Nanotech and Wireless Guard Against Earthquakes

Roland Piquepaille writes "Two separate efforts using technology to protect people from earthquakes have recently been in the news. At the University of Leeds, UK, researchers will use nanotechnology and RFID tags to build a 'self-healing' house in Greece. The house's walls will contain nanoparticles that turn into a liquid when squeezed under pressure, flow into cracks, and then harden to form a solid material. The walls will also host a network of wireless sensors and RFID tags that can alert the residents to an imminent earthquake. Meanwhile, another team at the Washington University in St. Louis is using a wireless sensor network to limit earthquake damages."

Comments

Sigh...

[cy_a253]

This is not "nanotech" just because you have nanoparticles. This is applied chemistry and materials science.

Try holding-up a piece of aluminum foil to a lighter flame. The black residue created contains good amounts of C60 buckyballs and other broken bits of nanotubes. These things have always been around. Nanotech means ATOMIC CONTROL, not just nanoparticles. Like this:

http://www.nanoengineer-1.com/mambo/index.php?opti on=com_content&task=view&id=60&Itemid=57

Re:Not sure this is such a great idea

[Max Littlemore]

Imagine a solid structure being put under pressure, as the pressure increased a tiny fraction of the material is turned into liquid, my immediate idea is that this would weaken the structure increasing the risk of a collapse.

I was wondering about this as well. For as long as the liquid is, well, liquid, surely it wouldn't have any structural strength, so this would effectively make a building more likely to fall apart under stress. Or if the liquid solidifies quickly, what happens when a gap gets filled under temporary expansion and is then suddenly compressed? I'd put money on rubble.

In my opinion, a much more sensible idea for housing in earthquake prone areas can be found here (warning: contains video). It's designed to stay up and not crush people while an earthquake is happening. After the earthquake it can be safely demolished and rebuilt for a fraction of the cost of automagichanical fluidic nanobeads or fancy electrological shock absorber doodads.

But then low tech and simple solutions that just work are never as cool as nano electronic opto whatsits. Certainly not as profitable.