Gizmorama!

Gizmorama -
“The Cutting Edge of Science Fact and Science Possibilities”
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Good Morning,

Well here it is Black Friday….Your probably up and
about getting all the bargains.

Have A Great Weekend!

Until Monday,
Erin

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        Living reef aquariums endangering reefs

Conservationists say living reef aquariums may be en-
dangering Florida’s coral reefs. The Florida Fish and
Wildlife Conservation Commission said the use of crabs,
snails and other invertebrates in high-end aquariums
could upset the ecology of Florida’s reefs, the South
Florida Sun-Sentinel reported Monday. “There has been
a change in consumer demand,”  biologist Jessica
McCawley told the newspaper. “People used to just keep
a fish in a tank with some dead coral. They want inver-
tebrates now, especially the cleanup crew: snails,
crabs.” Divers landed 1.8 million crabs last year, com-
pared to 117,889 in 1994, the newspaper said. The com-
mission is considering quotas for several species, in-
cluding trip limits of 400 emerald crabs, 2 gallons of
the snail Lithopoma tectum and 200 Condylactis anemones.

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       Nanotech clothing fabric ‘never gets wet’
 
If you were to soak even your best raincoat underwater
for two months it would be wet though at the end of the
experience. But a new waterproof material developed by
Swiss chemists would be as dry as the day it went in.

Lead researcher Stefan Seeger at the University of
Zurich says the fabric, made from polyester fibres
coated with millions of tiny silicone filaments, is
the most water-repellent clothing-appropriate mater-
ial ever created.

Drops of water stay as spherical balls on top of the
fabric (see image, right) and a sheet of the material
need only be tilted by 2 degrees from horizontal for
them to roll off like marbles. A jet of water bounces
off the fabric without leaving a trace

                     Protective spikes

The secret to this incredible water resistance is the
layer of silicone nanofilaments, which are highly
chemically hydrophobic. The spiky structure of the 40-
nanometre-wide filaments strengthens that effect, to
create a coating that prevents water droplets from
soaking through the coating to the polyester fibres
underneath.

“The combination of the hydrophobic surface chemistry
and the nanostructure of the coating results in the
super-hydrophobic effect,” Seeger explained to New
Scientist. “The water comes to rest on the top of the
nanofilaments like a fakir sitting on a bed of nails,”
he says.

A similar combination of water-repelling substances
and tiny nanostructures is responsible for many
natural examples of extreme water resistance, such
as the surface of Lotus leaves.

The silicone nanofilaments also trap a layer of air
between them, to create a permanent air layer. Similar
layers - known as plastrons - are used by some insects
and spiders to breathe underwater.

                    Self-cleaning suit

This fine layer of air ensures that water never comes
into contact with the polyester fabric. It can be sub-
merged in water for two months and still remain dry to
the touch, says Seeger.

In addition, the plastron layer can also reduce drag
when moving from water by up to 20% according to pre-
liminary experiments conducted by Seeger. “This could
be very interesting for athletic swimwear applications,”
he suggests, raising the possibility of future swimsuits
that never get wet.

The new coating is produced in a one-step process, in
which silicone in gas form condenses onto the fibres
to form nanofilaments. The coating can also be added
to other textiles, including wool, viscose and cotton,
although polyester currently gives the best results.’

                    Durable invention

Experiments also showed that the new coating is durable.
Unlike some water-resistant coatings, it remains more-or
-less intact when the fabric is rubbed vigorously,
although it didn’t survive an everyday washing machine
cycle.

For Steven Bell, director of the Innovative Molecular
Materials Group at Queen’s University Belfast, it is
this durability that represents the really exciting
aspect of this work.

“Although the textiles did show some degradation in the
mechanical abrasion tests, their performance was very
impressive,” he says. “The era of self-cleaning clothes
may be closer than we think.”

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       Oceans becoming more acidic, study shows

Ocean waters are growing more acidic faster than pre-
viously thought and pose a threat sea life, researchers
from the University of Chicago said. In addition, the
increase acidity correlates with increasing levels of
atmospheric carbon dioxide, researchers reported in a
paper published online by the Proceedings of the
National Academic of Sciences. “Of the variables the
study examined that are linked to changes in ocean
acidity, only atmospheric carbon dioxide exhibited a
corresponding steady change,” said lead author J.
Timothy Wootton in a release. The increasingly acidic
water has begun causing harm to some sea animals and
could reduce the ocean’s ability to absorb carbon di-
oxide, the researchers said. The University of Chicago
scientists’ study is based on 24,519 measurements of
ocean pH taken during an eight-year period at Tatoosh
Island in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of
Washington. “The acidity increased more than 10 times
faster than had been predicted by climate change models
and other studies,” Wootton said. “This increase will
have a severe impact on marine food webs and suggests
that ocean acidification may be a more urgent issue
than previously thought, at least in some areas of the
ocean.”