Flexible, Stretchable, Transparent Carbon Nanotube Thin Film Loudspeakers - Nano Letters (ACS Publications)

Flexible, Stretchable, Transparent Carbon Nanotube Thin Film Loudspeakers - Nano Letters (ACS Publications): "We found that very thin carbon nanotube films, once fed by sound frequency electric currents, could emit loud sounds. This phenomenon could be attributed to a thermoacoustic effect. The ultra small heat capacity per unit area of carbon nanotube thin films leads to a wide frequency response range and a high sound pressure level. On the basis of this finding, we made practical carbon nanotube thin film loudspeakers, which possess the merits of nanometer thickness and are transparent, flexible, stretchable, and magnet-free. Such a single-element thin film loudspeaker can be tailored into any shape and size, freestanding or on any insulating surfaces, which could open up new applications of and approaches to manufacturing loudspeakers and other acoustic devices."

You've got to watch the demonstration movie: 1, 2, 3. !!!!!.

A sense of humility

And while the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the dvides that have held back our progress.

-- Barack Obama, Victory Speech in Chicago

In a workshop on group dynamics and effective communication I attended last week, the coordinator asked the participants to name some of the qualities that enable effective communication within group. Respect, honesty, fairness, open-mindedness, acknowledging diversity, and appreciating differences are first a few in the long list of qualities. Towards the end, one quality, mentioned by a guy from engineering, resonates deeply inside me. He said he would like to collaborate with someone with a sense of humility, someone who does not think he has already figured everything out.

Humility is a rare quality in North American culture, where assertiveness is generally prized and often wrongfully confused with self-confidence. But humility is traditionally prized in East Asian cultures, and this value hasn't been changed in this age of rapid globalization.

An understanding of our fallible nature necessitates a sense of humility. It tempers our egos, helps us empathize with others, and facilitates communication. But it should not be confused with a lack of self-confidence. The general misconception of the mutual exclusiveness of humility and self-confidence may come from the fact that their combination is a rare quality.

I would argue that such a quality is best developed in multicultural societies where people make dramatically different assumptions of life, people and society. These assumptions are dubious at best. Unless people making their own assumptions explicit to themselves, they tend to fall back in their own seemly safe and cosy world-view. By being aware of those assumptions, we know our values, and know they are individual, not universal. Awareness of our unique values help build our self-confidence, and the realization of the diversity of different values keeps us humble.

Image source: http://www.mikepaulblog.com/blog/