IBM Discovers New Class of Polymers 90
Charliemopps (1157495) writes "IBM Research has published a new paper to the journal Science which describes a newly discovered class of Industrial Polymers that promise to revolutionize the fields of transportation, aerospace, and microelectronics. These materials resist cracking, have strength higher than that of bone, the ability to self-heal, and are completely recyclable. 'Codenamed Titan and Hydro, both of which came from the same reaction. One is rigid; it could become part of the next generation of computers. The other is a gel, so it it could be included in water-soluble nail polish.'"
The problem with most recylcing is sorting (Score:5, Insightful)
Other metals do OK because we can melt them down and scrape off the slagg, effectively 'distilling' them.
All other recyclables are far less valuable because of the ton of work we need to do sorting garbage to get them back.
Plastics and organics on the other hand tend to be very hard to recycle because if you try to melt them, they burn.
One more 'recylcable' that requires a lot of sorting is pretty worthless, unless it has a quality like magnetic or distillable
Every few months.... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:IBM == Weyland-Yutani (Score:2, Insightful)
A tear came into my eye from the thought. There is progress and the future is as fascinating as in the movies. Samsung, for example, went after generic medicines quite recently. There is more to this life than endless investor value grabs and meaningless dot.coms, after all.
Water-soluble nail polish? (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm not exactly the heaviest user of nail polish in the world, but I have to think that making it water-soluble is a terrible, terrible idea.
Re:according to the article... (Score:4, Insightful)
strangely iron, steel and many other materials we build houses and vehicles out of also break down when exposed to acidic water.
perhaps we could simply paint this new polymer to protect it?