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Roswell & "New" Memory Metals

Shadow

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So I was watching TV and I saw a commercial for flexon glasses that consisted of metal that you could twist & bend but would retain its original shape. I was like "that is f****** cool!"

Then I thought...didn't I see & hear something about metal that could be bent & twisted but retain its original shape during a Roswell documentary...

It makes my mind wonder...
Alleged leaked information about fantastic science-fiction-like metals from 1947 recently become science fact 60 years later...after being developed by the military. Riiiiiiiight.

It is either a coincidence, the unfounded conspiracy theories insprired actual research by the military or some the stories are true...
Which one seems more likely?


We were staggered at the remarks on Langleys AFB website made by Anna McGowan, program manager for the Morphing Project at NASA's Langley Research Center (which is a part of this project, but not the main company).

She says:
"Among the exotic "smart" materials being developed by the Morphing Project, shape-memory alloys are relatively ordinary. Imagine seeing a bullet shot through a sheet of material, only to have the material instantly "heal" behind the bullet! Remember, this is not science fiction. Self-healing materials actually exist, and LaRC scientists are working to unravel their secrets.
"What we did at NASA-Langley was basically dissect that material to answer the question, 'how does it do that?'" McGowan said. "By doing so, we can actually get down to computational modeling of these materials at the molecular level. Once we understand the material's behavior at that level, then we can create designer 'smart' materials," The above statement seems odd to us. Why would you strip down technology to see how it works if you had built it in the first place? Or does this mean that NASA-Langley did not make the material, but are in fact back-engineering it?
Click to expand...
http://www.ufos-aliens.co.uk/morphingmetals.html
 
The above statement seems odd to us. Why would you strip down technology to see how it works if you had built it in the first place? Or does this mean that NASA-Langley did not make the material, but are in fact back-engineering it
Click to expand...

It only seems odd if you have no idea about science. It is very easy to create materials that we don't fully understand. Superconductors are an obvious example. No-one really has a clue why they act the way they do, especially high temperature ones, but we can still make them. In fact, most of the research into superconductors consists of building them and then trying to work out what is going on. There is no reason the same could not be true of shape-memory materials. In fact, there are many, many discoveries that have been made by accident, and only later working out how it actually works.
 
Right. And for the coincidence of memory metals being mentioned in sci-fi (which Rosswell is) and later being invented by science: That happens all the time, and memory metals is an old sci-fi dream (since they would be quite practical), and for the same reason it is also a science dream.

Hans
 
In the original Star Trek we saw crew members of the Enterprise carrying "personal communicators". Now we have cell phones. Just one of the many cases of science fiction inspiring invention in the real world.
 
But then there's E.E. 'Doc' Smith who back in the 30's 'invented' faster than light travel in his science fiction series. He forsaw the electronic computer too. But his heroes had to wait for their computer to warm up it's tubes before doing any calculations...

It's this kind of single layer thinking that makes the CT'ers funny. If we have had memory metals since the 50's, where would we be using them by now? Car fenders? self closing everydamthings? mechanical energy storage devices? mechanical memory storage devices? right angle momentum transmission? ...
 
Nearly 60 years and all we've got is bendy eye-glass frames? They must be keeping that alien technology close to the vest.

As Sagan said in one of his earlier books, wouldn't the military (always on the lookout for more money) have been screaming to the skies for funding to counter the new threat from outer space? If that UFO was real, that is....
 
I'm sorry, but the whole "new" in quotes in the subject line tells me just how simplicistic the conclusion drawn in the OP is.

I see, so we can't advance technologically, it's all about the aliens?
 
Memory metals have been around for a while. I remember reading about them in the seventies.

As for other uses, I have two temperature controlled showers that make use of memory metal. The memory metal is used to operate a valve that controls the hot/cold water mix and hold the temperature constant. Even if the water pressure drops, the temperature stays constant. No more scalded ass when someone flushes the toilet while I'm showering.

As I know the term, memory metal is an alloy that can be made to "remember" a particular shape when it is heated above a certain temperature. If you bend it when it is cool, it will take on the new shape, but will snap back to the remembered shape when you heat it up to its memory temperature.

I remember seeing a video where an eyeglass frame of memory metal was wadded up into a ball. Then they put it under hot water, and it snapped back out of the ball shape and into the eyeglass frame shape.

ETA:"Snapped" is an exageration, but it did unwad itself with no assistance from the demonstrator.
 
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MortFurd said:
Memory metals have been around for a while. I remember reading about them in the seventies.

As for other uses, I have two temperature controlled showers that make use of memory metal. The memory metal is used to operate a valve that controls the hot/cold water mix and hold the temperature constant. Even if the water pressure drops, the temperature stays constant. No more scalded ass when someone flushes the toilet while I'm showering.

As I know the term, memory metal is an alloy that can be made to "remember" a particular shape when it is heated above a certain temperature. If you bend it when it is cool, it will take on the new shape, but will snap back to the remembered shape when you heat it up to its memory temperature.

I remember seeing a video where an eyeglass frame of memory metal was wadded up into a ball. Then they put it under hot water, and it snapped back out of the ball shape and into the eyeglass frame shape.

ETA:"Snapped" is an exageration, but it did unwad itself with no assistance from the demonstrator.
Click to expand...

I remember seeing wire with the same properties- after being bent it would return to its original shape when heated- for sale as a curiousity in the Edmund Scientific catalog in the late '60s.
 
Nitinol (shape memory alloy) was originally "invented" by the Naval Ordinance Lab (every material they developed has NOL at the end of the name) as a hi-temp, ductile alloy. They had a length of the wire at a meeting, and being bored, they wrapped it around a pencil to show the ductility. Then someone decided to test the hi-temp characteristics by heating it with a match, and the wire uncoiled back to its original shape. One of those accidental discoveries, like penicillin and teflon. So much for alien technology. BTW, I got that story from the book Weapons that Wait, a book about naval mines and the NOL's program for developing them.

The quote I've heard concerning the Roswell materials is that there was a shiny, thin material that looked like metal foil, except that it wouldn't stay crumpled and would lay out flat when you released it. From the description, I'd say it was aluminized mylar, used in weather balloons and as radar reflecting targets. Remember the first time you saw aluminized mylar? Especially if you'd only seen aluminum foil before? Looks like foil, but sure doesn't act like it.

Anyhow, that's my take.

Beanbag
 
It is all a coincidence. The research was done by the military. There is no conspiracy. The U.S. government has not entered into an agreement with extraterrestrial aliens from Zeta Reticuli to obtain advanced science in exchange for human beings. It is all a coincidence. The research was done by the military. There is no conspiracy. The U.S. government has not entered into an agreement with extraterrestrial aliens from Zeta Reticuli to obtain advanced science in exchange for human beings. It is all a coincidence. The research was done by the military. There is no conspiracy. The U.S. government has not entered into an agreement with extraterrestrial aliens from Zeta Reticuli to obtain advanced science in exchange for human beings. It is all a coincidence. The research was done by the military. There is no conspiracy. The U.S. government has not entered into an agreement with extraterrestrial aliens from Zeta Reticuli to obtain advanced science in exchange for human beings. It is all true. The military conspired with the U.S. government to enter into an agreement with extraterrestrial aliens from Zeta Reticuli to obtain advanced science in exchange for human beings. It is all a coincidence. The research was done by the military. There is no conspiracy. The U.S. government has not entered into an agreement with extraterrestrial aliens from Zeta Reticuli to obtain advanced science in exchange for human beings. It is all a coincidence. The research was done by the military. There is no conspiracy. The U.S. government has not entered into an agreement with extraterrestrial aliens from Zeta Reticuli to obtain advanced science in exchange for human beings. It is all a coincidence. The research was done by the military. There is no conspiracy. The U.S. government has not entered into an agreement with extraterrestrial aliens from Zeta Reticuli to obtain advanced science in exchange for human beings.
 
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