Texas A&M Universty

Ceramic materials are strong and can stand up to heat very well, but they’re notoriously fragile. Now, researchers at Texas A&M have uncovered a previously unknown self-healing mechanism in a certain type of ceramic, which works at room temperature.

Although an airliner's engines may be very loud on takeoff, its wings also create a lot of wind noise when it's landing. According to a new study, the latter problem could be addressed with the addition of a shape-memory alloy filler within the wing.

Heating and cooling systems are some of the biggest energy guzzlers, but passive temperature control could reduce emissions. Phase-change materials show promise for this, and now engineers have developed a new PCM composite that can be 3D printed.

Scientists are investigating more eco-friendly chemistries for batteries, and a team at Texas A&M University has just put forward an interesting candidate, demonstrating a metal-free battery that can be placed in acidic solutions to degrade on demand.

When an obese person really needs to lose weight, gastric bypass surgery is sometimes performed – but it's quite an invasive procedure. An experimental new implant, however, may produce similar results with much less fuss.

Genetic engineering has been proposed as a way to deal with the deadly mosquito, and a new project by Texas A&M AgriLife Research is looking to enable risk-free "test runs" of such genetic changes that are automatically deleted after a period of time.

Ordinarily, when using an off-the-shelf 3D printer, it's quite difficult to print a single object that incorporates multiple materials. An experimental new system could make it easier, though, by utilizing a "programmable filament."

When it comes to methods of locomotion for robots, wheels are good for some things, while legs are better for others. Scientists are now working on a bot that combines the best of both worlds, with wheels that become legs.

Texas A&M University researchers have developed a plant-based supercapacitor with excellent electrochemical performance, demonstrating how sustainable materials can be used to develop more eco-friendly energy storage solutions.

The usefulness of antibiotics is beginning to unravel, with potentially devastating results. In the hunt for new drugs, researchers have now investigated how an antivitamin of Vitamin B1 could be a promising new weapon against these “superbugs.”

While 3D printing technology does allow for the quicker and cheaper construction of buildings, such structures are typically made of concrete, which isn't very eco-friendly. Soon, though, it may be possible to print buildings out of local soil.

A new type of data storage system could be denser, smaller, faster and more energy efficient than silicon chips. The new method involves encoding data in sliding stacks of two-dimensional layers of metals.