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Gecko-Inspired Dry Adhesive Set For Space
AndreV writes "Biomimetic adhesives aren't new, but a PhD graduate in British Columbia has developed a new method of creating microscopic, mushroom-like plastic structures in order to produce a dry adhesive that mimics the stickiness of gecko feet—and is prepping his glue-free innovation for outer space. A research group at his university, in collaboration with the European Space Agency, is engineering a spider-like, sticky-footed climbing robot destined to explore Mars, and it is also developing reusable attaching systems for astronauts to use where magnetic and suction systems generally fail. In the future, he says, single-use versions could be used in any number of medical applications as well as for replacements for everyday sticky needs, such as Post-It notes and Scotch tape."
Someone needs to collect all the scientific knowledge expressed in slashdot posts, and write a text book. Why hide this useful archive of scientific truths in obscure blog posts when we can use it to illuminate the minds of the children?
Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
You explained to her she shouldn't do something because a machine can't do it either?
I'd use the good-old-pie-fractions example. Take a pie. Divide it into two parts, explain that's dividing by two.
Cut it again, so it's four parts. Explain you divided it by four.
Cut twice more and ask how many pieces there are (that's how many you divided by).
Now, give her the knife, and ask her to divide it into zero parts. Explain that's why she can't divide by zero... no matter how many times you cut, no matter how you approach it, you cannot end up with zero parts.
Then, eat the pie and play fractions games with each piece.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
The problem with "zero divided by zero equals zero" is that it is equally true that "zero divided by zero equals twelve". How many zeros does it take to equal zero? Zero, one, two, pi, anything. It's undefined. And here ends my first slashdot post where I am literally arguing over nothing.