Category Archives: Materials

Auto, Biochemistry, Computing, Consumer, Engineering, Gadgets, Genetics, Green, Health, History, Imaging, Internet, Materials, Medicine, Neuroscience, Physics, Science, Space, Technology, Top 10

The Future: At the Corner of Close and Soon

January 3, 2014 Nicholas Gerbis Leave a comment

Somehow the future we get is never quite the one we were promised. Then again, sometimes the very ideas wrapped in the pages of sci-fi and Popular Science are right under our noses, in disguise. After all, we have hand-held sensor-communicators and miraculous supermaterials – they just take the rather mundane form of carbon-fiber-wrapped smartphones.

Maybe our blindness arises from our physical and electronic architecture. Has exchanging Googie buildings for Google caused us to overlook the flying-car equivalents that fill our everyday lives, or soon will? Read on.

Our 10 Favorite Replacements for ‘Where’s My Flying Car?’

Auto, Computing, Consumer, Engineering, Gadgets, Green, Imaging, Internet, Materials, Neuroscience, Science, Space, Technology, Top 10, Weapons

Tracking 2013’s Tastiest Tech

December 3, 2013 Nicholas Gerbis Leave a comment

Looking back on the tech trends, triumphs and tribulation of 2013, a few patterns emerge: Private projects took off even while privacy took a beating; robots and AI servants made great strides while their drone cousins stalked us with cameras and weapons; reality was simultaneously augmented and scrutinized, while 3-D-printing and private-sector space races seemingly brought the whole world into the realm of DIY.

2013’s Biggest Tech Moments

Engineering, Geoscience, History, How To, Materials, Physics, Technology, Travel

Like a Bridge Under Troubled Waters

November 8, 2013 Nicholas Gerbis Leave a comment

A partially disassembled tunnel boring machine (TBM). Photo by Mike.

Between the years of 1825 and 1843 , through floods and financial failures, Marc Isambard Brunel and his son dug a tunnel under London’s Thames River. Our ambitions have grown since then, but the technology we use still bears a striking resemblance to Brunel’s shipworm-inspired device.

In this article, I look at some of the worlds most breathtaking underwater tunnels and delve into how they were constructed.

How do you build an underwater tunnel?

Chemistry, Computing, Engineering, Geoscience, How To, Imaging, Materials, Medicine, Physics, Science, Technology

How It’s Made: Crystal Edition

March 11, 2013 Nicholas Gerbis Leave a comment

Photo by Alexander Van Driessche (note human for scale)

In physics, the term “crystal” designates a solid substance with internal symmetry and a related, regular surface pattern. But such a dry description cannot capture the intricacy and variety of materials found in snowflakes and crown jewels, or that power stereos and ultrasound machines, or that flavor our food. Nor can it convey the delicate dance of temperature, pressure and time that crystal growth requires.

Historically, growing crystals was as much art as science. Today, it requires precise technologies and technologies to control growth, often on a molecular scale.

How are crystals made?

Biochemistry, Chemistry, Computing, Consumer, Engineering, Gadgets, Geoscience, History, Materials, Physics, Science, Technology

Weighing in on Digital Scales

February 25, 2013 Nicholas Gerbis Leave a comment

A truck in Tanzania drives onto a truck scale — A truck scale in Tanzania. Photo by Jan Hoffmann.

Whether they are weighing train cars, big rigs or vegetables in your local grocery, scales are the engines that drive global commerce. Without them, there could be no trade, and laboratories and pharmaceutical companies would have to dream up other ways to assay, mete and dose. Yet most of us are oblivious to the physical laws and clever engineering that go into these pivotal devices. It’s time to weigh in on…

How Digital Scales Work

Writing • Editing • Commentary