smart technology smart, innovative or wacky
BUILT FOR SPEED Want to shave a few seconds off your swim time? The LZR Racer from Speedo helped set seven world records in a single week. This bodysuit is made from the world’s lightest, lowest-friction, woven swim fabric, with electrically bonded panels and silicone grippers at the ankle and knee. Despite controversy over whether the suit gives wearers an unfair advantage, FINA, the international swimming body, has approved it for use in this year’s summer Olympic Games. WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Does hi-tech gear give athletes an unfair advantage? SMS ‘HIPCOM’ followed by your thoughts to 34798. Each SMS costs R2.
( a l m ost ) F l y L i k e A B ird Finally, a jet pack that can fly all over the world? Well, almost. Yves Rossy, or ‘FusionMan’, recently flew solo over the Swiss Alps for 10 minutes using a specially constructed wing. The FusionMan Wing is 2,5 metres long and uses four Jet-Cat P200 turbine* engines, which cost about R40 000 each. Click to <www.jet-man.com/prod/index_en.html>. *turbine (noun) a machine in which the kinetic energy caused by the movement of a liquid is converted to mechanical energy.
CELLS OF GREEN Phones that incorporate nanotechnologies? That’s the idea behind the Nokia Morph: to make a device out of nanoscale ‘grass’, a material that when magnified looks like blades of grass, yet feels like a solid surface. Each ‘blade’ can absorb solar energy and charge
the phone automatically. The phone could also be made out of a mesh of nanoscale fibres that would allow you to unfold it to make it smaller or stretch it to wrap around your arm. Nanosensors could ‘sniff’ the air around you to check pollution levels or pollen count.
Learn more about nanotechnology at <www.understandingnano.com>.
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