In a recent study, molars beat materials science
Posted 08.21.2009 at 9:20 am
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Smile for Airplane Safety! Curtiss P-40 Warhawk
USAF Museum
Airplane design could be improved with a little inspiration from mammalian chompers. Or so said aerospace engineer Herzl Chai of Tel Aviv University in a press release Wednesday.
He and his collaborators studied hundreds of extracted teeth from people and sea otters (apparently our molars are quite similar) to see why teeth can take the wear and tear of a lifetime of peanut brittle. When they submitted the teeth to severe mechanical pressure, they found that pearly whites' complex layers of wavy fibers develop many microcracks instead of a few large fractures.
Chai suggests that the glass and carbon fiber materials used in airplanes might not break up in crashes so badly if they were designed with that kind of wavy structure, instead of the gridlike structure currently in use. Hence, the toothplane, landing soon.
[Via EurekAlert!]
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I really love traveling around the world. If you want to go on a cheap cruise, and don't want to be tooling around in a dinghy, why don't you try freighter world cruises. Freighter world cruises are starting as a cruise ship alternative, with a cargo ship vacation. How it works is that you book a room on a cargo ship that offers the service, and you get three square meals a day, and go to exotic ports of call – just like a regular cruise. It might also a little less cash now than going to the normal route for ocean travel. The space is limited and so are amenities, so bear that in mind if you decide to plunk down cash loans for freighter world cruises.
Read more:
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from Laurel, MD
^^^^ Is there no way to report a comment as inappropriate?
From PopSci:
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I guess their system doesn't work very well.