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The 2010 Deepwater Horizon may be forgotten to many, but remnants of its destruction still remain in the Gulf of Mexico. Mercifully, it appears that researchers at Texas A&M University "have developed a non-toxic sequestering agent-iron oxide nanoparticles coated in a polymer mesh that can hold up to 10 times their weight in crude oil." In layman's terms, they've engineered a material that can safely soak up oil. As the story goes, the nanoparticles "consist of an iron oxide core surrounded by a shell of polymeric material," with the goal being to soak up leftover oil that isn't captured using conventional mechanical means. The next step? Creating an enhanced version that's biodegradable; as it stands, the existing particles could pose a threat if not collected once they've accomplished their duties.
Source: Materials 360 Online, Inside Science, ACS Nano
Most of us will eat anything as long as it’s been battered and fried in hot oil. How about some deep-fried gadgets? Maybe served up in a bucket with the picture of Colonel Sanders on it. Well if you like your consumer electronics like you like your fast food, then read on.
Artist Henry Hargreaves likes to deep fry all of the gadgets that we know and love. He doesn’t care about calories or artery clogging oil. He really just wants to burn and melt things in the name of artistic expression.
He fried up stuff like Macbooks, Game Boys, iPhones, iPads, earbuds, you name it. They don’t look very appetizing, but they are probably better for you than most actual fried foods. Or not.
I think we’d all try to put things we’re not supposed to in the fry basket if we had access to a deep-fryer, just to see how they turned out.
[via Insanely Gaming via Obvious Winner]
If putting liquid cooling pumps, hoses and water inside a highly electrified computer case doesn't seem crazy enough, how about just dunking the whole kit and kaboodle into oil? That's what Intel did with a rack full of servers, and if the oil in question is of the non-conducting mineral kind, it's actually a very chill idea. After a year of testing with Green Revolution Cooling, the chip giant saw some of the best power usage efficiency ratings it's seen, with the oil-cooled PCs easily besting identical, air-cooled units. The company believes more adapted heat sinks could push the gains even further, and affirmed that the technology was safe and didn't affect hardware reliability. Cost savings could be enormous, as server rooms wouldn't need raised floors, air conditioning units or chillers -- if you don't consider oil spills and ruined clothing, of course.
[Image credit: Green Revolution]
Filed under: Desktops
Intel treats servers to mineral oil bath in year-long cooling test originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 Sep 2012 07:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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