 |
Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
|
 |
Comments on Femtosecond Laser Pulse Turns Metals Pitch Black
Remarkable process creates a perfectly black finish without paints or other coatings. (Read
the complete story)
"I think you missed a science-fiction point: think Douglas Adams and 'The Restaurant at the End of the Universe' (Pan MacMillan, Jan. 1, 1980), the part where they steal the 'blacker than a black-hole' black ship from the parking garage of the restaurant. It belonged to a band named 'Disaster Area', and the ship absorbed so much light in such a way that 'your eyes simply slide right off it'."
( 12/3/2006 9:45:08 PM) |
"I agree... when I read "absorbs 100% of incident light" the first thing I thought of was Adams' pitch black ship. "
(Mr. Jip 12/3/2006 11:10:24 PM) |
"I poked around in my library, and found my first edition copy; I hadn't read it since 1980. Here's the quote about the stuntship whose sole purpose was to fly into the sun to provide spectacular effects for a rock concert:
'It was a ship of classic, simple design, like a flattened salmon, twenty yards long, very clean, very sleek. There was just one remarkable thing about it.
'It's so... black!' said Ford Prefect. 'You can hardly make out it's shape... light just seems to fall into it!'
The blackness of it was so extreme that it was almost impossible to tell how close you were standing to it...''"
(Bill Christensen 12/4/2006 4:38:28 AM) |
"The monoliths in Clarke's 2001 are also perfect absorbers of light."
(Mark 12/8/2006 11:46:36 AM) |
"By an odd coincidence, I happen to have that reference -
'The object before which the spacesuited man was posing was a vertical slab of jet-black material, about ten feet high and five feet wide: it reminded Floyd, somewhat ominously, of a giant tombstone. Perfectly sharp-edged and symmetrical, it was so black it seemed to have swallowed up the light falling upon it; there was no surface detail at all...
(Read more about TMA-1 the Tycho Monolith)"
(Bill Christensen 12/24/2006 3:35:10 PM) |
Get more information on Femtosecond Laser Pulse Turns Metals Pitch Black
Leave a comment:
Tediously, spammers have returned; if you have a comment, send it to bill at this site (include the story name) and I'll post it.
|
 |
More Articles
JAXA Int Ball 2 Coming Right Along As Star Wars Remote
'Hocus-pocus religions and archaic weapons are no substitute for a good blaster at your side.'
Robot Bricklayer Or Passer-By Bricklayer?
'Oscar picked up a trowel. 'I'm the tool for the mortar,' the little trowel squeaked cheerfully.'
Robot Gas Station Attendant Pumps Gas For You
'... he waited for the robotrix attendant to finish fueling up his ship.'
Engineer Creates Crazy Motorized Track Hospital Bed
The Roujin Z system provides care to fully bedridden patients - and then some!
Tiny Flying Robot Weighs Just One Gram
'Aerostat meant anything that hung in the air. This was an easy trick to pull off nowadays.'
Some Ringworld Configurations Are Stable
'The Ringworld had no horizon. There was no line where the land curved away from the sky.'
TRANSFORM Dynamic Furniture Concept Becomes What You Need
'An adjustment panel outside the door would cause it to extrude various appurtenances in memory plastic...'
Harvard Metamaterials Change Structure Instantly
'Annealed in any shape for a time, and codified, the structure of that shape is retained down to the molecules.'
SnapBot Robots - You Choose Their Legs And They Choose Their Gaits
It's not really polite to tear the limbs off robots.
Dino From Magical Toys An AI Companion To Children
'...the imaginary companions discovered by needful children.'
Humanoid Robots Building Humanoid Robots
''Pardon me, Struthers,' he broke in suddenly... 'haven't you a section of the factory where only robot labor is employed?''
Darpa 'Defiant' Unmanned Autonomous Ship
'There was no wheel, and no steersman!'
What's The Best Way To Ship And Unpack Humanoid Robots?
'I opened the oblong box, where lay the automatons side by side...'
DNA Printed Book By Isaac Asimov Now Available
'They tied the memory to the bloodline and that was their record!'
AI Computer Chip Designs Passeth Human Understanding
'It seems that at one time computers were designed directly by human beings.'
Space Traffic Management (STM) Needed Now
'...the spot was a lonely one in an uncharted region, far from the normal lanes of space traffic.'
Fine-Tune Your Infinite Book The Way You Want It
'I squatted down beside the roller and tried to make some sense out of the knobs. There were thirty-nine of them...'
SpiRobs Soft Spiral Robotic Arm
'Beware the long, flexible, glittering tentacles...'
Holland Factory 3D Printing 500 Tons Of Steak Per Month
'...I don’t understand technical things — tell me, does it ever feel anything?"
Stratospheric Solar Geoengineering From Harvard
'Pina2bo would have to operate full blast for many years to put as much SO2 into the stratosphere as its namesake had done in a few minutes.'
|
 |