Materials Science

Materials Science

Spinning Fine Threads: Silkworms coerced to make better silk

The caterpillars that spin commercial silk can make tougher or more elastic threads, depending on how fast they're forced to spin.

Materials Science

Vision Quest

Increasing numbers of people with less-than-perfect vision can now wear contact lenses, thanks to innovations in lens design and materials.

Materials Science

New gel could lead to cartilage repair

A new scaffold material that contains cartilage cells and encourages their growth could help scientists create living tissue replacements suitable for treating osteoarthritis and sports injuries.

Materials Science

Gems of War

While international bodies grapple with regulatory schemes to stem the diamond trade that funds ongoing civil conflicts in African countries, scientists are attempting to develop methods for identifying gems from conflict zones.

Materials Science

In glass, fast crowds boogie to brittle end

New experiments suggest that a coordinated dance involving more and more molecules may help explain the puzzling transformation from liquid to the molecular gridlock of solid glass.

Materials Science

Healing Wounds: Interactive dressing speeds the process

A new, easily prepared hydrogel material promotes more rapid wound healing in laboratory animals than do conventional dressings.

Materials Science

Molecular template makes nanoscale helix

Using ribbons made of organic molecules as minuscule templates, researchers have coaxed a semiconductor material into tiny helical coils.

Materials Science

X Rays to Go: Carbon nanotubes could shrink machines

A new type of X-ray machine operates at room temperature by producing X-ray-generating electrons with carbon nanotubes instead of traditional heated metal filaments.

Materials Science

Spring in your step? The forces in cartilage

Researchers are uncovering the role of molecular forces in cartilage's ability to resist compression.

Materials Science

Wiregate: Metallic picket fence flips magnetic bits

Rather than relegate magnetic fields to the usual backup role of data storage for computers, a new microcircuit exploits those fields for computation, possibly leading to cheaper, lower-power chips than traditional electronic ones.

Materials Science

Tiny gems on steps find future in films

The discovery of diamond-crystal seeds on steps in silicon may lead to long-sought, large wafers of pure, single-crystal diamond for electronics and other uses.

Materials Science

Impurity clouds from all sides now

For the first time, scientists have obtained detailed, three-dimensional images of line defects in steel.