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Wednesday, 30 March 2011

Plastic bananas

Brazilian scientists claim that it's possible to produce plastics from bananas, pineapples, and coconuts.  Actually, you can make plastics out of any organic material. It's just a question of how many steps you want to take. Methane is as good a starting point as a banana, but why go for abundant fossil fuels when you can jam food prices into the stratosphere?

I particularly like this take from Dvice regarding the banana plastic's resistance to heat:
Can you see a car that doesn't instantly catch on fire and explode in a car crash? We can.

So can I.  It's what happens in the vast majority of car crashes that don't involve rear-ended Pintos.  I think that someone has been seeing too many bad movies where a car flies off a cliff and explodes in midair.
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1 comment:

  1. eonWednesday, 30 March 2011 at 04:09:00 GMT-7

    It's like the shtick in movies that whenever anyone shoots into an automobile, the car blows up. Uhh, no, not unless there is actual HE onboard.

    I've seen car gas tanks rupture "for real" in crashes (you get that in law enforcement). Unless the tank is really badly designed, as with the Pinto, you end up with gasoline all over the road and the FD washing it down with an inch and a half.

    I guess all cars in movie universes come with built-in (and not too stable or reliable) self-destruct charges. (Maybe they are all Q Section surplus?)

    cheers

    eon

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