Its called aerogel

It sounds like a gel but this is a solid, tougher than glass. This crazy material is a product of Nanotechnology. Aerogel is like foam, principally made out of air (99.8% air).

Aerogel is made from alcogel (a gel made by polymerisation silicon alkoxide with water in a mixing solvent). The alcogel is dried and liquid is extracted from the solid silica. The remaining solid is then filled with air to 50-99% of the volume of the original alcogel (Aerogel - gel filled with air).

Aerogel is 1000 less dense than glass, but is 39 times more insulating than the best fiber glass. It also has a low thermal conductivity, meaning a 3,000°F blowtorch under a thin slice of Aerogel will not affect objects above it. You can find out more on the web.

Aerogel was used by NASA on Mars' Pathfinder. It has at least 15 entries in the Guinness book of records. Now watch this video of a blanket made from Aerogel : Aspen Aerogel.

Properties :

Melting point : 1,473 K (1,200 °C or 2,192 °F)

Density : 3 milligrams per cubic centimeter.

Here are some link related to Aerogel :
http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/tech/aerogel.html
http://www.unitednuclear.com/aerogel.htm
http://homepages.cae.wisc.edu/~aerogel/aboutaerogel.html

Basics_3 : The Fastest Train in the World

France is well known for arts, culture and fashion, but few people know it is one of the world leaders in rail transport technology. Alstom's V150 Translet is the fastest rail train in the world. On April 3rd, it bit its own record by 59.5 km/hr set in 1990. The train's code name is V150 which stands for 150 meters per second (or more).
Alstom supplies rail equipments worldwide. Some of its competitors are Bombardier, Siemens and Ansaldo-Breda.
" Alstom is hoping to sell its high-speed trains in several countries, including China, Argentina and Brazil. The state of California is among the interested buyers. California's project would link Sacramento and San Diego by going through San Francisco and Los Angeles. The project, if approved, would cost an estimated $40 billion. It would take less than 2½ hours to reach Los Angeles from the Bay Area." From ABC News world.

A couple points you need to know:

Record Speed : 574,8 km/h (357.2 mph)

Power : 2 engines totaling 25, 000 horsepower

Check out the video on YouTube.

Note the Maglev train set a record in 2003. This uses magnetic levitation and will be discussed latter on.

Basics_2 : Fastest Aircraft

The SR-71 Blackbird

Imagine flying from New York to London in less than 2 hours !

Designed about 30 years ago, Lockheed's airplane is the fastest jet fueled manned vehicle. The SR-71 is powered by Pratt and Whitney's J-58 turbojets. Each turbojet has an after burner and produces a thrust of 32,500 pounds.

The SR-71 can have up to a speed of 3.2 Machs (more than three times the speed of sound), and can fly at altitudes over 85,000 ft ( 25,908m).

In order to resist the heat produced by friction at such speeds, the Blackbird is made out of Titanium (frame), and is coated with a special heat-emitting black paint (hence the name Blackbird) which helps cool the aircraft.

NASA has been doing some research on the SR-71 for more information, follow the link (NASA) and check out the modification like the SR-17 LASRE or sonic boom recordings. We might also look at the Scramjet-powered X-43A, designed to fly at speeds up to Mach 10. Also look at the blackbird's pictures.

I guess we don't know if there an aircraft faster than this right, until the right occasion shows up.
One never knows what the U.S. or the Russian governments can come up with.

3D Printing Taken to Another Level

The Z Corporation is introducing the ZPrinter 450. It brings CAD files to life.3D samples can be printed from selected solid models. This is considerably useful for designers and the manufacturing Industry.
The ZPrinter 450 has a build speed of 2-4 layers per minute with a 300 x 450 dpi (resolution). The equipment is quite big and weighs 193kg (425 lbs), but has no physical support structures attached, compared to other 3D printers. Check out the customer's list; including NASA, Boeinng, And1, BAE Systems, Harvard Graduate School of Design, Adidas International, Timberland, Alcan Packaging and more.
Watch the video on Youtube, its simply amazing.

Tallest building in the world

On July 21st the Burj Dubai became 21 feet taller than the Taipei 101 (509m, 1,667 ft) hence becoming the tallest building in the world. Currently with 141 floors, the final height of this building is till unknown. They say its going to be over 800m (more than 2600ft) tall and should be finished by 2009.
I quote " Burj Dubai is located downtown Dubai and the 500 acre development already welcomes its first residents. It will also contain the luxurious Armani hotel. The hotel will include 175 guest rooms and suites restaurants and spa covering more than 40,000 sq m. Alongside the Burj Dubai will offer 144 luxury residential apartments all designed and fully furnished from a specially designed line of products from the Armani Casa home furnishing collection. "
For more please go the Burj Dubai web page. Its kind of beautiful.

Is the iPhone safe

Imagine a website that can take control of your phone. A website that can make calls from your phone, view your text messages extract any file and the list goes on. Check out this NY Times article.
This flaw was discovered by researchers working for Independent Security Evaluators. It took them less than a week to discover this crack. All it takes is to trick you to go to a certain website through WiFi connection. The site injects some code into the iPhone which in turn follows instructions like extracting text messages or making phone calls. More details available on this Youtube Video.
This shows apple softwares can also be vulnerable to worms, viruses or malicious softwares, but do not worry, as with windows, there is a patch that can fix this flaw. I'm looking forward to owning this phone as soon as its released in Canada. Can't wait.
A guide to hacking the phone can be found on www.exploitingiphone.com. Enjoy !

Basics_1 : Longest Bridge In the World

Lets start with the basics. Many people would know this, but the longest suspension bridge today is in Japan. Cost about U.S.$ 5 billion with a toll of U.S.$ 20.
The bridge was completed in 1998 and has 6 lanes, here are some other facts you might want to know:

Name : Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge (AKA Pearl Bridge)

Length : 3,911 metres (12,831 ft)

Longest span : 1,991 metres (6,532 ft)

Introduction

Welcome to Engineering Watch. This blog targets outstanding engineering projects and companies involved in such projects.