An Airy Discovery
By Alex Watts
One chemical engineer with respect for nature called C. Jeffery Brinker
has made a breakthrough with science. This breakthrough is a man
made substance called Aerogel. This substance is 99 percent air and 1
percent silica. Silica is actually silicon dioxide. When made, it starts out
wet and squishy like jelly. Then it loses all its water and goes all dry and
stiff. Because of its weight, it feels like smoke in your hand. However,
like most ideas, this came from nature. Have you noticed how in
cartoons, a desert scene or a farm scene has a slow moving ball of hay?
What this actually is is tumbleweed! Brinker has some tacked to his
ceiling. What interested him was that it grew in a continuous branched
structure. Another thing is that its structure is strong and like the inside
of bones. Therefore, he created a bone like substance which is a great
insulator and does not conduct electricity.
Hi Alex,
ReplyDeleteVery interesting articles, however just remember to include the author, the date it was written and the link to the article in your blog post.