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Show THE DAILY UTAH CHRONICLE J' J 'a' """""'"l"'""J! jjpjj jP Professor Uses Noise to Create Refrigeratj)jfegg?? U s yM - ; WYNNE PARRY Chronicle Feature Writer decorated with two strips of hologrammatic sil- ver. Just as heat produces motion, it can also generate sound, a phenomena first noticed by glass blowers more than 200 years ago. Now Symko is using a similar principle to create tiny refrigerators that could be used to cool the circuitry in computers and other electronic Shrill whistles burst periodically from the corner of the lab on the second floor of the James Fletcher Building. Some are steady, others warble slightly like a mechanical bird song. Their cries interrupt undergraduate Matt Emmi as he describes the work going on behind devices. He has carried a handful of the small devices from the downstairs lab and scattered them on the desk in front of him. Made of a variety of metals, some vaguely resemble cylindrical bits of pipe, closed at one end with white teflon bands around the center. With his fingertips, Symko dips the end of one of the metal devices into liquid nitrogen. This creates a difference in temperature and drives heat flow along its length. Wisps of vapor lap at his fingers, and after several seconds he lifts the Over three years ago, he took a class on the physics of audio and video, and then came to work for the man who taught the course. "The professor is always doing interesting things," he said. He explains that the two students making noise in the corner behind him are experimenting with small devices that turn heat into sound. Orest Symko the professor wearing a tie under a brown wool jacket with elbow patches, arrives to confer with Emmi. Once back in his office again, Symko sits at his desk. Lazy notes of Brazilian jazz drift from the stereo near the window. He introduces his work in thermoacoustics with a touch of history. Heat engines have been around since the 1800s, he explains. To demonstrate he stretches out his palm and places the circular base of a pinwheel-lik- e machine on it. Several degrees of warmth from his hand drive a piston into action. It spins a clear plastic disk, device. A shrill whistle emerges from device. He the open end of the inch-lon- g explains that the flow of heat between the warmer and the cooler ends creates the sound. "The beauty of this is that you have heat that is so disorderly and you have sound which is orderly and one frequency," he explains. Rapid oscillations in air pressure compose sound. When pressure goes up, air compresses and temperature rises. When pressure goes down, the air expands and cools. ke Orest Symko employs thermoacoustics to create tiny refrigerators. "If you wanted to redesign humans and you tion through a barrier inside the device. As a didn't like their ears, you could have used temresult, one side of the barrier warms while the other cools, functioning like a refrigerator. perature sensors," Symko says smiling. His devices exploit the relationship between "What really is neat about this research is that it has the potential to be something that just sound and heat. And if a difference in temperature could produce sound, couldn't noise create about every single consumer product that's based on electronics could use," Emmi says. a difference in temperature? He goes on to explain that the only current "In physics we always ask questions on both method for cooling circuitry is to blow air across sides," Symko explains. Several clear plastic devices lying among the it. Fans are both noisy and inefficient, and they metal bnds originated after this question. They can not bring cooling below room temperature because they are only working with ambient air. are part of a new class of refrigerators. He lifts one to illustrate. Its body is made of Both are problems that could be overcome with plastic, and attached to the end of this one is a the new class of refrigerators. In fact, researchers have already developed black cone, or speaker. Here sound produces n refrigerators. cooling. In the past, many refrigeration systems relied "What's new about our approach is that we are making everything small, so small that it on freon or one of several chlorofluorocarbons. be used in microcircuits in laptops," end could to most However, developed nations agreed to fears that their production by 1996 in response Symko says. CFCs damage the ozone layer. People want more devices on their computers, and they want them to go faster. Increased work Symko's small refrigerators use simple gases for computer circuits creates more heat that like air as a medium, and they have minimal must be disposed of. Symko gestures to a Macinmoving parts. They function on the same princitosh cube behind him. ples that draw sound from his "The next generation will probably have probdevices. The body of the intensifies lems getting rid of the heat," he says. could be the answer. He sound just as the body of a violin amplifies a note. And like the violin, the device resonates at picks up the smallest device on the table, less than half of an inch long. Its pitch is ultrasonic, its own natural frequency as soundwaves travel it. through see SOUND, page 8 The pulses of sound pump heat in one direc full-size- heat-driv- "ill JAMES GARDNER Chronicle Feature action-figure-relat- Editor www.aftinies.com Yukon Cornelius the prospector who rescues the most famous reindeer of all in the 1964 classic animated "Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer" is an action figure. In fact, Yukon is just one of many charac rather obscure red-beard- ed stop-motio- n, pop-cultu- re years. For example, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" arid "The Brady Bunch" all have corresponding action figures. And right now, the hot spot for news is Action "a veritable compendiTimes, Figure um for all collectable toys. Included are reviews, columns, opinion pieces, photo galleries and feature stories this month one of the site's reporters hit the Mattel Hot Wheels convention. For the neophyte, the world occupied by Action Figure Times and its readers comes across as extremist, indulgent and childishly fanatical. These people commit large junks of ed CHRONICLE FEATURE EDITOR sound-drive- d, en mini-refrigerat- or rs their lives to collecting and talking about toys. And worse, photos of these guys reveal that many of them ters turned action figure in recent J are easily in their 40s. Sure, it's a stereotype- - a cheap and easy image to paint but if you haven't already pictured what the general Action Figure Times reader or staffer looks like, think of Comic Book Guy on "The Simpsons." (By the way, there's a Simpsons Comic Book Guy action figure.) So while there is a lot of cool stuff at this site there is a whole line of "The Matrix" and figures, for example the level of fanaticism can be a bit of a turn-ofHowever, if you happen to be a really big fan of action figures if you are the Comic Book Guy then pull up a chair, crack open the Doritos and prepare to spend your weekend with Action Figure Times. "X-me- n" f. www.trainupacMIJ.coja Your favorite Holy Bible characters have come off the pages of King James and slipped into plastic molds. Train Up a Child, Inc. has produced a whole pantheon of scripture-star action figures. it's Now easy in one's more sacrilegious fantasies to assume that these are merely the product of parody, the diminution of the whole dye-ca- st n ethic. But Train Up a Child, Inc., is a Judeo-Christia- tributor of Christian and dis- home-schooli- ng products. And the name of the company comes from scripture. Proverbs 22:6 reads, "Train up a child in a way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it." To ensure that the kids do indeed "not depart" from the path, the company has paid extremely close attention to detail. The Adam and Eve figures sport loincloths divinely unremovable. David and Goliath are accurately disproportionate. Solomon has g a poker face. Job is God- fig-le- af baby-slicin- JAMES GARDNER.JGARDNERCHRONICLE.UTAH.EDU 581-704- There's also a a Raphae-lea- n and Virgin Mary that's sadly generic. The angel of the Jesus figure arc open palms generously. But what's refreshing about Train Up a Child, Inc., what could almost be deemed progressive, is that all of these characters are available in African American counterpart form. Visitors have the option of clicking on a white Jesus icon, which will send thcrn to the Caucasian Heritage Series, or choosing a black Jesus icon to go to the African Heritage Scries. Admittedly, the site is really little more than a catalogue. The visitor is expected to look at the figures he or she wants to buy for $6.95 each and then click on the corresponding icon befow that says, "Order Eve" or "Order Goliath," etc. Who knew the apocalypse was a affair? Want Armageddon now? Click on "Order Jesus." doe-eye- mail-ord- 1 d er |