Slashdot Mirror
Japanese Researchers Make Plastic Out of Water
greenrainbow writes with this excerpt from Inhabit: "The material shown in the picture above is just ice, right? Look again. Elastic water, a new substance invented by researchers at Tokyo University, is a jelly-like substance made up of 95% water along with two grams of clay and a small amount of organic materials. As is, the all-natural substance is perfect for medical procedures, because it's made of water, poses no harm to people, and is perfect for mending tissue. And, if the research team can increase the density of this exciting new substance, it could be used in place of our current oil-based plastics for a host of other things."
Woohoo, plastic water, just what I need! (:
"There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death." Proverbs 16:25 (NKJV)
Wow, that's one blurry photograph.
any one else thinking of ice nine?
I know Japan is a day ahead, but April Fools Day was last month.
Gary Dunn
Open Slate Project
Not impressed. I read somewhere where some guy turned water into wine. Not that's impressive.
The real Sig captains the Northwestern. This one captains
Take this on desert treks. You can stretch it over a much longer time.
ideopath @ play
It would be interesting to know exactly what the other "organic materials" are, and how they made it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jell-O
We "invented" this a couple of hundred years ago. We call it "jelly" in civilised lands, or "jello" in the colonies. kthxbye.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
...a jelly-like substance made up of 95% water along with two grams of clay and a small amount of organic materials.
It also takes 7 minutes and 8% of your time to set after you mix the ingredients together.
[b.belong('us') for b in bases if b.owner() == 'you']
Oh, so that's how Jesus did it.
Apparently this new substance melts at 45.8 degrees Celsius.
Is it like some sort of a water bag/pocket, only if it tears it will not leak, is it sort of like Jelo?
The story has no details, it's water + clay + some organic stuff.
Sounds like what god was using to throw together the first human prototype. Are these guys from Tokyo god?
You can't handle the truth.
on X-COM Terror From the Deep (circa 1996), there was this fictional alien material called aquaplastics...which could be used to build armor.
Cool, but old news. Haven't really heard anything about it since (other than rehashes of that same info from Oct)
welcome our new water-based, plastic overlords!
natural
breast
implants
that is all
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
...because if there's one thing the human race doesn't need for survival, it's definitely water.
http://www.bynarystudio.com
...for the Vonnegut fans out there...
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10441604-1.html
.. when you the use water off of Louisiana.
That all of the necessary chemicals to make plastic are already in our polluted water. They have simply found a way to make it congeal.
Again, the "Wizards" at SlashDot let ANOTHER crappy and purely misleading title make its way into "News":
".....95% water along with two grams of clay and a small amount of organic materials."
-So, in all ACTUALITY, the researchers did *NOT* make plastic out of water, the made it out of water, clay, and other chemicals, but not just water.
This use of water is no more remarkable than the use of other absorbant polymers or hydrogels, such as Super Slurper, or for an organic material, Gelatin.
It's about time somebody started seeing such "discoveries" for what they really are: Re-hashed Crap. I'm waiting to see a SlashDot article where somebody discovers The Wheel.
Knowing Google's lust for data collection, the Soviet Union is still alive and well inside the psyche of Sergey Brin....
It also has a high mechanical strength and self mends when damaged.
Either the article is wrong, or it has some very interesting properties.
Aerogel* is also only 2% silica and 98% air. Doesn’t mean it’s made out of air.
This is a material out of clay, that can bind lots of water. Just like aerogel binds lots of air.
___ :) (The favorite abnormal is definitely a Bose-Einstein condensate!)
* Btw, my favorite of all “normal” materials on this planet.
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
I can't remember if it was Popular Science, Popular Mechanics or Mechanix Illustrated, but at least 25 years ago I read an article about an invention that would be ideal for such a spill.
It was a large dome that floated mostly underwater, with a cupula sticking out of the top with baffles that directed waves into the center.
The wave action essentially pumped the oil floating on the surface (and water) into the dome, and since the oil floats, the water was pushed out of the bottom. It was designed to be deployed as an array for very large spills such as this one.
- Preferences: Solaris 10 (servers), Ubuntu (desktops), Solaris 11 (personal servers) -
Sounds like an excellent marketing ploy for bottled water companies
The Internet has given stupid people the resources of intelligent people.
Water, clay and "organic materials". What if the "organic materials" are dysentery amoeba, Ebola virus, or cyanide? Suddenly 95% water doesn't mean as much.
Just because it is 95% water does not mean it is necessarily safe for human use. Aside from a little clay, what is the rest of that 5% of 'organic material'? Formaldehyde is an organic material, and I would not want that put into my body in any great quantity.
First:
is a jelly-like substance made up of 95% water along with two grams of clay and a small amount of organic materials.
Then:
because it's made of water, poses no harm to people
That's about as reassuring as saying "This 95% water and 5% deadly deadly poison solution will be completely safe to inject directly into your bloodstream, since it is made completely out of water!"
Fine, they can make plastic out of water, way cool! I'll give em that. But why, oh why can't they upload a decent photo :S
Be yourself and aim high!
because it's made of water, poses no harm to people
Yeah. Forget about the clay and OTHER ORGANIC MOLECULES, it's got water so it has to be safe, right? People can be allergic to iron or zinc, let alone complex molecules.
Sea water is made of "water" too. Try injecting some in your veins.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
you mean a goo girl ? warning, NSFW
I don't care how crappy the movie was!
Spork.
P.S. Spork.
This will never replace oil based plastics. All you need to do is look at how hemp isn't replacing wood products, paper, clothing, etc. There are too few people with too much money running the oil industry. If they don't want your little water-plastics taking over the market, then it won't be. Simple as that.
"because it's made of water, poses no harm to people"" tell that to any one who has been hit by a large wave.. or a hurricane or a typhoon or been hit by another human being.
One step closer to ice-nine.
And you made me remember: Polywater Doodle!
Leave it Baen Books to put some of my childhood back up on the web for free. Anyway, their DRM-free marketing strategy works for me, I've never bought any ebooks anywhere else!
Yes? Then, stfu. I did even post data to back up my statement.
Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
Could anyone find the link to the Nature article or any other scientific literature on this material? I couldn't find it in the current issue of Nature.
This is not new, nor is it even recent--you could buy this as a novelty (and a very nasty prank item) some fifteen years ago. You simply take five to ten pounds of the powder stuff, scatter it in somebody's living room, and then add water, with a hose. It is a damn HARD cleanup, as it forms "ice-cubes" up to waist deep. Another vandal use for it is dump ten-twenty pounds into swimming pools, or ornamental ponds/fountains--but try it yourself!
how strong is it, and by what measure? I see it flexes in that person's hand so it's certainly not rigid. tensile strength? sheer strength? There's no way to tell what may or may not be done with the substance without more information.
If video games influenced behavior the Pac Man generation would be eating pills and running away from their problems.
The most important thing about any replacement for our current plastics, I would think, would be that it be biodegradable, no?
TFA doesn't seem to say one way or another though.
After learning that metal, plastic, and ceramics weren't safe to drink out of, I thought I was smart getting a mould of a mug and freezing up an ice mug in the freezer. Now that you can use water to hold water without it melting, I just feel silly lol.
Google's Super Secret Search Algorithm: SELECT @search_results FROM internet WHERE @search_results = 'good'
That's about as reassuring as saying "This 95% water and 5% deadly deadly poison solution will be completely safe to inject directly into your bloodstream, since it is made completely out of water!"
Yeah just like those Stimutacs I got from some guy who never gets out of his chair. He said they're safe because they are made from, like, 99% kelp. He works in a very advanced underwater research center called Sealab so he should know!
In the free world the media isn't government run; the government is media run.
Medigel anyone?
As is, the all-natural substance is perfect for medical procedures, because it's made of water, poses no harm to people, and is perfect for mending tissue.
Seriously?
You're a terrible troll, just awful. you have to post something at least half way interesting if you want people to reply.