head of it after a novel treatment by doctors at Yale University. The patient had previously been diagnosed with both alopecia universalis, a disease that results in loss of all body hair, and plaque psoriasis, a condition characterized by scaly red areas of skin. The only hair on his body was within the psoriasis plaques on his head. He was referred to Yale Dermatology for treatment of the psoriasis. The alopecia universalis had never been treated.

After two months on tofacitinib [an FDA-approved arthritis drug] at 10 mg daily, the patient's psoriasis showed some improvement, and the man had grown scalp and facial hair — the first hair he'd grown there in seven years. After three more months of therapy at 15 mg daily, the patient had completely regrown scalp hair and also had clearly visible eyebrows, eyelashes, and facial hair, as well as armpit and other hair, the doctors said."
Moon

LADEE Probe Ends Its Mission On the Far Side Of the Moon 25

Posted by timothy from the in-lieu-of-flowers dept.
The mission of NASA's LADEE probe was brought to an intentional violent end yesterday, when it smashed into the far side of the moon. As the Ars Technica report explains, "NASA's policy is to treat the locations of the Moon landings as historical sites, and it takes pains to preserve them from possible damage. LADEE didn't have the fuel to control its orbit indefinitely. As a result, the controllers had been preparing to terminate the probe for several weeks. ... The exact moment of impact isn't clear, since the precise terrain it hit couldn't be determined in advance. (If it hit a ridge, it would have happened earlier than if LADEE plowed across a plain. What is clear is that the impact destroyed the probe." Before the end of LADEE's mission, besides close up observations, the craft was used to test a new laser-based communication system.

Comment Whut up, Yo? (Score 1) 7

by BWJones (#46495151) Attached to: OMG

Whut up, yo? Mostly moved to Twitter... You have an account... why don't I see you there much?

Slashdot Top Deals

The one day you'd sell your soul for something, souls are a glut.

Close