IN VINO VERITAS
Choosing the materials that make hi-fi speakers sound groovy has always involved a mixture of acoustic science and plain old trial and error. Wood vibrates evenly – which is what makes stringed instruments and woodwind sound so good – but ultra-thin loudspeaker cones made of wood always dry out and crack.
Now, after lengthy research, JVC in Japan has solved the problem by marinating the wood in sake (rice wine) to make it malleable. It is then pressure-moulded into a cone, infused with thermosetting resin, moulded and finally heated to harden the resin. The first speakers with the wooden cones will go on sale in the US in May. Hi-fi fans are already saying the prototypes sound great. JVC isn’t saying what experiments with cheap sake led to the discovery.
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WI-FI HITS THE ROAD
It’s certainly a novel approach to curing road rage. Researchers in Sweden are trying to create a sense of community between frustrated drivers stuck in endless traffic jams by providing them with a mobile Wi-Fi network that lets drivers browse and listen to each other’s music. Called Sound Pryer, the system is the brainchild of Mattias Östergren and colleagues at the Interactive Institute in Karlavägen, Sweden.
The idea is that digital tracks stored on a hand-held Wi-Fi computer mounted on the dashboard are streamed onto the airwaves and picked up by nearby cars within range of its Wi-Fi transmitter. Drivers can browse other motorists’ playlists and download a tune. “For traffic jams it’s an ideal activity,” says Östergren. There is just one problem: if drivers fail to log off the wireless net as the traffic jam clears, their music will be interrupted with snippets of every song that comes within range.
FILTERing ARSENIC IN A FLASH
A novel form of aluminium oxide (alumina) is being developed to remove the arsenic that pollutes well water in Bangladesh. Jongheop Yi at Seoul National University in South Korea says ordinary alumina is less effective at doing this because of its irregular pore size and lack of interconnectivity between pores. To overcome this he has developed a form he calls mesoporous alumina (MA), which has bigger, interlinked pores. In two hours, MA removes seven times as much arsenic as activated alumina can in two days, he reports.
