Corkscrew Cups Could Keep Space Drinks Flowing

holy_calamity writes "A Canadian chemical engineer has a novel solution to containing liquids in space. He has been experimenting with corkscrews of ribbon-like material that keep liquids suspended in their center while in microgravity. This effect is caused by the surface tension of the liquids. The helical containers allow the fluid to be sucked out of the coil in one go. In more conventional shapes, such as coffee cups, interaction between the container and the liquid's internal pressure makes the beverage break into annoying globules you have to chase with a straw."

I'm interested in how they simulated microgravity

[kcbanner (929309)]

They tested the candidates in a tank that simulates microgravity using two different liquids of equal density.

I wonder if the surface tension of those two liquids affects the experiment at all? Thats interesting.

Re:I'm interested in how they simulated microgravi

[LaskoVortex (1153471)]

Surface tension arises from cohesion and not adhesion. The two types of liquids were probably chosen such that the cohesive forces in the experiment were similar to that for water in air. Adhesive forces may exist between the liquids, but should not affect the experiment. Cohesive forces can be calculated by measuring the angle of the meniscus (if the adhesive forces between the liquid and its container are known).

Re:I'm interested in how they simulated microgravi

[Walt Dismal (534799)]

As if we didn't have enough trouble with drunken diapered astronauts, now NASA's come up with a way to have martinis in space! They should have stuck with Jello Shots in a Tube, TangDrivers, and secretly fermenting raisins from their Space Lunches. Not to mention huffing escaping gas from the air conditioning system. Yes, these plain-vanilla pilots and scientists have a wild side. The dewy-eyed novices on all-male flights awarded their first "Member of 50-Mile High Club" patch. The ones with a secret tattoo of Richard Simmons on their lower back saying "Your Space Buddy!" The "NASA Says Save Water in Space, Shower With Your Co-Pilot" ecology program. Oh, the horror. Cover your eyes, children.

Globule wars.

[by Anonymous Coward]

"In more conventional shapes, such as coffee cups, interaction between the container and the liquid's internal pressure makes the beverage break into annoying globules you have to chase with a straw."

Yes, but that's half the fun right there of going into space. The other is passing space gas.

Would you need a screw shaped cork for wine?

[PrescriptionWarning (932687)]

And also begs the question, what shape would the corkscrew opener be for that? the shape of a bottle perhaps?

whooa

[by Anonymous Coward]

Stop it you're totally freaking me out man

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[Zeinfeld (263942)]

This is so useful to me in my daily life. From now on I am going to insist on helical containers for all my micro-gravity beverage needs.

Re:

[ehrichweiss (706417)]

Don't worry, I saw a WeightWatchers commercial a while back that wrongly used "begs the question" as well. So it's not just for those you expect to lack grammar any more.

Re:

[Gewalt (1200451)]

No, it begs the question.

No, I don't care if some website says the etymology of that phrase is in some fashion contrary to it's current modern day usage. The mere fact of the matter is that language evolves, and so did that phrase. People look like idiots for suggesting that the phrase was used incorrectly, as that is NOT the accepted definition.

Quit modding that wrongful correction as insightful. That statement, and its "Insightful" modding is a very good indication that the poster, nor the modder has

Re:

[jesdynf (42915)]

You are not the first person to make the claim that widespread incorrect usage is no longer incorrect. You are not the last person who will do so.

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[pushing-robot (1037830)]

You are not the first person to make the claim that widespread incorrect usage is no longer incorrect. You are not the last person who will do so.

And he is not wrong for doing so. How do you think the English language was created? Lexical Engineers?

Re:Would you need a screw shaped cork for wine?

[Eivind (15695)]

That depends on your outlook, now doesn't it ?

Who owns english ? Who has the power to authoratively say what is correct english and what is not ?

In Germany it's simple, most people don't question authority, so everyone accepts that whatever Duden chooses to put in its dictionaries is correct, everything else is wrong. Yes, even if 99% of the population, including linguistically trained people, do it differently.

You get strange things like; "Everyone says gukken, but it's really kukken that is correct" (for look, glance). If you try asking a Germany -WHY- gukken is wrong if that is what everyone says, you get a bland stare, they don't really even get the question.

English, and most languages really, are somewhat more open: The *natives* define the language. Those putting out dictionaries merely *document* the language. Yes, there are "common misperceptions", i.e. things that many people do but which are nevertheless wrong and should probably remain so. Those are the things that break the -structure- of the language.

But stuff like meaning of phrases and/or pronounciation changes meaning over time trough actual use. Also, the same phrase has different (often related, but different) meaning in different fields. A photographer and a filesystem-designer do NOT mean the same thing when both talk about "taking a snapshot".

Begging the question means one thing in formal logic. In practice, it has other common meanings in everyday english. Deal with it.

Re:

[jesdynf (42915)]

Merely because everyone else in the world is wrong is no reason to change my opinion.

If, as you say, popular usage legitimizes, and if the users of the language have the right to define it... you appear to be forgetting that *I am a user of the language*, and have the right to define it. You don't get to claim that everyone but me has the right to an opinion on the subject. I simply need to change popular meaning and its use in everyday English, exactly like *you* are trying to do by posting in this thread.

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[The One and Only (691315)]

The only reason the usage of that phrase ever changed is because large numbers of ignorant people started using it incorrectly, and now we're left without an unambiguous, concise way of accusing someone of assuming what they are pretending to prove. The usage of "begs the question" we are discussing is only standard in the same sense, and for the same reasons, that .doc, Microsoft Windows, and IE's broken implementation of HTML and CSS are standard.

Re:Would you need a screw shaped cork for wine?

[agrippa_cash (590103)]

"You're assuming your conclusion" isn't that many more letters than "You're begging the question." and uses each word as it's currently understood.

Re:Would you need a screw shaped cork for wine?

[The One and Only (691315)]

The singular usage of "they" is attested all the way back to Shakespearean times (in fact, to Shakespeare himself) and has no negative consequences to the language as a whole. The issue here is not that some of us accept that language changes and others don't. The issue here is that some of us prefer to see language be used as eloquently and articulately as possible. Using "raises the question" instead of "begs the question" when one isn't referring to the logical fallacy maintains precision and avoids ambiguity. Similarly, using "they" to refer to a singular person of indeterminate gender is far more elegant than awkward constructions such as "s/he", "he/she", "(s)he", and so forth, while avoiding the ambiguity and gender bias of using "he".

Star bucks

[EmbeddedJanitor (597831)]

Coffee in space?

Re:Star bucks

[FiloEleven (602040)]

In space, no one can hear you sip.

Prior art.

[bobdotorg (598873)]

I believe it's called a Silly Straw. I have one sitting right next to my Tang.

Nothing new here.

[Neanderthal Ninny (1153369)]

Nothing new here. However the application in space is. Here is something similar idea:

http://www.orientaltrading.com/application?origin=page.jsp&namespace=browse&event=link.itemDetails&categoryId=377320&BP=8109&sku=70%2F4498&cm_mmc=YHS-_-Party%20Supplies-_-Tableware-_-Disney%20Cars%20Crazy%20Straws [orientaltrading.com]
http://www.toyconnection.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=TC&Product_Code=STRAW&qts=google&qtk=crazy%20straws [toyconnection.com]
http://www.jeffbots.com/r2d2cooler.html [jeffbots.com]

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[QuickFox (311231)]

If you'd take just a moment's glance at the story page you'd notice that this spiral is completely different.

Capri Sun

[Asmor (775910)]

Wouldn't a Capri Sun work just fine? Just a packet of liquid with no rigid structure which contracts to always contain the liquid...

Reminds me of that old (and false) joke about Americans spending a million dollars to invent a pen that can write in space, while the Russians used a pencil.

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[Microlith (54737)]

Did the russians have fun brushing the shavings and graphite dust out of the relays?

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[Anonymous Cowpat (788193)]

no, they bought the fisher space pens at retail price just like nasa. Oh, and an ordinary biro would have worked just as well anyway - you only need a pressurized pen for a de-pressurized area, like an airlock or the surface of the moon. Some people need to watch more QI.

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[rtaylor (70602)]

Which works great right up until a piece of graphite breaks off and floats into a control board causing a short circuit.

Chopsticks

[ianare (1132971)]

No silly, you use chopsticks! [glumbert.com]

If you notice the bag of tea is exactly like that - a pouch with a straw.

Re:Capri Sun

[by Anonymous Coward]

Hmmm... I don't think you get it. These Capri Sun juices [google.com] come in containers that collapse as you suck the juice out of them. So, as long as no air enters through the interface between the straw and the package (easy to implement) or through the straw itself (probably harder), the situation you mention would not happen.

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[AJWM (19027)]

They eat their futuristic food goo out of a tube,

Not since the 1970s. Many ordinary foods work just fine in zero-G, so long as they don't produce lots of crumbs (no crackers!) or require too much preparation. It's pretty common to send up a few loaves of bread and a jar of peanut butter (along with other foods) on Shuttle flights, and things like meat spreads, etc. work just fine out of a can -- they'll stick to the can or utensil rather than float around. You can even "glue" the can to a table (wall,

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[moosesocks (264553)]

I think you're missing the point. As long as a reasonably good seal is maintained (which is usually the case), the drink "packet" will deform as the drink is consumed instead of letting air to fill the void left by the liquid.

Gravity doesn't even factor into the equation, although getting the last few drops out could prove to be frustrating..

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[Breakfast Pants (323698)]

Informative? Do you know what a Capri Sun is?

Let me get this straight

[Teflon_Jeff (1221290)]

If you keep the liquid in a tube smaller than the globule it will break into, it won't break into a globule? Next thing, they'll be supplying these "astronauts" with "air" Brilliant!

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[xenocide2 (231786)]

No, no. It's even more simple than that. All you have to do is put the liquid in the straw before takeoff, then you don't have to chase the globule down with a straw!

College students rejoice

[gblackwo (1087063)]

Sounds like a space-age beer bong

How do you fill it?

[foxxer (630632)]

It's really cool and clever... but how do you fill it on earth with all its delicious gravity? Unless you load it up *in* space, but that doesn't really solve the problem does it?

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[Anonymous Cowpat (788193)]

Duh, the replicator serves drinks in these things. Sheesh - do I have to explain even the most BASIC space technology to you guys?

Videos of Water in Space

[by Anonymous Coward]

This device would ruin all the fun [youtube.com].

mod parent up, interesting

[fmobus (831767)]

great vid! The water droplets part was amazing!

I KNEW IT!

[hack slash (1064002)]

The future WILL look like (1977) Buck Rogers and/or (1978) Battlestar Galactica when we get twirly space cups.

Re:I KNEW IT!

[moosesocks (264553)]

Personally, I'm waiting for them to start cutting the corners off of our paper.

(The urban legend goes that the production company behind BSG liked the series, but thought that it was too expensive for what it was, and instructed the director to "cut some corners." Not being too happy with this, the director subsequently told his props manager to cut the corners off of every square and rectangular object he could find in his inventory. Oddly enough, this added to the "futuristic" appearance of the props)

In other words ...

[jc42 (318812)]

So the solution is to package the liquid in a long, flexible straw, and then coil the straw up into the shape of a cup.

Clever, clever!

(Of course, we have had a number of cases where we did extensive research, and when someone finally found a simple solution to a problem, everyone who saw it said "That's obvious." This happened with things like the zipper, barbed wire, and the paper clip, all of which took decades of experimenting before someone stumbled across the simple way to do it. Simple solutions to problems are often much more difficult to see than complex solution.)

Now all I need is

[by Anonymous Coward]

two girls, a camera, soothing music, and a space ship.

sippy cup

[kurtis25 (909650)]

Would this work on earth as a sippy cup that won't leak?

Brilliantly original. I love it.

[dpbsmith (263124)]

...at least I think it's original.

I'm just stunned at someone coming up with a totally new way to do something simple (hold liquid) in a simple way (in a container of the right shape) based on a familiar principle (surface tension).

In a sense, the idea of using surface tension to hold fluids is not new--think of a sponge or a towel--but getting cup-like and pipe-like functionality is.

I've no doubt that if humans had evolved in zero gravity this would have been discovered back around the same time as clay pots and chipped flint arrowheads, but as it is they didn't.

It's nice to know there are still inventions to be invented that don't rely on a billion microchips and a million lines of code.

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[kcbanner (929309)]

It means your "Strategically Engineering Anti-Gravity Humanoid Powered Suction Devices(TM)" are worth something, yes.

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[gaelfx (1111115)]

Damn, I knew i should have invested more in marketing! Do have the number of a good PR rep?

Re:Even better.

[Carnildo (712617)]

Why not just suck water out of a sponge? This is twice as good as a silly straw (aka "corckscrew cup") because you could use it to clean up spills as well as prevent them.

Bacteria love sponges. All that surface area means they'll hold water for a long time, and it's impossible to clean them properly.

Re:Even better.

[Takichi (1053302)]

Two minutes of microwaving on full power mode killed or inactivated more than 99 percent of all the living pathogens in the sponges and pads...

Microwave oven can sterilize sponges, scrub pads [ufl.edu]

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[ILuvRamen (1026668)]

because when you squeeze the sponge, liquid droplets would fly EVERYWHERE! There's a lot of holes in a sponge you know. That would be a total disaster. You'd have water droplets flying around for weeks. As for the giant, ridiculously long straw idea proposed in the article, I don't see why you can't just float a sphere of water and take bites out of it like an orange. If you're really, really careful, it shouldn't fragment plus that'd be way mroe fun!

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[gardyloo (512791)]

In addition to the "bacteria love sponges" comment, the helix allows flow, whereas sponges are very good at stopping flow.

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[binaryspiral (784263)]

Maybe not a cardboard juicebox, but more like a foil or plastic bag.... I was thinking the same thing.

This goes back to the millions of dollars spent researching and developing an ink pen that would write in zero G. The Russians laughed all the way to the pencil sharpener.