Technology bubble ten years later: The money’s not back

[Chris Coles]

Re: Technology bubble ten years later: The money’s not back

Between 1980 and 1986, as a private independent British inventor, based upon some ideas I had, (and still have), related to the design, manufacture and use of engineering composite materials; I set out to create what was going to be The Advanced Engineering Materials Centre. My proposed team included some of the finest minds available at the time, but, as with such new thinking here in the UK, no one would fund it and I had to completely abandon the exercise in 1988. So this thread has made me very thoughtful as to what we might have achieved; if only we could get access to funding.

[bill]

Re: Technology bubble ten years later: The money’s not back

Between 1980 and 1986, as a private independent British inventor, based upon some ideas I had, (and still have), related to the design, manufacture and use of engineering composite materials; I set out to create what was going to be The Advanced Engineering Materials Centre. My proposed team included some of the finest minds available at the time, but, as with such new thinking here in the UK, no one would fund it and I had to completely abandon the exercise in 1988. So this thread has made me very thoughtful as to what we might have achieved; if only we could get access to funding.

Adding nano material to composites will produce some amazing products.
http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-02-...composite.html

February 2, 2011

Knowing precisely how much strength is needed to pull the nanotube from the bead is essential to materials scientists’ advancing the art of making stronger, lighter composites for everything from sporting goods to spacecraft.
A team by Jun Lou, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering and materials science at Rice, and first author Yogeeswaran Ganesan, who recently earned his doctorate in Lou's lab, has published a paper in the American Chemical Society journal Applied Materials and Interfaces describing its work to measure the interface toughness of carbon nanotube-reinforced epoxy composites.
Lou said Rice's versatile
technique for carrying out nanomechanical experiments is poised to find many long-sought answers. "Developing an ability to engineering nanocomposites with mechanical properties tailored for specific is the proverbial holy grail of all structural nanocomposite research," Ganesan said. "The technique essentially takes us one step closer to achieving this goal."