Author: Jonny Hankins

Jonathan's Author Bio: Co Editor of the International Handbook on Responsible Innovation, and author of Responsible Innovation, A Narrative Approach, Jonny works for the Bassetti Foundation in Milan publishing articles on innovation and responsibility on their website and in academic and trade journals and also blogging about his interests. He is on the editorial board of the Journal of Responsible Innovation and member of the the Virtual Institute of Responsible Innovation

A Miracle Material?

13 Replies Jonny Hankins

Plastic and its use on mass causes many problems as we all know. It is not biodegradable, made from oil, difficult to recycle and can be found almost everywhere floating in the sea or buried on land. What we need is something to replace it.

Over the last year researchers at the MMC in Paris have been working on a new material. What they have developed is something that might change the future of manufacturing.

See this short article for a more complete description.

Their material is called a vitrimer, it is organic, strong, lightweight and looks to bridge the gap between thermoplastics and thermoset products.

Will vitrimer replace plastic?

Could this be the future of manufacturing?

What this actually means to you and me is a material that is solid but workable across a wide temperature range, so doesn’t melt like plastic, break like glass, can be shaped after production (unlike plastic or other polymers) and easily recycled.

The material can be sculptured without the need for extreme heat, so can be liquefied and moulded and then bent once finished. This makes it an incredibly versatile substance for use in electronics, car manufacturing and many different fields of engineering.

Advantages include the possibility of not using moulds for large structures that produce shapes that cannot be adjusted. If necessary the form required can be made in-situ and manipulated to fit, something that is not possible with steel for example.

The constitution of the materials determines its rigidity, so you can make it like thick rubber with flexibility at room temperature or much more rigid, but it is not brittle and so will not snap.

Given the many problems associated with plastics and the weight issues of using steel, this material looks to offer the promise of a more versatile, easily recyclable, reusable and less polluting alternative, and certain sectors of the scientific community are calling it a wonder material.

One to watch I would say.

Has Geo-engineering Moved On?

1 Reply Jonny Hankins

Last year I wrote a series on this blog about the environment entitled ‘Can We Improve the Health of the Planet?’ Read all of the posts and report on the series here through the Bassetti Foundation website. The posts received a lot of comments, and one of the most commented was a post about geo engineering called ‘Engineering a Solution to Global Warming’.

To summarize the argument we are talking about ways of cooling the planet using technological intervention.

One of the modes put forward and that I addressed in the post is to remove carbon from the atmosphere in an attempt to minimize the problem of global warming due to heat retention.

This week in Nature magazine a short article appeared that described an experiment that according to the researchers that conducted it seems to be the first time large amounts of carbon have been removed from the atmosphere and stored.

In the case in question scientists have used iron sulphate and the ocean. The iron is dropped into the water which causes a chain if events that pulls the carbon from the atmosphere, hopefully for good.

Ocean Fertilization Technique

The iron in powder form stimulates the growth of algae that lives for about 3 to 4 weeks. Their growth relies on carbon from the air, drawn through photosynthesis. When the algae dies or is eaten and excreted it sinks to the bottom taking all of the carbon with it.

One of the scientists involved in the experiments states that a single atom of iron draws 13000 atoms of carbon from the air, a large proportion of which finds its way to the ocean floor.

Many scientists are skeptical however. The amount of carbon removed is quite literally a drop in the ocean compared to that produced, and critics argue that this insignificant result could open the gates for other geo-engineering experiments, some of which (as my previous post outlined) seem rather unwise.

High Technology Sign Language Gloves

3 Replies Jonny Hankins

The winners have just been announced of the Microsoft Imagine Cup and they have created a very interesting product, worthy of a look I feel and also of the $25000 prize money. The Quad Squad team is a group of students based in Ukraine, and they have designed a pair of gloves that are able to convert sign language into sounded speech.

The gloves are fitted with sensors that can read letters as displayed in sign language. Software then interprets the signs and produces the spoken sound through mobile phone technology.

A pair of sign language conversion gloves.

The designers hope that their product will enable communication between someone speaking using sign language and someone who cannot read sign. Incidentally they have small solar panels fitted so they can recharge themselves while in use.

Comments on the Gizmag blog point to limitations, the gloves can only presently recognize letters and not symbols for words, but all agree that the product is definitely a step in the right direction.

If your sign language is not up to scratch you might like to try a pair of Accelagloves. These gloves use a mixture of sensors, software and a video camera attached to your computer to teach the signing of letters. They cost $300 (including software) and are already available from the Institute for Disabilities Research and Training who worked on their development. The Endgadget website offers a demonstration and the author’s verdict on their efficiency in video format.

The gloves are not only designed as a learning tool however, but also as an input for your computer as communication between gloves and computer is two way. Not only do they teach the symbols but they allow the user to input data through sign language, another important use in cases where visual or audio contact is not possible or the input device cannot be easily held (in emergency situations for example).

If your signing is already good you might like to try a pair of Glow Gloves. A simple idea that enables sign language in the dark, they do exactly what it says on the box.

I worked in a school in Italy where sign was taught as a curriculum subject, and now my youngest son is learning it at pre-school, but from my own point of view it remains an underused resource. Maybe this technology could help to spread its use to a larger group of people.