In a potential boon for the mining and textile production industries, scientists in Australia have come up with the new alloy capable of stripping impurities from contaminated water, and say it can do so with greater efficiency and at much lower cost than existing approaches.
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The creators of a new high-strength, low-weight metal alloy hope it will find a place as a midpoint between carbon fiber and lightweight aluminum in bicycle manufacture. Allite Super Magnesium is lighter and stiffer than aluminum, but not as expensive as carbon fiber.
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Researchers at MIT have come up with a de-icing system that is completely passive and relies only on the power of the sun, or artificial light, which means it can also work at night. The system could be used to prevent ice building up on aircraft wings, wind turbine blades, and powerlines.
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Researchers at CU Boulder are working on a new material that responds to light and heat by shifting between complex, pre-programmed shapes. Not only will it allow you to cheat at peg board tests, but it also holds promise in many applications in manufacturing, robotics, and biomedicine.
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Researchers at the University of California, Riverside have found a way to use viruses to build gold nanobeads, which can then be used to purify water and could eventually help cut the cost and time required to produce electronic components.
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Graphene is famous as a two-dimensional material, but to really make the most of the stuff we need to coax it back into 3D forms. Now researchers from Virginia Tech have developed a new way to 3D print graphene aerogels with a far higher resolution than previously possible.
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Scientists from Carnegie Mellon University have done something interesting to plain ol' paper. They've coated it with patterns of a conductive thermoplastic, which causes the paper to bend, fold or flatten in response to an electrical current.
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Strong as steel and tougher than Kevlar, spider silk is one of nature’s most impressive materials. Researchers from Washington University in St. Louis have now engineered bacteria to produce biosynthetic spider silk that they say performs as well as the real stuff.
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Retractable sunshades have long been used to adjust the amount of sunlight an area gets during the day, but these are usually driven by motors. Taking inspiration from the humble pine cone, engineers have now developed a shading system that can open and close automatically – no electricity required.
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Sandia engineers have developed the most durable metal alloy ever created. Made up of a combination of platinum and gold, the new material is 100 times more wear-resistant than high-strength steel, and the first metal alloy to join the same class as diamond. It also produces its own lubricant.
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