The New York Times reports on a new study in the current edition of Nature; it seems a new source of X-rays has been discovered. Scotch tape. Yup. Unrolling sticky tape in a vacuum releases a surprising amount of energy, some of it in the form of X-rays! (Extremely cool video here.) My favorite quote: “The researchers suggest that the high charge density generated by peeling the tape could be great enough to trigger nuclear fusion.”
The characteristic defining a human
distinctly apart from an ape
Not opposable thumbs, or intelligent thinking,
Not opposable thumbs, or intelligent thinking,
but what we can do with Scotch tape.
Your chimp or bonobo or highland gorilla
Your chimp or bonobo or highland gorilla
will typically not even care
And orangs and gibbons tear tape into ribbons
And orangs and gibbons tear tape into ribbons
and tangle it into their hair.
It’s humans alone who will try to discover
It’s humans alone who will try to discover
what else you can do with the stuff
(As if wrapping presents or fixing a photo
(As if wrapping presents or fixing a photo
were not inspiration enough).
A professor of physics at UCLA,
A professor of physics at UCLA,
in a demo both simple and clever,
Showed X-rays emitted when tape is unrolled
Showed X-rays emitted when tape is unrolled
in a vacuum—the coolest thing ever.
Enough were emitted to X-ray a finger—
Enough were emitted to X-ray a finger—
a medical use may be found;
Or measuring wear of composites; it seems
Or measuring wear of composites; it seems
that the new applications abound!
The X-rays are different for each brand of tape,
The X-rays are different for each brand of tape,
and they didn’t find any for “duct”;
Which is just fine by me, cos if duct tape gets weapons,
humanity surely is fuct.
Which is just fine by me, cos if duct tape gets weapons,
humanity surely is fuct.
7 comments
Skip to comment form ↓
Cath@VWXYNot?
October 24, 2008 at 6:52 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Best final rhyme EVAH
Cuttlefish
October 24, 2008 at 7:09 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Glad you liked it! I was sitting there for 10 minutes with brain-freeze, thinking there was no way to end the story; this possibility suggested itself, and I grabbed at it like a life buoy, not much caring if it worked well, so long as it worked. Now that I have positive feedback, I owe Athena a fatted calf…
Laurie
October 25, 2008 at 12:25 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
That is a really cool story! Science geeks can be so cute while they’re being super geeky.And I e-mailed it to my son, whose favorite toy while growing up was duct tape, and told him to make sure to read to the end :-)
Anfractuous
October 27, 2008 at 5:14 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
So… fuct; is that olde English? Or is it the past tense of fact? (which is a noun, of course, and doesn’t have a tense, but then, what the fuct part of speech is it?)
Cuttlefish
October 27, 2008 at 7:05 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
It *is* fairly Anglo-Saxon, as I understand it. Of course, spelling was not a big concern for these folks…
mandydax
October 27, 2008 at 6:14 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
:O I overskepticked on this one. I was concerned that maybe they were just getting EM flux from the motor, but the spectra for each of the tapes is different, and duct tape gives nothing. This is utterly amazing.PS: that rhyme was inspired, seriously. :D
mindlesley
November 27, 2008 at 11:22 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Ist I thought might be hoax. Then re-ran it and got my head around the possible physics. It would be way cool to get spinoff inventions from it.Use of unpeeling events to generate other energies or even to create fusion power, (would beat the current mob pursuing fusion with various versions of the torus mag. field). As a sometime versifier myself, your facility with rhyme provokes a modicum of serious envy. Mindlesley xxx