…Paint-On Polymer Kills Influenza, Scientists Build Artificial Gut, High-Tech T-shirt to Fake a Shred, Nanotech Sword from 17th Century and MORE!

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Nobel-winning Economist Passes
Nobel prize-winning economist Milton Friedman died yesterday at the age of 94. Friedman, considered by both conservative and liberal colleagues as one of the most influential economists of the past century, died of heart failure.

A believer in unfettered markets, Friedman was the leader of the Chicago School of monetary economics. The central tenet of the school was that the money supply determined inflation. As the flipside to his belief in the central role of markets, Friedman thought the role of government should be as limited as possible — a view that made him highly popular with free-market devotees such as Margaret Thatcher and Chile’s Augusto Pinochet, who relied on his advice as they put his ideas into practice. (Friedman later distanced himself from Thatcher’s policy of cutting public-sector borrowing at a time of recession.)

Friedman, who won a Nobel in 1976, publicly declared in the Financial Times in 2003 that monetarist policy had failed.

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If you want to buy a ticket on a Russian space mission, you’re going to have to wait a few years, reports AFP. Technical difficulties with the craft? Nope. Despite the $20 million-a-seat price, all seats are currently overbooked — until at least 2009.
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Military Declares High-Tech War on Pigeons
The U.S. modern military is turning a high-tech tool on the pigeons of Times Square, New York.

For now, at least, it is holding fire.

“Plagued by dirt and noise, a recruitment center shared by several branches of the U.S. armed forces has installed a sound system in New York’s neon-bedecked ‘Crossroads of the World’ intended to scare off the winged marauders by playing the sounds of predatory birds,” reports Reuters.

The $1,000 system was installed a week ago and makes noise every few minutes at random intervals.

The deadly solution adopted in London’s Trafalgar Square: authorities brought in birds of prey to kill the offending birds.

WWW Birthday
According to a Slashdot posting, Monday marked the 16th birthday of the World Wide Web.

According to the timeline on the W3.org site: “The first web page [was] http://nxoc01.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html. Unfortunately CERN no longer supports the historical site. Note from this era too, the least recently modified web page we know of http://www.w3.org/History/19921103-hypertext/hypertext/WWW/Link.html, last changed Tue, 13 Nov 1990 15:17:00 GMT (though the URI changed.)”

The World Wide Web has plans to celebrate its sweet sixteen by throwing a full-on kegger while its parents are away this weekend.

Non-combustible, Non-polluting Paper Battery Developed
Korean battery manufacturer Rocket has developed a “paper battery” that is “flexible and thin” and molds together the company’s “thin film technologies” with its battery knowledge.

According to Engadget, the company hopes to entice heavy RFID users, smart card manufacturers, and “cosmetic/drug delivery system” providers to utilize the paper battery in powering the already-miniscule devices. Rocket says that the battery is well suited for “whitening, anti-aging, wrinkle care and moisturizing” devices.

Perhaps taking a swing at Sony, the Korean manufacturer also says the “paper battery does not include toxic chemicals nor cause explosion or fire.”

Scientists Build Artificial Gut
U.K. scientists have built an artificial stomach to simulate human digestion. The device, made from sophisticated plastics and metals, can withstand the corrosive gut acids and enzymes, BBC News reports. Moreover, it can be fed real food. It mimics both the physical and chemical reactions that take place during digestion — and can even vomit.

OK, so despite the seeming flippancy of a fake gut, the Institute of Food Research hopes the new development will aid the development of new, healthier foods (i.e., “super-foods”) designed to manipulate the digestive process. Chief designer Dr. Martin Wickham hopes his model will help scientists understand more about how food is processed in the gut, and which nutrients get absorbed.

In other news of scientists working on the things that truly matter…

Australian Scientists make a T-shirt, Fake a Shred
Scientists finally understand the air guitar, as some announced Monday that they have developed a T-shirt that has motion sensors built into its elbows that pick up the wearer’s arm motions and relay them wirelessly to a computer. The computer then interprets the motions as guitar riffs, Richard Helmer, an engineer who leads the research team from the government’s Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, told The Associated Press.

One arm is interpreted as picking chords while the other strums.

As much as we appreciate the greatness of the air guitar, we wonder, as did one Canadian commenter: A virtual instrument t-shirt that requires no (little) musical ability? Shouldn’t the brilliant minds that invented this be morally obliged to introduce virtual ear plugs for those of us who might have to endure the onslaught??

Engineering Students Build Bot to Patrol Streets Tasering People
The Waukesha (Wisconsin) Police Department is in the process of implementing a robot in certain tactical situations such as standoffs, according to The Wireless Report.

The department has been working with students from the Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) in developing a robot designed to function with both cellular and WiFi technologies and embedded with video capabilities, two-way communications and, yes, a Taser.

In the very definition of a “win-win situation,” the students get academic credit for building the tasering bot out of donated parts, while the city gets free tech and only has to pay for fuel and maintenance.

Although this real-life “RoboCop” has already proven its skill at negotiating unfamiliar structures — even climbing up and down stairs — the students have not yet been able to implement a radio-control system that works reliably through walls, severely limiting its utility. Once they finally find a wireless standard that can operate through physical impediments, the little bot can assist the department in diffusing dangerous standoffs: not only can it seek out an armed criminal holed up in a building, its on-board Taser allows it to incapacitate the target with extreme prejudice.

Paint-On Polymer Kills Influenza
MIT chemist Alexander Klibanov and his team have developed an antiviral polymer that can be applied like paint.

A surface coated in spiky polymer molecules destroys the flu virus at a touch, according to a new report published online by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA.

The experimental substance might complement other germ control methods used in public spaces such as hospitals and airplanes, the developers say. Some experts, however, dispute its potential value for taming flu.

17th-Century Sword Applied Nanotech
Armor expert Des Barrett was surprised to learn an ancient blade was forged by a Mediaeval master of modern nanotechnology. Made by renowned 17th century Arabic swordmaker Assad Ullah, the blade is a rare example of authentic Damascus steel — a unique material renowned for its hardness, sharpness and unique banding pattern, reports The Australian.

According to an analysis of another of Ullah’s blades — conducted by materials scientist Paul Paufler of Dresden University and colleagues — the blades represent the earliest known application of nanotechnology.

Paufler’s team reported in the journal Nature that the strength of the unusual banded steel comes from the carbon nanotubes and iron carbide nanowires it contains. This form of carbon has only recently been understood by chemists, in the last few decades. Today it is used to produce damn near the toughest materials available.

Exactly how 17th century swordsmiths built in the nanostructure, however, remains a mystery that Paufler’s team hopes to solve.

(via Fark)

Caffeine Stuff
Candy, soap, syrups… it’s all there for the caffeine addict and/or aficionado at ThinkGeek.

(via a colleague who knows this blogger couldn’t survive without constant consumption of caffeine…taken by any means necessary)

Liquid Armor
Scientists have developed a bulletproof liquid armor that weighs and wears like regular clothing…

Liquid Armor – video powered by Metacafe

Cheers.