Grips Like Gecko Feet

Gecko's, typically 5 ounce lizards, amaze scientists (and non-scientists) with their ability to grip and scamper up the smoothest of surfaces.  Their feet are covered in self-cleaning microscopic hairs, known as setae, with even smaller branches at the tips, called spatulae.  These ensure that a gecko's foot has a large surface area in contact with any surface, maximizing the weak but ever-present attraction between adjacent molecules known as the van der Waals force -- Gecko feet produce an adhesive force nearly equivalent to 18 times their own body weight.  Most previous efforts were based on creating materials (e.g., carbon nanotubes) attempting to act like the gecko's setae.

Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, however, have taken a somewhat different approach by evaluating how several interacting elements in gecko feet, including tendons, bones and skin, work together to produce easily reversible adhesion.  In fact, their novel design approach has demonstrated that setae are not required for gecko-like adhesion.

They developed Geckskin, which integrates adhesive with a soft pad woven into a stiff fabric, allowing the pad to "drape" over a surface to maximize contact. Further, as in natural gecko feet, the skin is woven into a synthetic "tendon," yielding a design that plays a key role in maintaining stiffness and rotational freedom.  An index-card-sized sheet can hold up to 700 pounds on a smooth wall, and using the same types of high-capacity reversibility and dry adhesion as gecko feet, can easily attach and detach heavy objects (like say a big screen TV) on flat or slanted surfaces — even glass. The Geckskin can be released with little effort and re-used, and leaves no residue.  Best of all, the Geckskin's adhesive pad uses simple everyday materials such as polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), which holds promise for developing an inexpensive, strong and durable dry adhesive product.

And we thought velcro was cool ...

Second Screen and the Social Television Trend

"Second screen" is a term that refers to an additional electronic device (e.g. laptop, tablet, smartphone) that allows a television audience to interact with the content they are consuming.  According to a recent Physorg article,  it is "the hottest new thing in television."  As some believe that as much as 30 percent of Web-surfing is done while watching TV, a lot of effort is being put into ways to keep the viewer's online focus aligned with the programming being viewed simultaneously.  For example, the broadcaster of a sports event may provide synchronized feeds of statistics and other currently relevant information or allow the viewer to see different camera angles.  Other programming may utilize the second screen for alternative scenes, information, soundtrack, and/or characters.  A marketing application may help viewers buy stuff they see during TV shows.  Social television applications may simply aim to make the television experience more social, by enabling interaction with other viewers; offering the chance to win points, awards, and prizes; and encouraging the user to comment on, rank, or otherwise actively engage the experience.  Below are some examples:

• GetGlue is a social networking site for entertainment fans to interact.  It allows users to check-in to TV shows or movies they are watching, music they are listening to, books they are reading, video games they are playing, celebrities they are chatting about, or pretty much any topic they are thinking about.

• IntoNow utilizes a patented sound-recognition technology called SoundPrint that hears and recognizes what is being watched, right down to the episode.   It then lets users share with friends on Twitter or Facebook, provides full episode and cast info, lets them know what their friends are watching (notifying friends who are watching the same show), and provides one-click access to IMDb, iTunes and Netflix.

• Previiw allows the viewer to choose a scene within a show or movie and clip a portion of that scene (up to 140 seconds), for the purpose of commenting on and sharing through their social network, web site or blog.

• yap.TV is a completely personalized TV show guide fused with streamed content for thousands of TV shows.

• During the last Video Music Awards telecast, an MTV website featured an app called Hot Seat, a seating chart of the auditorium where the show was staged. A user could slide his computer mouse across the chart to see what celebrity was sitting there, along with all that celebrity's tweets during the event.

Why is this worth all of the fuss?  The following example illustrates the power that Internet social media can unleash in the entertainment world:

• Last October, the singer Usher completely split the front of his pants during "A Decade of Difference" concert honoring former President Clinton and celebrating the tenth anniversary of his foundation.  Within minutes, fed by "OMG" messages on Twitter and Facebook, the live video stream on Yahoo! immediately swelled from 1 million to 20 million.

Drowsy Driver Detector

A recent Gizmag article reports on a "smart cap" that monitors worker fatigue by measuring brain waves.  This washable cap has a waterproof sensor built into its lining that calculates the wearer's level of alertness every second and transmits this information via Bluetooth to a device that can display this information or sound an alarm when a critical threshold is reached.  While I've seen articles about other inventions marketed to help detect and/or awaken drowsy drivers, it seems that an approach as potentially accurate and unobtrusive as this one could potentially one day become a standard safety feature in vehicles of the future.

Pondering Parking

According to a study by Arizona State University and University of California - Berkeley researchers, there are as many as 844 million parking lot and parking structure spaces in the United States, or roughly three spaces for every automobile. That amounts to paved surfaces for parking covering nearly one percent of the land in the country – an area about the size of West Virginia.  If the area used for curbside parking is added to the count, there may be as many as 2 billion parking spaces servicing our nation of commuters.

Given these statistics, one would expect parking, in general, to be quite plentiful.  Unfortunately, I don't think that this Blind Bambi regularly experiences that level of parking pleasure.  Sure, many of the retailers I routinely shop at have fairly convenient parking and that is probably one of the reasons that I patronize them.  Almost everyone has experienced, however, the hassles related to parking at special events; at popular holiday, vacation, or entertainment destinations; or in congested urban locales.  In my non-expert opinion, two factors seem key to this phenomenon.  First, parking is usually most plentiful in locations where the land costs to support it are reasonably low.  The demand for parking, however, is usually highest in locations where property values are relatively high.  Second, in many situations, the difference between the number of parking spaces required during periods of peak demand and the number of parking spaces required during periods of low or normal demand can be quite different numbers.  Hence, it might seem hard to justify the cost of accommodating worst-case parking situations when their occurrence may be acceptably infrequent.

American Diet: Bread Now Biggest Salt Source

When told by their doctor to limit salt intake, most people probably think of avoiding salty snacks like potato chips, pretzels, or fast food fries.  Those who pay attention to things like this might select lower sodium versions of canned soup or soy sauce when grocery shopping.  People may remove the salt shaker from the table.  While these are important steps, we may be overlooking one of the biggest culprits.

In a recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, bread and rolls topped the list of sodium sources, accounting for about 7 percent of the salt that the average American eats in a day.  It's not that breads and rolls are saltier than many of the other foods, but rather that people tend to eat a lot of them.

Dietary guidelines recommend no more than 2,300 milligrams of sodium a day, equal to about a teaspoon of salt. Certain people, such as those with high blood pressure, should eat even less. Average sodium consumption in the United States, though, is around 3,300 milligrams and only 1 in 10 Americans actually meet the teaspoon guideline.

For those that are interested, bread and rolls were followed on the top-ten list by: cold cuts and cured meats; pizza; fresh and processed poultry; soups; fast-food hamburgers and sandwiches; cheese; spaghetti and other pasta dishes; meatloaf and other meat dishes; and snacks like potato chips and pretzels.

It's the Most NFL Time of the Year

Superbowl Sunday is one of my favorite holidays -- and yes, it is a true American holiday.  I love the football (although not the Giants or Patriots so much), the food, the commercials, and all of the hoopla.  It is an event to enjoy with friends and family.  I will admit, however, that the hours of pre-game show are a little too much for even me.

This year, a thirty second advertising spot during the Superbowl costs on the order of $3.5 million.  This Blind Bambi, however, doesn't understand the advertiser's rationale in releasing their commercials before the big event.  Sure, they probably get some early press time by doing so, but, this year, when I need a bathroom or snack break, I will have no worries about missing commercials -- I've already had the chance to see them on the web, TV reports, etc.  Will they one day release the Oscar winners a week before the big night, so we can analyze the choices before the event actually happens?

Wacky Weather

I saw on the news this evening that Denver just got dumped on by a record blizzard.  I also just read today, however, that this January was the third-least snowy on record.  Midland, Texas has had more snow thus far this season than Minneapolis or Chicago.  What's up with that?  On Tuesday (January 31st), only a few of the lower 48 states didn't reach 50 degrees or higher.

Contrast that with Valdez, Alaska, where they have had 328 inches of snow (10 feet above average!!!).  Yukon, Alaska hit a record 66 below zero last weekend.  This January has been the ninth snowiest for Europe and Asia.  It has been so cold that areas of the Black Sea near the Romanian coastline have frozen and rare snowfalls have occurred on Croatian islands in the Adriatic Sea.

Its Groundhog Day, 2012

Happy Groundhog's Day. As we all know, according to folklore, if it is cloudy when a groundhog emerges from its burrow on February 2nd, then spring will come early. If it is sunny, the groundhog will supposedly see its shadow and retreat back into its burrow, and the winter weather will continue for six more weeks.

For the first time in my life, this morning I actually watched the TV coverage of the hoopla surrounding Punxsutawney Phil's seasonal prognostication. I saw the famous marmot ceremoniously removed from his cage and presented to the crowd. He then huddled with his handlers, all decked out in top hats, snappy ties and long formal coats, so the proper proclamation could selected and read aloud to his fans. If you haven't heard, this year we were told to expect six more weeks of winter. With all of the camera lights on him, however, I'm not sure how Phil couldn't have seen his shadow.

This ceremony at Gobblers Knob, in southwestern Pennsylvania, is apparently now 126 years old. Although not the background of a popular Hollywood movie like Punxsutawney, other communities also have similar traditions. New York has Staten Island Chuck and this year, his prediction was an early spring. Sir Walter Wally, from North Carolina, agreed with Phil, but a little further south, in Georgia, General Beauregard Lee called for an early spring. This should be a good year for the U.S. Midwest, as, in Illinois, Woodstock Willie predicted an early spring. In Canada, Aberta's Balzac Billy and Quebec’s Fred la Marmotte both saw their shadow, but Ontario's Wiarton Willie and Nova Scotia’s Shubenacadie Sam did not.

I get the impression that bona-fide meteorologists, using satellite images, Doppler radars, and scientific approaches to predict the weather are a little put off by all of the attention heaped upon these groundhogs and their uneducated observations. They put no faith in these silly predictions. Therefore, my plan is to take a groundhog to Hawaii, name him Aloha Al, make sure that he never sees his shadow and prove them wrong.

Milk - It Does a Brain Good?

A recent study by University of Maine researchers backs our parents' insistence that we drink our milk. More than 900 men and women ages 23 to 98 were put through a series of brain and cognitive challenges that tested their visual-spatial, verbal, and working memory tests to find that those who consumed more dairy products scored "significantly" higher on the tests than those who drank little to no milk. They also found that milk drinkers tended to maintain healthier diets overall compared to their non-drinking counterparts.

In spite of this outcome, however, not everyone's beliefs align with the American Dairy Association. Many believe that human drinking of cows milk is unnatural.  Its antibodies are optimized for calves, not human babies.  At a young age, our bodies lose the ability to digest milk sugar and protein.   Scientists have identified a protein in milk that triggers an unusual immune response which may explain an observed correlation between early consumption of cows milk by infants and later development of Type 1 diabetes.  Dr. Kevin McGrady, a medical researcher is quoted as saying "Milk has something for everybody all right -- higher blood cholesterol, and increased risk of heart disease and stroke."

I guess the bottom line is that we need to drink our milk so that we become smart enough to determine whether or not we should continue drinking it.