Friday, February 18, 2011

Scientists utlizing the awesomeness of the fiber arts

Dude, if I give these people some wool, could they make me a sheep car?



And while we're on the subject of nerdiness + fiber, there was a great story on NPR's Science Friday a few weeks ago about building a nano-yarn:

Micrographs of nanoparticle/nanotube yarns. Image © Science/AAAS.


You can listen to the podcast at the site, but the gist is that they're using nanotubes and nanoparticles that are functional in some way (conductive or catalytic, for example) and twisting them into fibers. The fibers could then be woven into textiles that are superconductive, energy storing, energy generating, etc. Sweet! So when is energy generating yarn going to be available in my local yarn shop?
Posted by AC at 10:21 AM
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4 comments:

  1. HeidiFebruary 18, 2011 at 1:07 PM

    I want a "functional" pair of circs, so that they continue to knit while I am watching a movie...
    ;)

    ReplyDelete
  2. LeahFebruary 19, 2011 at 2:51 PM

    This is awesome! I need to show it to my mechanical engineer fiance who once said to me "The trouble with knitting is it's soft and doesn't involved robots."

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousFebruary 22, 2011 at 3:55 PM

    are those scale bars correct?

    ReplyDelete
  4. ACFebruary 22, 2011 at 3:59 PM

    Yes, anonymous co-worker Kevin.

    ReplyDelete

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