NOVA

Last night Ted and I watched Nova.   It was a great show about a lot of different things we can use to make life safer and easier on us.

First they told how they will be using something they get from Shark skin in medicine.   I'm not sure just how this works but there will be more on that soon.

Another idea was to paint gas cans on vehicles with some substance they have developed that seals itself after it is penetrated.    They demonstrated by shooting into a gas can without the new product covering it and then WITH it.   On the covered can the bullets went in but the can began to seal the hole immediately - thus not loosing any of the gas and causing an explosion.

Then they talked about making airplane wings different and flexible like a birds wings.   All these scientists and engineers talk WAY above my head but it sounded wonderful.

The thing that caught my eye though was mixing corn starch and water and making a shock resister.  They had a cement mixer dump this stuff into a tank and a guy literally RAN across it.   He would sink in a little, kind of like he was running on a very soft foam mattress.   If he tried to walk he sunk in all the way.   When you hit this substance with a sudden shock it makes more of a solid foundation, but if you try just touching it easily it's like liquid.

I kept thinking of Connie trying to clean her hair one time with corn starch.   She had heard if you could not wash your hair for some reason, putting corn starch on it and brushing it would clean the hair. 

She and Mark decided to try this out when I was busy doing something else.   I walked in just as Mark was going across the kitchen with a full plastic bowl of water.    I asked him what he was doing with that?   He said "Connie needs it". 

When I looked on the deck, there was Connie with a rather white head of hair brushing for all her might but not getting much of the corn starch out.  I told them they couldn't put the water on it or she'd have paste for hair.   Once again one of my children was on the verge of inventing a wonderful new product and making us millionaires and I stopped it.

If I'd left her alone and let her put that on her hair when she played volleyball and got hit in the head it would not of hurt her near as bad and if she'd gotten caught in a rain it would of washed out.  

They actually use this idea in shock absorbers somehow.   I'm sure they don't use corn starch and water but the idea is there.