Technology marvels

Among many technological marvels from that era is a pigment known as Maya Blue. This startling, turquoise-like color was used extensively by the Maya for many purposes (Fig. 6.3). The Maya used the pigment for paint that was applied to sculpture, wall murals and pottery, among other objects. They also used the pigment to color the bodies of sacrificial victims before they were thrown into sacred wells or had their hearts cut out at temple altars. 

To help you better understand this core concept of Lean Safety, here is an example with which you can all identify. Just imagine yourself boarding one of Boeing s new Dreamliner airplanes. Shortly after taking off on this technological marvel of the 21st century, you will be confronted, or maybe rammed, with technology from 1955. 

Laser-ablation method shown in Fig. 3 was used when Cgo was first discovered in 1985 [15]. This method has also been applied for the synthesis of CNT, but length of MWCNT is much shorter than that by arc-discharge method [17]. Therefore, this method does not seem adequate to the synthesis of MWCNT. However, in the synthesis of SWCNT described later (Sec. 3.1.2), marvelously high yield has been obtained by this method. Hence, laser-ablation method has become another important technology in this respect. 

Fleming, R. and MacAlpine, M. (2002). MARVEL Composting Technology A system to compost liquid swine manure. Final Report for Agriculture Adaptation Council, Guelph, Ontario. 

An observant smdent has also heard of many new and old technologies that seemed powerful and promising, but have not found much application. The buckminster-fullerene and the related carbon tubules seem like marvelous materials with unmatched and fascinating properties, but they are not used in the marketplace. Neither are the electrically conducting polyacetylenes, which hold the promise of a moldable conductor that can be made at low temperature. Almost every professor of chemical engineering and chemistry has numerous research results that are not used in the marketplace today. A visit to their offices and discussions wifh fheir research sfaff may resulf in several suggestions that are worth further investigations. 

Bortz, Fred. Techno-Matter The Materials behind the Marvels. Fairfield, Iowa 21st Century Books, 2001. Written for young adults, this entertaining book describes many of the advanced materials that form the foundation of much of today s technology. 

Advanced materials ate vital to daily life in our world of high technology [1,2]. The notebook computer I am drafting this very sentence on illustrates the marvel of advanced materials engineering. It is smaller than a typical issue of the Journal of Chemical Physics and weighs less than five pounds yet it outperforms the very much bulkier personal computers used only a few years ago, let alone the old IBM electric typewriters. 

The author remains indebted to Victoria S wift, the director of the art department at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences for her marvelous artistic talent in completing many of the diagrams and to Betty Ann Karolski, the associate director, Biomedical Communications Information Technology Services at the University of Nebraska Medical Center for her support in completing this book. 

C. A. Pickover, The Mobius Strip Dr. August Mobius s Marvelous Band in Mathematics, Games, Literature, Art, Technology, and Cosmology, Thunder s Mouth Press, 2006. 

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