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Posts Tagged ‘Solvents’

Coffee-like stains inspire new type of touchscreen
The magical properties of coffee stains have already spurred on some researchers to develop a better coating for TV screens, and it looks like they’ve now inspired a few folks to create a new type of touchscreen as well. This latest instance apparently began when Hebrew University professor Shlomo Magdassi was working to develop a touchscreen using silver nanoparticles but ran into trouble making the screen conductive while still remaining transparent. As it happens, the coffee-like stains that he and his colleagues had been trying to remove with fast-drying solvents was actually the solution to his problem, since they remained in contact with each other as they dried and preserved conductivity, but left about 95 percent of the light through the holes in the center, thereby making the screen itself almost fully transparent. Of course, there’s still quite a bit more work to be done before the screens move beyond the lab, but Magdassi has apparently already found that copper nanorings can be used in similar manner, and says that the screens could even double as solar panels to give devices a bit of added juice.

Coffee-like stains inspire new type of touchscreen originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 17:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The weird science of rats and the smell of road rage

Rats get road rage via gasoline, find unleaded stressful: Maybe some of the erratic behavior we see on the roads can be ascribed to people who’ve breathed a bit too deeply while filling the tank. Rats made to inhale gasoline vapors experienced significant changes in neurotransmitter levels, and a corresponding increase in aggression. Unleaded gasoline apparently induced biochemical changes suggestive of oxidative stress, as well, although this effect wasn’t seen when leaded was inhaled.

Drug users know their stuff better than legislators: It’s fairly apparent that our system of drug laws is more the product of historical accident than rational analysis, as harmful, addictive substances like alcohol and tobacco are relatively unregulated. A team of researchers based in London has now found that drug users’ ratings of hazardous substances place alcohol, tobacco, and solvents among the top-ten most dangerous substances. Ironically, the ratings provided by drug users more closely match those of addiction experts than the UK’s drug laws do.

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