Cotton

While there are already clothing materials that help keep wearers cool simply by allowing heat to escape, an experimental new fabric coating goes a step further. Utilizing a whole bunch of nanodiamonds, it actually draws heat away from the body.

A group of scientists has come up with a novel coating for everyday cotton that gives it a broader set of useful traits, enabling it to repel oil and water with ease, and most impressively, float even when bearing loads many times its own weight.

​Scientists from the National University of Singapore have found a new use for cotton-based fabric waste – they've devised a method of converting it into an aerogel. Among other things, the ultralight material could be used to keep water bottles cold, and to control bleeding from deep wounds.

Project Piola is combining the ethos of fair trade and the French design flair to create shoes with organic rubber and cotton from Peru.

Scientists have created a new "fog harvesting" material, that switches between being absorbent and water-repellant.