LEEVENSPARK

Physical Chemistry Gold has been treasured throughout history partly because of its great chemical stability. Resistant to attack by oxygen, which rusts or tarnishes other metals, gold remains bright and beautiful under ordinary environmental conditions for centuries. Gold, however, does oxidize, forming Au2O3, when exposed to environments containing a highly reactive form of oxygen— e.g., atomic oxygen or ozone. Hans-Gerd Boyen of the University of Ulm, Ger., led a German-Swiss team that announced the discovery of a more oxidation-resistant form of gold. The material, called Au55, consists of gold nanoparticles; each nanoparticle is a tiny cluster comprising exactly 55 gold atoms and measuring about 1.4 nm (nanometres). Boyen's group reported that Au55 resisted corrosion under conditions that corroded bulk gold and gold nanoparticles consisting of either larger or smaller numbers of atoms. The researchers speculated that the chemical stability is conferred by special properties

                                     Carbon Chemistry Scientists continued their search for commercial and industrial applications of the tiny elongated molecular structures known as carbon nanotubes. Discovered in 1991, nanotubes consist of carbon atoms bonded together into graphitelike sheets that are rolled into tubes 10,000 times thinner than a human hair. Their potential applications range from tiny wires in a new generation of ultrasmall computer chips to biological probes small enough to be implanted into individual cells. Many of those uses, however, require attaching other molecules to nanotubes to make nanotube derivatives. In general, methods for making small amounts of derivatives for laboratory experimentation have required high temperatures and other extreme conditions that would be too expensive for industrial-scale production. During the year chemists from Rice University, Houston, Texas, and associates from the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, described groun

The Future of Robotics Most robots look like other machines and only do one task. Friendly Robotics RL1000 “Rob motor” is a lawnmower that’ll cut your grass automatically. The cost is roughly $1800. In order to update the Rob mower, you have to plug it into the phone line, and it’ll automatically download software updates. These same robotics are being used in smart houses. Robotics will make everyday household living an extraordinary experience! Robotics Timeline 2006- Roomba Sales Top 2 million 2007- Sales of pool cleaning and window washing robots will increase. Honda’s Asimo will debut in USA. 2009- 4.5 million domestic robots will have been sold 2010- Personal robots sales will exceed $17 billion. Future for Robotics Robots still need to be revitalized before they are versatile and independent to help our society

Launched alongside The Museum of Modern Art “Design and The Elastic Mind” exhibition, the Morph concept device is a bridge between highly advanced technologies and their potential benefits to end-users. This device concept showcases some revolutionary leaps being explored by Nokia Research Center (NRC) in collaboration with the Cambridge Nanoscience Centre (United Kingdom) – nanoscale technologies that will potentially create a world of radically different devices that open up an entirely new spectrum of possibilities. Morph concept technologies might create fantastic opportunities for mobile devices: ·    Newly-enabled flexible and transparent materials blend more seamlessly with the way we live ·    Devices become self-cleaning and self-preserving ·    Transparent electronics offering an entirely new aesthetic dimension ·    Built-in solar absorption might charge a device, whilst batteries become smaller, longer lasting and faster to charge ·    Integrated sensors might allow us t

LAPTOP PROTECTOR CIRCUIT Protect your valuable laptop against theft using this miniature alarm generator. Fixed inside the laptop case, it will sound a loud alarm when someone tries to take the laptop. This highly sensitive circuit uses a homemade tilt switch to activate the alarm through tilting of the laptop case. The circuit uses readily available components and can be assembled on a small piece of Vero board or a general- purpose PCB. It is powered by a 12V miniature battery used in remote control devices. IC TLO71 (IC1) is used as a voltage comparator with a potential divider comprising R2 and R3 providing half supply voltage at the non-inverting input (pin 3) of IC1. The inverting input receives a higher volt-age through a water-activated tilt switch only when the probes in the tilt switch make contact with water.When the tilt switch is kept in the horizontal position, the inverting input of IC1 gets a higher voltage than its noninverting input and the output remains low. IC CD4