Materials Science
- Materials Science
A New Cool: Prototype chills fast and electrifies, too
Researchers have incorporated an efficient thermoelectric material into a prototype device that can cool or produce electricity.
- Materials Science
A Hard Little Lesson: Squeezed nanospheres grow superstrong
A substance not known for its hardness—silicon—becomes one of the hardest of materials when formed into ultrasmall spheres.
- Materials Science
A new carbon nanotool springs to life
Physicists have pulled out the inside cylinders of multiwall carbon nanotubes, as if expanding a telescope, indicating how the devices may serve as tiny bearings and springs in future nanomachines.
- Materials Science
Making Polymers That Self-Destruct: Layers break apart in controlled way
A new polymer film chews itself apart under certain conditions, making it a potential candidate for the controlled delivery of therapeutic drugs.
- Materials Science
Waterproof Coats: Materials repel water with simplicity, style
Researchers have produced new types of water-repelling surfaces, including one that's colorful and another made of inexpensive plastic.
- Materials Science
Technique may yield vocal cord stand-in
A plastic material used in some biological implants could someday form a foundation for tissue that can repair or replace human vocal cords.
- Materials Science
Ceramic rebounds from stressful situations
The ceramic titanium silicon carbide can fully recover after being compressed to a degree that would leave most ceramics shattered and most metals permanently deformed.
- Materials Science
Ancient seal technology shows its age
Modern technologies reveal than an ancient method of engraving tough quartz in Mesopotamia was adopted some 1,500 years later than scholars had thought.
- Materials Science
Natural Healing: Nanothread mesh could lead to novel bandages
A new material made from clot-promoting protein fibers may serve as a wound covering that speeds healing and never needs removing.
- Materials Science
Microscopic glass ribbons provide molecular labels
A new type of barcode too small to see with the naked eye holds promise for biomedical research, law enforcement, and everyday life.
- Materials Science
Conch yields clues for future materials
A conch's tough, calcium carbonate shell resists fractures because a protein surrounds the mineral crystals throughout the shell.
- Materials Science
Quick-Change Surface: Material repels water on command
Researchers have modified a gold surface so that it switches from a water-attracting mode to a water-repelling one on command.
