[Mayor's Office via Boing Boing]

Scientists at the University of Indiana have shown the incredibly density and molecular strength of neutron stars, which as all you amateur astronomers know is the leftover from a gravitational collapse of a star during a supernova. The research was started out of concern that the intense gravitational pull of these things could cause ripples in space-time, but could lead to new understanding of star quakes or magnetar giant flares.

So the next time you’re about to push your glasses up your nose and toss an esoteric insult at your lab partner, consider “as dense as a neutron star.” [Eureka via Crunchgear]

The fat in the prosciutto and the oil-slathered cucumber is used with oxygen and a flame to combust, giving a fairly strong-burning torch. Check out the video below.

Proscuitto, we should add, is a dry-cured (not smoked, like American bacon) spiced Italian pork product, and despite hailing from communist Europe, is far superior to what we in the States know as bacon. That’s right. There’s something better than bacon. [Boing Boing Gadgets]

By designer Gioia Meller Marcovicz, the Monolith Table is a masterpiece of steel featuring a folding dining table and ten perfectly fitted (also folding) chairs to go along with it. I’m not sure that there’s any particular reason to essentially pack up such a large table into a large sculpture. I mean, it’s still going to take up half your living room either way, and it’s not exactly multi-functional as a giant block of metal.

But I sure do like to turn off my brain and look at it. [Monolith via bookofjoe]

The tube-shaped variation of the buckminsterfullerene molecule is dispersed in liquid and then filtered through a fine mesh, creating a very thin but very powerful film, now called buckypaper. The peculiarly shaped molecule has a huge surface area, leading to incredible strength: when stacked to become a composite, it can be 10 times lighter but possibly 500 times stronger than steel, but conducts and disperses heat like copper. It’s far from being commercially available, but its uses may be as far-ranging as aviation, computers, batteries, military stealth armour, and fuel cells. Specifically mentioned is the possibility that it might dissipate heat from crotch-burning laptops, so fingers crossed it gets here sooner than later. [AP]

And these are no ordinary textiles either: they’re transparent and way stronger than a sheet of steel. The team’s technique involves chemically-growing “forests” of nanotubes that self-assemble, and is reported in Science currently. If it proves true we may see nanotube materials replacing metals like steel pretty soon—though I’m not sure how many people would balk at flying in a plane with wings you can partly see through. [Physorg]

By studying the WTC’s structural weakening and collapse, scientists can identify the needs of new steel technology in the next atomic age. Steel may truly melt at 1,150ºC, but as low as 500ºC, the iron molecules that are held strong by magnetism at cooler temperatures start to slip, Sergei “Duder” “His Dudeness” “El Dudarino” Dudarev, principal scientist at the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), told BBC News. Imperfections in the metal enhance the oozing even more. The Twin Towers started to weaken when temperatures crossed the 500ºC threshold, and gave way without ever actually melting.

Today, Dudarev and others are at work on the world’s first “large-scale” fusion reactor, called ITER. What the scientists need, though, is a steel that can ease past these temperatures without buckling. “We need to look at the magnetic properties of steel, [and] vary their chemical composition in a systematic way in order to get rid of this behaviour,” the Dude told BBC. (No word if graphene is something that could be put to use.)

The weirdest factoid of the whole story is this: Steel’s peak elasticity is reached at… 911ºC. Now that gives me the chills. [BBC News]