The monthly roundup from Editor-in-Chief Susan Sutton.
Halloween is such a fun holiday. The decorations around
our neighborhood are always fantastic, and I love to see all of the innovative
costumes that the kids come up with each year. Their enthusiasm makes us all
feel like kids again, at least for a little while. Perhaps most importantly,
it's the one time of year that I don't feel obligated to lie to the grocery
store clerk about my nonexistent low blood sugar problem, since
everyone's
cart is packed with candy.
According to The History Channel, the trick or treating
tradition most likely finds its origins in England. During each annual All
Souls' Day parade and festivities, poor people would go door-to-door to receive
pastries called soul cakes with the promise that they would pray for each
family's dead relatives.
1 The tradition evolved, and
today the threat of practical jokes often spurs the otherwise disinclined to
provide candy and other treats to their costumed visitors.
In our industry, we don't get "tricked" if we
don't deliver-we just lose business. Customers fully expect consistently
high-quality goods, and rightfully so. Chances are they won't come back year
after year if their expectations aren't met. The real trick, as it were, is in
developing and cultivating the products and services necessary to meet those
expectations.
If working with diamond and its superior properties can
be seen as a treat for engineers, its high price tag certainly provides a
simultaneous trick. A new technology, originally developed at Argonne National
Laboratory and now available commercially, is overcoming traditional thin film
diamond limitations for a host of applications. Ultrananocrystalline diamond
offers improved electronic, thermal and optical transport properties while
retaining the hardness and stiffness of natural diamond. "Perfecting
Nature's Perfect Material” has the details.
Metallized ceramics are created when a metal alloy is
attached to a ceramic surface through chemical or mechanical bonding. The
resulting components (I can't help but think of them as Frankenceramics)
combine the benefits of both material types to offer selective electrical
conductivity, high-voltage insulation, hermetic sealing, enhanced thermal
performance and hardware attachment capabilities for industries ranging from
wireless communications to implantable medical devices (see "Put the Metal
to the Ceramic”).
Traditional glass recycling programs designed to collect
and process the glass from used bottles in order to create new bottles have
largely been successful, but valueless mixed color glass is becoming an
increasing burden in many communities. Construction fill or landfill cover are
both viable options, but long-term, cash-generating markets are needed to keep
community recycling programs in the black. "Recycled Glass Options for Tile”
explains that a number of tile manufacturing methods can cost-effectively
incorporate low-grade post-consumer glass and provide attractive "green"
solutions for consumers.
The U.S. Census Bureau reports that Americans consumed 26
lbs of candy per capita in 2006, most of which is thought to be gobbled around
Halloween.
2 We certainly do enjoy our treats, and I
can't help but think that I exceed expectations in that particular department
more often than not.
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