If you’ve ever accidentally superglued your fingers together, you know firsthand (so to speak) that adhesive forms powerful bonds with materials.  When it happened – a self-gluing accident happens to everyone eventually – you probably did a little Internet research (which was itself a challenge since you’d only eight or so unstuck fingers with which to type) and found out that superglue dissolves away with the application of a little acetone.  I bring this up to highlight a fundamental law of gluing: sticking two things together is useful; being able to unstick as them as needed is even more useful.  To that end, General Motors researchers have created an …

Remember when you could invite people to your house to build a fort, and nobody thought it was unusual?  You’d be all, “hey, wanna build a fort?” and Linny and the rest of the gang would be all, “sure, but you should know we’ve already built three sweet fortifications this morning and we’re walking to the candy store for pixi stix first.”  These days if I called up some friends and asked them if they wanted to build a fort in the living room they’d think I was crazy.  Well, my friends would probably …

As Kermit the Frog has said time and again, it’s not easy being green.  You don’t have to tell that to scientists working with LED’s (Light Emitting Diodes); producing red light is a cinch, blue light has been with us for around 15 years thanks to some clever researchers from Japan, but green light is as hard to get right as a celebrity marriage and people have been struggling with the problem for the past ten years (Scanlon).  Red, blue, and green light combine to make white light.  So if you don’t have a green, you’re …

I’ve been thinking about bubbles today.  I’ve been thinking how they are friendly and approachable, associated with sunny days in the park, foam parties, and protective packaging for new glassware.  Soap bubbles are fleeting – one minute they’re launching themselves off the end of a little pink plastic wand, the next they’re floating through the air, and then … they pop.  Bubblewrap doesn’t last long either because it is so tempting to sit around compulsively popping all the air pouches.  Bubbles do stick around when you trap them in something like plastic or glass – which brings me to …

I’ve extolled the merits of insulation in previous posts, but never in my life have I been more excited to report on a technicolor technological breakthrough that will alter the course of human existence: it’s called Fuskittle Insulation, and it’s a massive game-changer.
The amazing insulating properties of Skittles were largely unknown until Marjorie Pilsner, an undergraduate student at the University of Virginia School of Architecture, accidentally spilled a bag of the sugary, pebble-shaped candy on a hotplate she was using to heat split-pea soup in the wee hours of the morning on February 10, 2010.  “I bought the …