Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Sticky Tape Found To Emit Terahertz Radiation

Posted by timothy on from the turn-up-your-sensors dept.

An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from New Scientist "'Peeling sticky tape has already been shown to produce X-rays, so Joseph Horvat and Roger Lewis of the University of Wollongong in New South Wales, Australia, tried to see if it could create lower-frequency terahertz radiation. "We were rather pleasantly surprised to obtain a clear signal in our first attempt," says Horvat. Strongly adhesive Scotch Magic 810 tape and weakly adhesive electrical tape both yielded strong terahertz signals, ranging from 0.1 to 10 terahertz, but only about a microwatt of power, too little for practical use (Optics Letters, vol 34, p 2195). Horvat says that refinements should increase the power by orders of magnitude.' It may be old news to Slashdot that [peeling clear tape] had been proved to produce X-rays, but watching the linked video where they use tape to expose X-ray film was pretty amazing."

11 of 96 comments (clear)

  1. Peeling tape causes radiation? by russotto · · Score: 5, Funny

    From now on, it's staples for everything.

    1. Re:Peeling tape causes radiation? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Sigh. Stop invoking obligatory xkcd references.

    2. Re:Peeling tape causes radiation? by Fieryphoenix · · Score: 5, Funny

      I prefer Office Depot.

    3. Re:Peeling tape causes radiation? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      From now on, it's staples for everything.

      Don't worry, it's only caused by sticky tape. The non-sticky tape is unaffected by this bug.

      Btw, if we are revisiting old slashdot articles, remember that it potentially has a use in creating microelectronics.

    4. Re:Peeling tape causes radiation? by maxwell207crm · · Score: 2, Funny

      In Soviet Russia, radiation emits YOU!!

  2. Duct tape? by jeffshoaf · · Score: 3, Funny

    So, does peeling duct tape emit gamma bursts?

    --
    Putting the "anal" back into "analyst"...
  3. Terminology by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 4, Funny

    Strongly adhesive Scotch Magic 810 tape and weakly adhesive electrical tape both yielded strong terahertz signals,

    I propose that we add two new fundamental forces to our physics lexicon - "strongly adhesive" and "weakly adhesive".

    --
    #DeleteChrome
  4. Re:The burning question! by ArsonSmith · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yes, you will have the power to mend small tears in sheets of paper. The magical ability to control paint to be applied in some areas but not in others along nice sharp lines. The super human ability to stop electricity from shorting between two wires.

    Among other similar powers.

    --
    Paying taxes to buy civilization is like paying a hooker to buy love.
  5. Oh noes, terrorist alert by Stu101 · · Score: 3, Funny

    I can see al qaeda ordering boat loads of it for a mass suicide tape pulling! Does this also mean tape may be declared a weapon of mass destruction ;)

    --
    http://www.writeitfor.us - Writing IT for the IT generation.
    1. Re:Oh noes, terrorist alert by StikyPad · · Score: 2, Funny

      Laugh it up, fuzzball! Some of us are worried that *we* might get caught up in this dragnet just because our names sound adhesive..

      --
      https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
  6. Re:Radiation by The+Archon+V2.0 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Eeep! /me dons tinfoil hat. /me realizes tinfoil is matter

    D'oh!

    I don't know if I should fear or welcome the day conspiracy theorists spontaneously all decide that tinfoil is out to get them.