Space elevator?
Proteus Technology: New Material Is Strong, Light and Non-Cuttable
41–50 of 249 posts
Re: Proteus Technology: New Material Is Strong, Light and Non-Cuttable
#42How about a plasma cutter? I know a plasma cutter will cut through normal silica. (I cut through some steel plate laying right on top of large gravel.) Silicon dioxides melting point is 1700 C, and aluminum oxide is 2100 C, a little higher.
Isn't a plasma cutter actually melting an area out of a material and not actually cutting it?
Re: Proteus Technology: New Material Is Strong, Light and Non-Cuttable
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is an absolutely amazing innovation, but bike thieves have already progressed to using powder-actuated pistons in order to break the internal mechanism of a lock. Much faster and easier than cutting anything.
Maybe in YouTube videos but I have not heard of people using Ramsets to steal bike in real life. Firing a gun is a good way to get people call the cops. Edit: I am wrong!
Do you have lots of experience looking at reports of stolen bikes? I have heard exactly the opposite in my major metro area. My sources are law enforcement and bike clubs.
Re: Proteus Technology: New Material Is Strong, Light and Non-Cuttable
#44> The freefall of grapefruit from 10 m does not damage the pulp[1] because pomelo peel consists of vascular bundles and an open-pored cellular structure with the struts made of parenchymatic cells.
I have a Marsh grapefruit tree, fruiting now (southern hemisphere) as it happens, and I note that it produces particularly pithy progeny. (Ignoring for the moment that Pomelo is one of the parents of the modern grapefruit.)
I don't have a convenient 10 metre drop to test this, and while I have no reason to doubt the veracity of this citation, I'm now consumed with curiosity why this plant has evolved to have this feature.
I expect it's quite an expensive adaptation, and given that modern specimens are the result of a lot of cross-breeding over the years to have juicier pulp and a lower ratio of skin/pith to pulp (ie. reduced resistance to damage) it presumably was even more expensive in ancestor plants.
Standard fruit purpose is to have animals unwittingly propagate the plant -- entice something to eat the fruit, and some time / distance later, deposit the seeds in a fertiliser ball. How does protecting the pulp from these kind of damage assist with that -- unless ancestor trees were spectacularly tall, and ancestor consumers fantastically fastidious on fruit quality.
Re: Proteus Technology: New Material Is Strong, Light and Non-Cuttable
#45> The freefall of grapefruit from 10 m does not damage the pulp[1] because pomelo peel consists of vascular bundles and an open-pored cellular structure with the struts made of parenchymatic cells. I have a Marsh grapefruit tree, fruiting now (southern hemisphere) as it happens, and I note that it produces particularly pithy progeny. (Ignoring for the moment that Pomelo is one of the parents of the modern grapefruit.…
Maybe a damaged fruit would rot before the animals got to it, becoming offputting?
Re: Proteus Technology: New Material Is Strong, Light and Non-Cuttable
#46Also submitted here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23903596
Re: Proteus Technology: New Material Is Strong, Light and Non-Cuttable
#47This could be a revolution in bike locks. Right now compact battery powered cutting tools can remove just about any bike lock quickly and can easily be concealed.
This is an absolutely amazing innovation, but bike thieves have already progressed to using powder-actuated pistons in order to break the internal mechanism of a lock. Much faster and easier than cutting anything.
In any major city really the solution is to never lock anything up in public that is worth more than $400 or so. I have two road bikes, the insurance replacement value of each would probably be $3000, and I wouldn't even dream of buying a lock. I literally don't even know where my lock is. The last time I saw a lock was when I put it in a box of stuff on a shelf in my garage 10+ years ago.
If you have a nice road bike with very clean tires people generally will not mind you bringing it into places with you consistently.
No matter how good your lock is, if somebody REALLY wants the bike (for the value of its components) they'll just saw the frame in half.
Re: Proteus Technology: New Material Is Strong, Light and Non-Cuttable
#48Waiting for this to exist in an Abus lock so my storage unit can stop being broken into my tweakers.
It only protects you from tweakers armed with cutters. Industrious tweakers with better tools at their disposal might be able to crush it or melt it.
At least it eliminates the majority from contention.
Re: Proteus Technology: New Material Is Strong, Light and Non-Cuttable
#49I wish there were a way to get a sample of this to the lockpickinglawyer.
I'm guessing he'd bust out a blowtorch and make short work of it.