• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to site footer
  • WordPress
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
Science Update

Science Update

Sharing Science | Satisfying Curiosity | Debunking BS

  • Spotlights
  • Reality Check
  • Why Is It?
  • Radio Archives
  • Sciup @ School
Home » Radio Archive » Daily Show » Materials Roundup

Materials Roundup

January 4, 2008
https://podcast.scienceupdate.com/080104_sciup_mate.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window

BOB HIRSHON (HOST):
Banking on the strength of bamboo. I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update.

It may look like a tree, but bamboo is actually a tall, fast-growing grass. Researchers at the University of Southern California are finding new uses for bamboo as a structural material material. The latest application is bamboo structural elements that can be assembled into bridges, including a 30-foot span recently constructed in China. The bridge easily supports trucks weighing eight tons or more.

In other materials news, University of Rochester scientists have developed a kind of rubber with a memory. It can be molded into a shape, and then stretched and twisted into something new. Heat it up, and it returns to its original shape. The group plans to use it for a variety of products, including sutures that tighten up when heated, pulling a wound closed.

Category: Daily ShowTag: Economics & Business, Materials Science, Plants & Agriculture
Previous Post:Cooling Menthol
Next Post:Heart Sleep

Sidebar

Radio Program Archives

Want to learn more about the brain? The environment? Here you can browse the topics that come up regularly on Science Update.

Search the Archives

Categories

  • Daily Show
  • Station Download
  • Weekly Show

Find By Tag

  • 2020
  • Acoustics & Sound
  • Aging
  • Animal Behavior
  • Anthropology
  • Archaeology
  • Astronomy & Space
  • Biology
  • Brain Science
  • Bugs
  • Chemistry
  • Children & Families
  • cicadas
  • Climate & Weather
  • Communications
  • Computer Science
  • Economics & Business
  • Education
  • Energy
  • Engineering & Technology
  • Environment & Conservation
  • Genetics & Evolution
  • Geology
  • Marine Science
  • Materials Science
  • Mathematics
  • Medicine & Health
  • Microbiology
  • Nanotechnology
  • Nutrition & Food Science
  • Paleontology & Dinosaurs
  • Physics
  • Plants & Agriculture
  • Political Science
  • Reality Check
  • Social & Behavioral Sciences
  • Sports & Fitness
  • spotlight
  • Spotlight Bugs
  • Terrorism & War
  • Why Is It? Questions
  • Wildlife
  • Year in Review

Find By Date

Science Update
  • About Science Update
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • YouTube

Recent Posts

Mayan Honeybee hives
House sparrow wearing top hat rides aboard a red fireworks rocket

Copyright © 2023 · Springtail Media LLC · All Rights Reserved · Powered by Pongos