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Get to grips with an extreme fastener
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TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF MUNICH
TECHNOLOGY
Fasteners go extreme FOR all its usefulness, Velcro’s reputation is for being rather unexciting. But German engineers have taken inspiration from the mild-mannered fastener to create a version of the hook-and-loop concept with enough steely strength for extreme loads and environments. A square metre of the new fastener, called Metaklett, is capable of supporting 35 tonnes at temperatures up to 800 ºC, claim Josef Mair and colleagues at the Technical University of Munich, Germany. And just like everyday Velcro, it can be opened up without specialised tools and used again. Conventional hook-and-loop fasteners are used for everything from bandages to cable boots in aircraft and securing prosthetic limbs. Mair thinks his spring-steel fastener is tough enough to be used for building facades
or car assembly. “A car parked in direct sunlight can reach temperatures of 80 °C, and temperatures of several hundred degrees can arise around the exhaust manifold,” he says, but Metaklett should be able to shrug off such extremes. The fastening is made from perforated steel strips that are
“A square metre of the fastener is capable of supporting 35 tonnes at up to 800 °C” 0.2 millimetres thick – one kind bristling with springy steel brushes and the other sporting jagged spikes. Metaklett can support maximum weight when pulled on in the plane of the strips, and a square metre can hold a perpendicular load of 7 tonnes, says Mair.
–Velcro with attitude–
Social and cheap equals game sales
Robot to get human brain cells
WHAT is the key to designing a hit video game – beautifully crafted graphics or a gripping storyline? It may just be a matter of social interactions and avoiding bad pricing, say Russell Beale and Matthew Bond of the University of Birmingham, UK. The pair analysed game reviews to determine the most interesting features and how games garner good scores. Weak storytelling and lacklustre in-game graphics had little impact, but pricing the game badly was a killer. “Social aspects are also much more important than previously realised,” adds Beale. That may include multiplayer online options, or creating an experience the rest of the family will enjoy. The research was presented at this year’s Human-Computer Interaction conference in Cambridge, UK, last week.
A ROBOT controlled by human brain cells could soon be trundling around a British lab, New Scientist has learned. Kevin Warwick and Ben Whalley at the University of Reading, UK, have already used rat brain cells to control a robot (New Scientist, 16 August 2008, p 22). This has enabled them to investigate the way groups of neurons behave, and they hope their research will shed light on neurological conditions such as Alzheimer’s. However, human brain cells are a better model for studying human neurological disease. So the team
3.7m
Cost in Canadian dollars of the Braidwood inquiry, set up when Robert Dziekanski died after being tased
plan to switch to a culture of human neurons once their current work with rats is completed. It will be the first instance of human cells being used to control a robot. One aim is to investigate any differences between the behaviour of robots controlled by rat and human neurons. “We’ll be trying to find out if the learning aspects and memory appear to be similar,” says Warwick. The team can proceed as soon as they are ready as they won’t need specific ethical approval to use a human neuron cell line. That’s because the cultures are available to buy and “the ethical side of sourcing is done by the company from whom they are purchased”, Whalley says.
“They’re a frightening bunch” Salim Ismail, an executive director of the Singularity University in Silicon Valley, California, says the technology institute’s first intake of students already have enough knowledge to teach some of the courses they will sit (guardian.co.uk, 2 September)
12 September 2009 | NewScientist | 19
TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF MUNICH
TECHNOLOGY
Fasteners go extreme FOR all its usefulness, Velcro’s reputation is for being rather unexciting. But German engineers have taken inspiration from the mild-mannered fastener to create a version of the hook-and-loop concept with enough steely strength for extreme loads and environments. A square metre of the new fastener, called Metaklett, is capable of supporting 35 tonnes at temperatures up to 800 ºC, claim Josef Mair and colleagues at the Technical University of Munich, Germany. And just like everyday Velcro, it can be opened up without specialised tools and used again. Conventional hook-and-loop fasteners are used for everything from bandages to cable boots in aircraft and securing prosthetic limbs. Mair thinks his spring-steel fastener is tough enough to be used for building facades
or car assembly. “A car parked in direct sunlight can reach temperatures of 80 °C, and temperatures of several hundred degrees can arise around the exhaust manifold,” he says, but Metaklett should be able to shrug off such extremes. The fastening is made from perforated steel strips that are
“A square metre of the fastener is capable of supporting 35 tonnes at up to 800 °C” 0.2 millimetres thick – one kind bristling with springy steel brushes and the other sporting jagged spikes. Metaklett can support maximum weight when pulled on in the plane of the strips, and a square metre can hold a perpendicular load of 7 tonnes, says Mair.
–Velcro with attitude–
Social and cheap equals game sales
Robot to get human brain cells
WHAT is the key to designing a hit video game – beautifully crafted graphics or a gripping storyline? It may just be a matter of social interactions and avoiding bad pricing, say Russell Beale and Matthew Bond of the University of Birmingham, UK. The pair analysed game reviews to determine the most interesting features and how games garner good scores. Weak storytelling and lacklustre in-game graphics had little impact, but pricing the game badly was a killer. “Social aspects are also much more important than previously realised,” adds Beale. That may include multiplayer online options, or creating an experience the rest of the family will enjoy. The research was presented at this year’s Human-Computer Interaction conference in Cambridge, UK, last week.
A ROBOT controlled by human brain cells could soon be trundling around a British lab, New Scientist has learned. Kevin Warwick and Ben Whalley at the University of Reading, UK, have already used rat brain cells to control a robot (New Scientist, 16 August 2008, p 22). This has enabled them to investigate the way groups of neurons behave, and they hope their research will shed light on neurological conditions such as Alzheimer’s. However, human brain cells are a better model for studying human neurological disease. So the team
3.7m
Cost in Canadian dollars of the Braidwood inquiry, set up when Robert Dziekanski died after being tased
plan to switch to a culture of human neurons once their current work with rats is completed. It will be the first instance of human cells being used to control a robot. One aim is to investigate any differences between the behaviour of robots controlled by rat and human neurons. “We’ll be trying to find out if the learning aspects and memory appear to be similar,” says Warwick. The team can proceed as soon as they are ready as they won’t need specific ethical approval to use a human neuron cell line. That’s because the cultures are available to buy and “the ethical side of sourcing is done by the company from whom they are purchased”, Whalley says.
“They’re a frightening bunch” Salim Ismail, an executive director of the Singularity University in Silicon Valley, California, says the technology institute’s first intake of students already have enough knowledge to teach some of the courses they will sit (guardian.co.uk, 2 September)
12 September 2009 | NewScientist | 19