Materials Science

  1. Tech

    Invisible plastic ‘ink’ foils counterfeiters

    Hidden images make a new label virtually counterfeit-proof, thanks to a combination of chemistry and nanotechnology.

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  2. Health & Medicine

    Cool Jobs: Data detectives

    Statisticians are experts in seeing the patterns hidden within the raw numbers called data. They especially excel at finding real trends, while eliminating what is actually due to chance. That’s why they offer a good reality check in any field that involves numbers.

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  3. Materials Science

    Looking unbelievably cool

    Everything above absolute zero gives off some heat. Usually objects radiate more heat — or energy — as their temperature climbs. But engineers now have created a material that sometimes appears to cool even as it is warming.

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  4. Chemistry

    Cool Jobs: Repellent chemistry

    Chemistry is just one way to repel water in nature. Structure, or the shape of things, is another. To excel at water repellency, the lotus leaf relies on both.

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  5. Climate

    Explainer: Why a tornado forms

    Tornadoes start with a thunderstorm. But they also require other ingredients, such as instability.

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  6. Animals

    Speedy sharkskin

    Tiny, toothlike bumps boost sharks’ swiftness.

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  7. Computing

    Electronic skin

    Tiny, nearly invisible devices stick to skin, ‘talk’ to computers.

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  8. Chemistry

    Superslim silicene

    Lab-made sheets of silicon are only one atom thick.

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  9. Materials Science

    Battery powered to heal

    With its own first-aid kit, this battery can really keep going.

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  10. Tech

    When love-hate is materially good

    Researchers copy nature's water-loving, water-repelling ways to make smarter stuff

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  11. Chemistry

    The memory of a material

    A popular polymer can remember what shape it was in.

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  12. Tech

    The science of disappearing

    Invisibility cloaks and other new materials that play with light are in the works.

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