The INVENTIONS of the Century

Firepaste

Firepaste is a white paste that, when dry, is flame and heat resistant. It has a consistency and texture similar to clay when wet, and dries to become like a gray ceramic that looks like concrete.

The impetus for firepaste came from a failed fire test with the Ursus Mark VII where the metal exoskeleton heated up, popped the air bags and left Hurtubise with numerous burns. Like Project Grizzly, Hurtubise has tested the material on himself.

For a dramatic demonstration for the media and the military in summer 2004, he made a thin mask of the material, put it over his face, and aimed a specialized blowtorch at thousands of degrees directly at the mask. The temperature was intentionally much hotter than the temperatures reached by the Space Shuttle on reentry. A thermometer located between his face and the mask measured no appreciable temperature change below the mask after nearly ten minutes, and the integrity of the material stood strong.

Hurtubise is protective of ingredients for his concoction, but during a segment aired on Discovery Channel's daily news show Daily Planet, he revealed one secret to be Diet Coke. Images from electron microscopes show that the particles in the paste are very porous, which makes it a good insulator. Other tests showed the paste contained lithium and bromine, bound into compounds in the paste. Microscopically, it looks like a diatom absorbent, such as kitty-litter or any common industrial oil absorbent.

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The Angel Light

   Troy Hurtubise has done the impossible and violated all known rules of physics, as he says.
        The inventor claimed that the idea of this invention has come to him during sleep.
        Hartbis claims that his device can catch stealth technology and see through walls, like they not exist at all.
        He did tests to prove it with the help of some researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
        The invention "angel light" is made of three parts.
        The main part that Hurtbis called "centrifuge" contain "the brain" of the device and includes black, white, red and fluorescent light sources.
        The second part - "reflector" contains a large circular optical glass, microwave part and some highly ionized gas, mixed with carbon dioxide.
        The third part contains 8 plasma lighting rods, CO2 charges, industrial magnets, 108 mirrors, 8 ionizing cells and other components that are kept in secret by the inventor.
        Hartbis says that the construction of the invention cost him $ 30 000, he sold some of his other inventions to finance it. The constructing of this invention has taken him 800-900 working hours. Troy had a dream that showed him that through the "Angel Light" he will see through walls, as if looking out the window. He dreamed the device three times and then built it without any notes or diagrams.
        "I turned it on, and it worked, it was really weird." Says Hartbis. "From my laboratory I managed to see my garage through the wall and even I had read one note."
        "I almost broke my fingers because it looked like I can go trough the wall." But something strange happened to the car when it was seen with the invention. The car stopped working. Hartbis then returned to the lab and started to make new tests to other electronic machines like microwave oven, portable radio and TV.
        "They all had stopped working" says Hartbis.
        He bought a plane with remote control, and went to remote location for testing the plane. When he pointed the light to the plane it fell to the ground.
        Hartbis continued testing the light on different matters and found that it could be "seen" also through steel, lead, ceramics and wood.
        Then he put his hand in light stream. "I could see the blood, muscles, everything" he says. Soon after that Hartbis found that angel light has devilish side effects. He lost sensation in the fingers of that hand and started to feel a general malaise.
        Test on an aquarium with fishes was even greater concern. In a few minutes after being exposed to light all of the fishes had died. After that the inventor had disassembled the invention.
        He had not assembled it back until he had called from the French government. Hartbis believes that side effects can be eliminated, but from some expert that is bigger than him.
        "My brother told me that I will sell one of my inventions when I start walking on the water. I think I just did it." Says Hartbis

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'Crazy' Tape Holds Weight of Man
 

Geckos inspire robots, but there’s no reason to limit one’s imagination. Why not use the fantastic properties of gecko feet to make something everyone needs: tape?

At the University of Kiel in Germany, a group led by Stanislav Gorb has made a silicone tape patterned after the feet of the lizard. Unike your garden-variety scotch tape, this stuff is strong, it can be used over and over again, and it doesn't leave sticky goo behind. In fact it is so strong a piece a bit less than 8 inches by 8 inches (20 cm on a side) can hold up the weight of a fully grown person.
How does this work? Geckos and some insects have tiny hair-like structures on their feet called setae, and each one end in a flat structure called a spatula. When they touch a surface, the attraction between molecules, known as the Van der Waals forces, pull on them and cause them to stick. This is the same force that makes water droplets stick to the ceiling or to the side of a glass.

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Ordinarily Van der Waals forces are relatively weak (this is why water droplets stuck to a surface never get very big). But when hundreds of thousands of spatulae on a gecko’s foot are working together they can hold a lot of weight (which is why geckos can curry across a ceiling and up a glass window).

Ordinarily Van der Waals forces are relatively weak (this is why water droplets stuck to a surface never get very big). But when hundreds of thousands of spatulae on a gecko’s foot are working together they can hold a lot of weight (which is why geckos can curry across a ceiling and up a glass window).

The tough part about building this kind of material has always been fabricating it, and getting it to work on a surface even if it isn’t perfectly smooth. Gecko’s setae are flexible, enough so that they can mold to the surface they are on. Finding artificial materials that can do that also has been tougher, and fabricating tiny hairs tougher still.

The team presented their work at the AVS Symposium in Nashville last week.

http://news.discovery.com/tech/gecko-tape-111107.html#mkcpgn=emnws1