University of Massachusetts

It turns out that donkeys are exceptionally good at repelling deer ticks. Now, researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have harnessed that ability to create a natural bug repellent that proved as effective as DEET at fighting the pests.

When it comes to keeping cool on hot days, it's not so much a matter of wearing less clothing as it is a matter of wearing the right clothing. A new fabric coating could help in that regard, and it's essentially made of chalk.

Scientists are using UV-emitting glass to keep problematic undersea biofilms at bay. The technology may find use in applications such as underwater viewing ports and camera lenses, and perhaps even one day the hulls of ships.

As anyone who's ever seen a bolt of lightning knows, the air around us can be filled with an astonishing amount of energy. A new study shows a way to harvest this power using a perforated nanofilm that can be made from a vast variety of materials.

To develop a heat-trapping fabric, researchers looked to polar bears, who thrive in incredibly low temperatures. The secret, they found, has to do with a relationship between the bears' hollow translucent hair and the black skin that lies beneath.

With new manufacturing techniques comes the opportunity for new metal alloys with a range of possible properties. A team of researchers has now developed a new 3D-printable alloy with a specific nanostructure that makes it ultra strong and ductile.

Wearable electronics could soon be powered by dead microbes. New research out of UMass Amherst has demonstrated a biofilm that generates electricity from sweat, harnessing the corpses of dead bacteria – and it's at least as effective as a battery.

The US Army has put the call out for new homegrown uniforms that are not only fire retardant but also insect repellent, and a team has answered with a new material made by treating a commercially available nylon-cotton blend with non-toxic chemicals.

We've already heard about so-called "fog harps" that use thin wires to collect airborne water droplets, providing drinking water. Well, an experimental new device also uses wires to capture water vapor, although it proceeds to generate electricity.

A new radio technology dubbed "Braidio" has the potential to dramatically extend the battery life of mobile devices by many hundreds of times by allowing them to automatically share battery power loads with other devices when wirelessly communicating.

Scientists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have adapted a "collapse"-type origami technique, in which all folds are carried out more or less simultaneously, to create complex reversibly self-folded 3D structures. Applications include soft robotics and biomedical devices.

Researchers have found that the cryptographic functions of a chip can be compromised without changing its physical layout. Based on altering the distribution of dopants in a few components on the chip during fabrication, this method represents a big challenge for cyber-security.