Phil Taylor

I worked as an engineer before going into ceramics, making insulators. It was my job, so I got it done. But I also had a lot of pride in myself.

British Athlete

Insulators can be classified by what they resist such as heat, electricity, or sound.

Types of Insulators

Common insulating materials include rubber, plastic, glass, and wood.

Insulator Materials

The effectiveness of an insulator is measured by its ability to resist the transfer of a particular form of energy.

Insulation Effectiveness

A professional insulator installs materials to prevent unwanted energy transfer in buildings.

Insulator Occupation

Insulators play a key role in energy conservation by reducing the need for heating and cooling.

Energy Efficiency

Effective insulation improves comfort levels inside buildings by maintaining desired temperatures.

Insulation and Comfort

 they'd arrive out of sync. You can't change the length of the connections, but your brain, especially as it develops in childhood, does have a way to change the conduction velocity. Neural fibers are wrapped in a fatty substance called myelin. Myelin is an insulator

The science of...

 and insulate. Now, spray foam is an excellent insulator -- it fills in all the cracks -- but it is pretty high embodied energy, and, sprayed-in cellulose or blue jeans is a much lower energy alternative to that. We also used straw bale infill for our library,

Catherine Mohr builds...

 like the extra terrestrial sun is. It is right here beneath our feet. Really, literally right there. But we don't think about this, right? I mean, when you go outside, you walk barefoot, you don't burn your feet. The Earth's crust is an incredible insulator,

Jamie C. Beard: The...

 whether it's a conductor or an insulator or a semiconductor. Understanding how electrons are shared among atoms allows us to precisely control the properties of semiconductor materials, like silicon. Combining different semiconductors in the right way

Schrödinger's cat: A...

 using pressure and high temperatures. Since the name of this plastic, polyoxybenzylmethylenglycolanhydride, wasn't very catchy, advertisers called it Bakelite. Bakelite was made into telephones, children's toys, and insulators for electrical devices.

From DNA to Silly Putty,...

 Otherwise you'd be getting zapped all the time. Conductors like metals and salt water tend to have loosely bound outer electrons, which can easily flow between molecules. On the other hand, insulators like plastics, rubber and glass

The science of static...

 It's warm. To think what the actual den must be like. You know unfortunately it's blown in, so we can't get in it, but to be totally enclosed, straight out of the elements. You know, this snow and ice is such a good insulator,

The Life of a Baby Polar...

 In conductive materials, electrons flow around atoms, forming an electric current. In contrast to insulators, the electrons in conductors are weakly bound and flow easily. A resistive touchscreen has two layers.

Why a sausage can do...

 in the delicate quantum world. One example is called a topological insulator. Imagine a film of electrons. If a strong enough magnetic field passes through them, each electron will start traveling in a circle,

What in the world is...

 to get mica. And mica is a mineral which is a very good insulator and very good at insulating electricity. That's me getting mica. And the last material I'm going to talk about today is plastic,