Refrigerator technology hasn’t changed much in decades. Now researchers in Europe have shown promising early results with an experimental cooling system that uses magnetic fields and shape-shifting memory alloys.
Continue Reading
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.
Continue Reading
A "straight out of science fiction" liquid membrane developed at Penn State acts as a "reverse filter" that lets large objects through while blocking small ones. The self-healing, stabilized liquid material acts counter-intuitively as the polar opposite of a conventional sieve.
Continue Reading
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.
Continue Reading
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.
Continue Reading
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.
Continue Reading
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.
Continue Reading
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.
Continue Reading
Carbon atoms can form graphene sheets and buckyballs. Scientists have theorized that a third variation should exist with negative curvature, known as schwarzite. An international team has now found a way to create these structures, which may have unusual electrical, magnetic and optical properties.
Continue Reading
Aerogels are among the best thermal insulators, but their cloudy appearance doesn't work for windows, one of the worst offenders for letting heat escape a building. Now, researchers at Colorado University Boulder have found a way to make them transparent, recycling a beer by-product in the process.
Continue Reading
See the stories that matter in your inbox every morning