Science discoveries at U-M

A little while ago, there was a story that came out about self-generated human power: strap a power generator to your knee and walk! Well, a research team at the University of Michigan was involved with that one. (Go Blue!)

The wearable mechanism works much like regenerative braking charges a battery in some hybrid vehicles, said Arthur Kuo, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at U-M and an author of the paper.

The University of Michigan's Department of Electrical Engineering have built an effin-powerful laser. (Yessss....) Are we next going to put these on sharks, a la Austin Powersi?

The record-setting beam measures 20 billion trillion watts per square centimeter. It contains 300 terawatts of power. That’s 300 times the capacity of the entire U.S. electricity grid. The laser beam's power is concentrated to a 1.3-micron speck about 100th the diameter of a human hair. A human hair is about 100 microns wide.

Just to prove that the University of Michigan does produce groundbreaking research in areas other than the physical sciences (although some might argue that biology is a physical science), we learn that researchers have found the cells that cause nervous system disease. (Alright!)

In addition to pinning down the cell type, Zhu's lab determined how non-myelinating Schwann cells start overmultiplying. They found that nerve damage and inflammation were among the two earliest events in tumor initiation.

Back to engineering now with a story about an autonomous seaplane with a twist: it can initiate and perform its own takeoffs and landings in the water. Nice photos and a video, too. (How do I get one of them?)

Flying Fish, an electric vehicle, drifts until its onboard Global Positioning System tells the craft it has floated too far. That triggers the takeoff sequence, which gets the plane airborne in just 10 meters. Other GPS coordinates trigger the landing sequence. The craft accomplishes both in simple ways, explained Ella Atkins, associate professor of aerospace engineering and associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science.

And finally, (although there are many other scientific outputs from this small Midwestern university listed on its news page), a study that says that viewing your spouse negatively is good for your mental health. (Just in case he/she asks you why you keep harping.)

Viewing our spouses more negatively over time may not be all bad, Birditt says. In fact, it might even be, well, positive. “As we age, and become closer and more comfortable with one another, it could be that we’re more able to express ourselves to each other. In other words, it’s possible that negativity is a normal aspect of close relationships that include a great deal of daily contact.”

So, in sum, if you feel like you're being nagged too much by your spouse, realize that it's for your own good, and that it is not the cause of your degenerative nerve problem, and definitely don't walk down to the pond as your knee-brace power generator powers up your DARPA-funded autonomous model sea plane for the express purpose of strafing your nagging spouse.

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