Sometimes, the journal Nature shines a light on a strange, dust-mitey corner of science, and you find yourself staring at an unimaginably weird creature/experiment.

In today’s issue, they dedicate several pages to the odd story of a couple of guys at UCLA who’ve built a machine for unpeeling sticky-tape in a vacuum at the rate of 3 centimeters per second for the express purpose of generating x-rays.

Amazingly, it works. Check out the video for proof.

The authors write that current theories of tribology, the science of things rubbing together, don’t fully explain the amount of energy their machine generates. The search for a better theory of triboluminescence could lead to a greater understanding of electron behavior at the interface between two surfaces exhibiting stick-slip friction like, say, earthquake faults.

Wired.com’s Dave Bullock posted a photo gallery from his visit to the lab: Take an X-Ray With Your Office Sticky Tape



Video: Courtesy of Nature. Check out the a longer version of the video.



Citation: "Correlation between nanosecond X-ray flashes and stick–slip friction in peeling tape." doi:10.1038/nature07378

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