A Panoply of Disconnected Curiousities

Is there anything more slippery than Teflon? How about a coating of nanotube forest? Moving the bead across the nanotube-forest surface took 0.2 micronewtons of force, compared to 1.1 mN on the Teflon surface or more than 1.4 mN on the gold or silicon surface. One micronewton is roughly the force needed to lift one-tenth of a gram.

What will it take for fuel cells to be able to replace internal combustion engines? Greater power density and energy density. Chemist Don Gervasio and colleague Sonja Tasic, both at Arizona State University in the US, set out to develop a fuel cell that would generate more electricity for its weight than the best batteries, and would also work at room temperature. Original Source for story on borohydride fuel cell. Borohydride 30% contains more hydrogen than an equivalent volume of liquid hydrogen!

What is a good way of taking CO2 out of the air, and producing feedstock for bio-ethanol at the same time? Super-poplars.
Learning to "soup up" the DNA of poplar trees to more quickly convert atmospheric CO2 to cellulose.

Another approach to climate control is to use
sulfate aerosols to deflect incoming sunlight. Just a thought.

How do different areas of the brain cooperate to provide a person with a coherent, mindful, multi-sensorial picture of the world? Possibly by using a combination of low and high frequency oscillations. This reminds me of several postings from our friend Chris, at Develintel. I suspect that Chris will weigh in on this study before long.

Speaking of the brain, how do human genes influence brain development and ultimate potential? Between 50% and 80% of human intelligence is heritable, and this geneticist thinks he has identified two of the genes that are involved. A fascinating interview. I wonder what our friend Kevin at Intelligence Corner thinks about this line of research? It is certainly not politically correct, which makes it dangerous. But Kevin is fearless. You should be too.

Can you teach chemistry online, through distance learning? What about the lab? Here is one approach where the student needs to go no farther than his own kitchen.

One of the problems holding back some types of micro robots in the real world, is the lack of simple but reliable micro-actuators, powered by simple, readily available and cheap forms of energy. Here is a micro-catapult powered by the heat released from evaporating water. Nature is resourceful. Humans can learn from that.