Aluminium - Enriching A Billion Lives

Doesn’t aluminium already float on water? We can’t blame you if you thought it did because aluminium is indeed a light-weight metal. However, conventional aluminium's density is 2.7gm per cubic cm. In order for something to float on water, this number has to be lesser than 1 (gm per cubic cm). Scientists have designed an ultra-light form of aluminium, paving the way for novel uses of the material in future spacecraft and automobiles. Researchers from Utah State University (USU) have restructured the common household metal at the molecular level to design a form lighter than water! Like most common metals, aluminium lacks natural buoyancy. However, with a little rearranging of the metal’s natural molecular structure, one can produce an ultra-light crystalline form of the metal that is actually less dense than water. Schematic depiction of a supertetrahedral aluminium crystal structure.  The research team constituting USU Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry profes

If ever there was a name which could be associated with the evolution of a mobile phone, Nokia would outdo the others by a mile! The company pioneered personalisation of the device, making it as resourceful as possible in the most creative way that technology permitted at that time. In the decade that Nokia ruled the mobile phone market, Symbian and Windows were the 2 major software platforms which powered the soul of these devices. And like the fate of any mature proprietary technology, open-source posed an imminent threat to the tech giant – to the extent that it failed to reinvent itself, twice. In 2017, Nokia has made a comeback. The transition is evident – proprietary to open-source, and from plastic/fiber to 6000 series aluminium. Yes, looks matter… and Nokia stands a class apart from the other cheap-looking models which offer similar features. And latest in its arsenal of smartphones is the new brand of the business – the Nokia 8. The Nokia 8 is