Did you know that cork...
Who first used the cork for a laboratory apparatus?
Who was the first person to see cells from a piece of cork?
In 1665 English scientist Robert Hooke placed a thin cutting of cork under a microscope and became the first person to see the empty spaces contained by walls, which he named cells. The term cells stuck and Hooke gained credit for discovering the building blocks of all life. It looks like he truly enjoyed the number of cells contained in such a small piece of cork, even though he could't, at the time, realize the full effect of his discovery.
Cork City
Cork is a city in Ireland. To our knowledge its name has nothing to do with the material itself. According to Wikipedia the name Cork comes from the Irish word corcach that means "marsh".
A fruit bowl? Really?
Extracting a natural cork fruit bowl from the tree
Sometimes, it is possible to take pieces of cork from the tree and put it to immediate use. Here in our office, our fruit bowl is the beautiful piece of cork taken from the tree in this video.
Fruit bowl in our office
Did you know that the artist VHILS is Portuguese?
Have you ever come across a street or building wall with a face carved on it? those were the works that's brought VHILS the well deserved recognition. As a good Portuguese he already enriched the world with pieces of art made out of cork. Contraste (Contrast) is the name of his huge wall art displayed at the PT data center in Covilhã.
Why cork a bat?
What is a corked bat?
A corked baseball bat is a bat that has been specially modified by filling it with cork in order to make it lighter. Supposedly, a lighter bat gives a hitter a quicker swing and may improve the hitter's timing. Modifying a bat with foreign substances and using it in play is illegal and subject to ejection and further punishment. A corked bat has a weaker structural integrity and is, therefore, more susceptible to breakage.
According to the American tv show Mythbusters, a ball hit by a corked bat travels at only half the speed of a ball hit by an unmodified bat, causing it to go a shorter distance. The final conclusion was that the use of a corked bat had fewer benefits over a regular bat.
A Cork Adventure for kids (and grown-ups)
Follow David in an amazing adventure through cork path in this very well explained video.
O meu livro da cortiça / My cork book
My cork book is a bilingual book that explores the universe of cork in a creative and fun way.
This book has lots of information and attempts to attract children (and adults) to this product so important for Portugal, the world's biggest producer of cork products.
McNamara designs a cork surfboard
McNamara, Mercedes-Benz Portugal and Corticeira Amorim joined to create a cork surfboard. The idea is to conceive new surfboards that are dedicated to surf the high waves of Nazaré.
"I believe in the use of technology for safety and survival. To create a surfing board that is better, is able to resist impact and is ecologically sustainable is a dream come true" said the Hawaiian surfer.
What to do with used cork stoppers?
You probably already heard that cork is recyclable but, what are you supposed to do with that cork stopper you just popped out of a bottle of wine?
However, Sometimes you might want to save them because they have a memory attached... other times you just don't want to go through the trouble of finding the appropriate cork recycling company and send it to them.
On the post 50 Clever Wine Cork Crafts You’ll Fall In Love With, you will find several diy projects... one of them will certainly fit you.
An interesting Facebook page
On the internet it is possible to find some interesting pages about cork and its world.
Here we share with you a Portuguese Facebook page that we believe has very interesting news, links and info.
The REDECOR is a non-profitable project that announces and divulges several events related to cork.