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Scientists Have Invented Paper That You Can Print With Light, Erase With Heat, and Reuse 80 Times (qz.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Quartz: Nearly 1% of carbon emissions annually can be attributed to paper production, even though we recycle much of the paper we produce. Yadong Yin has a solution. He and his colleagues at the University of California at Riverside have invented a type of paper that can be printed on using just light, erased by heating, and reused up to 80 times. Yin created nanoparticles, which are a million times smaller than the thickness of human hair, with the dye Prussian blue, or its chemical analogues, and titanium oxide, which is commonly used in white wall paint. This mixture is then applied to normal paper. When the coating is exposed to ultraviolet light, electrons from titanium oxide move to the dye in the nanoparticle. This addition of electrons makes the blue dye turn white. Focusing the ultraviolet light into shapes, you can print white words on a blue background -- or blue words on a white background, which are easier to read. If left alone, the paper reverts to its original state in five days. That process can be accelerated by heating the paper to 120 C (250 F) for 10 minutes.
Now all we need is a new printer that doesn't jam when the paper is not perfectly smooth.
They can use this for all internal and external communications and never have to admit that they lied or changed their position.
Why is Snark Required?
See? This is your employment contract with your signature at the bottom, and it says right here in clause 13a that we're allowed to ride you like a donkey every 2nd Tuesday.
That process can be accelerated by heating the paper to 120 C (250 F) for 10 minutes.
Or, just forget your documents in the car in summer one day and have them all erased.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
It's likely to be pretty safe. The process uses Prussian blue (iron hexacyanoferrate) and titanium oxide (presumably titanium (IV) oxide, given the reference to white paint). Prussian blue is non-toxic and highly stable, despite containing cyanide groups (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prussian_blue#Adverse_effects) and is actually used as a treatment for heavy metal poisoning. Titanium (IV) oxide is so safe it's often used as a food additive, as well as already being a component of many papers - it helps make them more white and opaque. Safety issues have been raised over some sizes of titanium oxide nanoparticle (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanium_dioxide#Health_and_safety) but despite this they're still widely used in products like sunscreen.
Paper is cheap. It can be recycled. Trees are renewable. I don't see the need for this new paper, other than possible use in a Mission Impossible movie.
The point of paper is that it's semi-permanent. That's why it's used so much. This does absolutely nothing to reduce the need for traditional paper. You could do the same thing with a decent tablet already, and for most things you just don't.
It can be reused/reprinted 80 times. It doesn't say it will stay wrinkle/crease free for 80 reuses. And when it does get thrown out, it's full of ferric ferrocyanide, which is fairly toxic.
Any amount of wear on the paper and nobody will want it second-hand. Or, nobody will buy their own paper because it's too expensive. They just won't return the paper back to the convention staff, etc.
Like the sort of people who would fly into a rage and violently protest the speech of a gay Jew? Like in Berkeley last week?
I can't stand Milo, but he has the right to speak his mind just like anyone else. Shutting him down was a shameful example of muzzling free speech. Left unchecked, "social justice" seems to morph into the "tyranny of the politically correct" every goddamn time.
Supporting "free speech" means supporting the kind of speech we disagree with or even hate, it doesn't mean allowing only the kind of speech we happen to agree with or find acceptable.
So to all of you self-righteous silencers out there, if you don't support the kind of speech you detest, you're not supporting free speech. It's a shame that so many people just don't get this.
Most recently the suppression of opposing opinions as been rebranded as the "no platforming", which is just suppression of free speech under a new, trendy term.
Again, I can't stand Milo Yiannopoulos- he's a self-loathing toady, but even he gets things right once in a while. While I disagree with 95% of the shit that comes out of his mouth, he should have the right to spew his nonsense just like anyone else.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
I recall decades ago Xerox tried marketing an erasable paper copy machine. Never heard of it? Right. It wasn't popular.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Pointing things out should not involve burning other peoples property or threatening physical violence. And there is a difference between saying all X are Y and actually acting like all X are Y or even going around referring to all X as Y. It's not like anyone could know all X, except when X is a very small group.
I find Milo to be funny and the reactions to him even more so.