Corkscrew Cups Could Keep Space Drinks Flowing 181
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 (Score:3, Interesting)
How do you fill it? (Score:2, Interesting)
Videos of Water in Space (Score:2, Interesting)
In other words ... (Score:3, Interesting)
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.)
Re:Even better. (Score:2, Interesting)
Brilliantly original. I love it. (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
Fine until it gets knocked (Score:1, Interesting)
What happens when it gets knocked against something? I bet that you'd end up with droplets all over the place: can just see the astronauts suing because their groins got burnt (shouldn't be putting coffee there anyway).
It's an open container - so the contents can spill if the container and content experience shear that overcomes surface tension when the fluid is at an exposed edge. and because it's a helix it's all exposed edge!
I'd go for the squeezy-bulb approach any time. ... Ha! - squeezy.
Spiral For Strength (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Would you need a screw shaped cork for wine? (Score:4, Interesting)
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:Capri Sun (Score:3, Interesting)
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, etc) with a drop of water, the surface tension keeps them stuck together. (There's some NASA footage of this somewhere on YouTube.)
Yeah, they still do the reconstitutable stuff in a baggy too, but that's as much for convenience of preparation as anything else. Eating isn't hard in zero-G, but cooking is a bitch (as is the power requirement for refrigeration/freezing).