Science Projects And Inventions

Before the 1940s, scientists wanting to determine the age of fossils and other organic materials relied on relative dating techniques, grouping objects by the estimated date of surrounding rock strata. This method could produce large inaccuracies. Strangely, the ability to date objects more accurately was to originate from outer space. High- energy cosmic rays are constantly bombarding our atmosphere; when they hit, they break up atoms in the stratosphere. A consequence of this is the production of an unstable radioactive form of carbon called Carbon-14 (C-14) from atmospheric nitrogen. American scientist William Frank Libby (1908-1980) reasoned that, as all living creatures are made up of carbon and are constantly replacing this carbon from the atmosphere (plants take it in as carbon dioxide and animals absorb it from plants), all living organisms should have an equal amount of C-14 in their bodies in relation to the proportions occurring in the atmosphere. more...

"The American people never carry an umbrella. They prepare to walk in eternal sunshine." Alfred E. Smith, U.S. politician It was either the Chinese or the ancient Egyptians who first invented the umbrella. Early records from both cultures indicate that umbrellas were used to screen monarchs and people of high standing from the sun. The job of hoisting an umbrella above the emperor was often reserved for the servant of highest rank. The Chinese developed the technology furthest, waxing their paper parasols to provide protection from rain. Around 4,000 years ago, the Chinese also made their umbrellas collapsible, and since then the overall design has changed very little. Making its way to Rome and Greece, the umbrella was used to shade women and even effeminate men from the sun while attending the open-air theater. These umbrellas were made from leather or skins. The umbrella reached England during the reign of more...

The production of aluminum foil via the process of the endless rolling of aluminum sheets cast from moltenaluminum was pioneered at a foil-rolling plant at the foot of the Rhine Falls in the Swiss town of Kreuzlingen in 1910. The plant was owned by the aluminum manufacturing firm J. G. Neher and Sons. The firm had experimented with sheets of pure aluminum, placing them between two heavy, adjustable rollers and filling the interior of the rollers with boiling water. Sheets were passed continuously through the rollers, which were gradually brought closer and closer together until the desired thickness of foil was achieved. Its earliest uses were as wrappers for various tobacco and confectionery products, and with its effectiveness as a barrier to oxygen and light, inhibiting the growth of bacteria, aluminum foil soon supplanted tin as the preferred metal in the wrapping and preservation of foodstuffs. Processes evolved to include more...

"In most Iowa homes this third day of the week  [Tuesday] is reserved for ironing." The Iowa Housewife, 1880 Devices for getting wrinkles out of fabric have been around nearly as long as fabric itself. The Vikings used whalebone smoothing boards, the Chinese filled metal pots with hot coals to press cloth, and, in seventeenth-century England, the screw press was popular. By the nineteenth century, most metal smoothers (irons) had adopted their familiar shape, but ironing boards had not evolved at the same rate as fashion design and ironing was often carried out on tables or boards resting across two chairs. Sleeves, pant legs, ruffles, pleats, pockets, buttons, curved seams—the more details were added to clothes, the more difficult it was to remove the wrinkles after laundering. To help improve matters, inventors turned their attention from irons to ironing boards. The first U.S. patent for an "ironing table" was granted more...

Sir William George Armstrong (1810-1900), the first and last Baron Armstrong of Cragside, was an English industrialist who pioneered the use of hydraulic power to operate a wide variety of machinery, harnessing the power of water to feed the Industrial Age. One of his first inventions using the 'resource of water was an improved rotary water motor, and soon after this innovation he designed a piston engine driven by water. He realized that his invention had the potential to be incorporated into a more' efficient design of crane than those then in operation. The first of Armstrong's hydraulic cranes was built on Newcastle docks in 1846 and was tremendously successful. It utilized the pressure from the town's mains water supply, acting on a piston inside a cylinder, this in turn moving gears that drove the- crane. The design was so successful that the Newcastle Corporation ordered three more cranes, .soon more...

“... shaped like a small brick... and could hold the equivalent of about two-and-a-half pages." Astrid Wendlandt, Financial Times It is 1984. Economies are booming, Newsweek magazine declares it "the year of the yuppie," and in the U.K. the Filofax personal organizer is the must have accessory for all young urban professionals. In London, though, Dr. David Potter is planning to make the leather-bound, paper-based Filofax obsolete. Dr. Potter's company, Psion—the name comes from "Potter's Scientific Instruments"—had been in business for a few years already, making games and other software for early home computers like Sinclair's ZX Spectrum. In 1984 Psion entered the computer hardware market, releasing a new kind of handheld computer, the Psion Organiser. It was a hefty device, a rectangular slab of plastic with a small screen at the top and a keyboard protected by a sliding sleeve. It had a clock, a small memory, and it more...

The human quest for clean, drinkable water has been going on for thousands of years, and methods of purifying   water   have   undergone   countless incarnations over this time. According to the evidence of Sanskrit writings dating to approximately 2000 B.C.E., water filtration appears to have been developed in the-Indus Valley, located in current day Pakistan and western India. The Susruta Samhita, ancient Sanskrit medical writings, include instructions on purifying water: "Impure water should be purified by being boiled over a fire, or being heated in the sun, or by dipping a heated iron into it, or it may be purified by filtration through sand and coarse gravel and then allowed to cool." Early purification methods were focused on the aesthetic qualities of water,'..such as taste and appearance, rather than hygiene. The ancient Egyptians were also concerned with the appearance of their drinking water. As early as 1500 more...

"The oxide on aluminum is naturally corrosion resistant, an insulator and very tenacious." Mario S. Pennisi, consultant A rusty automobile is a shame. A rusty piece of aluminum, however, is not only desirable, it is anodized. When exposed to oxygen, pure aluminum metal builds up a layer of aluminum oxide. The aluminum oxide has a significantly greater resistance to corrosion and abrasion and consequently serves as a sturdy shell to protect the rest of the aluminum. Anodizing is a process right out of a mad scientist movie. In 1927 Charles Gbw.er and Stafford O'Brien patented a sulfuric acid anodizing process that is now the most common way to anodize aluminum. The aluminum is first immersed in electrified sulfuric acid. Electric charges cause oxygen to build up on the surface of the aluminum, creating a thick coat of aluminum oxide. Next, the aluminum can be easily colored and used in countless more...

Anyone taking a medication only once a day should thank Alejandro Zaffaroni (b. 1923). It was his pioneering attitude that brought about slow-release medications, including drugs that are absorbed through the skin and five-year reversible birth control. In 1949 Zaffaroni received a PhD from the University of Rochester in New York after his thesis on quantitative analysis of natural steroids. His work had taught him that organisms generally released steroids in small amounts over relatively long periods of time. This was in stark contrast to most medications of the 1940s, which involved relatively large doses in pill-like forms. In 1968 he founded Alza (an acronym of his own name) to pursue his concept of improving medical treatment through controlled drug delivery. He had seen the side effects that many medicines produced when they were sent to the bloodstream all in one massive dose, and knew there had to be a more...

"[Give people] a Post-it® note and they immediately know what to do with it and see its value." Arthur Fry The Post-it® is a small reminder note, stuck temporarily to documents, computers, and other prominent spots. Launched commercially in 1980 by Arthur Fry (b, 1931) and Spencer Silver (b. 1941), employees of 3M in the United States, the notes are available in a wide range of shapes and colors, although the original yellow, three- inch (7.5 cm) square note is still the most popular. In 1968 Silver developed a "low-tack" reusable adhesive made of tiny, indestructible acrylic spheres. Sticking to a given surface at a tangent rather than flat against it, the adhesive was sufficiently strong enough to hold papers together, but weak enough to separate them without tearing. Silver envisaged its application as a spray, or as a surface for notice hoards. He spent five unsuccessful years promoting his more...