METAL VELCRO
NASA is considering using a metal form of Velcro to hold future satellites and spacecraft together. Called Vaccro, it should make docking in space much simpler because it will involve no cables, bolts or tethers. Virginia based company, AeroAstro, which is testing Vaccro for the Goddard Space Flight Center, has yet to release any details of how Vaccro works. But says the principle is analogous to the traditional nylon hook-and-loop fasteners. The company claims it can create strong permanent or reversible bonds, depending upon the type of Vaccro used. Reversible bonds can be rapidly separated and reused on the same or different components.
GLOWING ALCOPOPS
Advertisement
Drinks that glow under ultraviolet light could be the next big thing on the clubbing scene. That is the hope of chemists at the Anglia Polytechnic University in Cambridge, UK, who have developed a tasteless and odourless compound that can light up alcoholic drinks. The fluorescent chemicals are proteins harvested from algae. They absorb UV light and emit the energy as visible light. There are two classes: phycoerythrins, which are red in natural light but glow lurid, luminescent pink in the presence of UV; and phycocyanins, which shift from royal blue to brilliant yellow. Both work best in spirits with 3 to 50 per cent alcohol concentration by volume. 鈥淚t has that wow factor,鈥� says Don Keiller, who led the research. However some hurdles remain. Any manufacturer that wants to use the technology will first have to prove that the compounds are safe to drink.
3G HOME CONTROLLER
Before you left home did you forget to set the video recorder? Help is at hand, at least in Japan. Later this year the nation鈥檚 largest mobile phone company NTT DoCoMo will deploy 1000 trial 鈥渃ontrollers鈥� to wait at home for instructions from the DoCoMo 3G multimedia phone which is already on the market. The controllers contain a data card that allows them to communicate with household appliances, air conditioners, lights or video recorders using either an infrared link or a USB connection. A built-in camera can also record video for playback on your cellphone. And video recorded by the cellphone can also be played back on a screen plugged into a port on the controller.
