Saturday, May 9, 2009

blaine brownell - change in the material world

one of the key features of the world we are welcoming is the arrival of materials that are going to bring about a positive change in how we build and design objects. if (like myself) you are intrigued by what is happening out there that will soon become commonplace but stil has a lot of that 'wow' factor about it then you really need to know about blaine brownell.

in the talk you get to hear today, blaine discusses such cool new products as sphelar, a solar material made of a matrix of black spheres that allows light to be captured from all angles, not just from the angle of incidence. what's extremely exciting about it to me is that it'’s flexible, and can be made into wearable clothing, like a jacket that can power your mobile phone.

another amazing material is photovol glass, which is transparent, but provides shade and most amazingly it generates power!

cabot corporation is making a superinsulator called nanogel - which is the lightest human substance on earth. believe it or not, it’'s 99% air, 1% quartz, and can be used to fill polycarbonate sheets - this means that windows can be translucent, but also highly insulating, which means that having windows no longer means the same as having heat leaks.

here's blaine describing the status quo and how it needs to and will change as a result of the incredible diversity of materials that are being created each and every week.

if you want to know more then go here and sign up for blaine's newsletter in which a new product that will change this world is profiled each and every week.

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