Materials Science
- Animals
Beetles offer people lessons in moisture control
Taking tricks from a beetle, researchers are designing surfaces that collect water from the air or resist frost buildup.
- Health & Medicine
Nano medicines take aim at big diseases
Nanomedicines are new treatments and tools that are taking aim at disease from the cellular level. Medicine’s next big thing could be very teeny tiny.
- Computing
Clear, stretchy sensor could lead to wearable electronics
Researchers have combined plastics and metal to make a transparent, stretchable sensor. It could soon find use in touchscreens, wearable electronics and more.
- Chemistry
Concrete science
Teen researchers are exploring ways to strengthen this building material, use it for safety purposes and use its discarded rubble.
- Chemistry
Nanowires could lead to super-long-lived battery
Scientists have long been looking for ways to make rechargeable batteries that last forever. They now may be close. Their solution: gel-dipped nanowires.
- Animals
Insects can patch their broken ‘bones’
When insects suffer wounds, they can mend their ‘skeleton’ with a patch on the inside. This makes the leg strong again, new data show.
- Materials Science
How to make window ‘glass’ from wood
Scientists have come up with a way to make wood transparent. The new material could be used in everything from windows to packaging.
- Materials Science
Sunlight + gold = steaming water (no boiling needed)
Nano-gold is the new black, at least when it comes to absorbing heat. When tiny gold particles get together, they become energy super-absorbers — turning them black.
- Environment
Eggshells help hatch a new idea for packaging
Why just crack an egg? Make the shell into itty bitty bits and use them to build a more biodegradable plastic. New research shows how.
- Materials Science
Goo-oozing deicer protects surfaces
New, slime-oozing coating might someday help reduce ice and snow buildups on road signs and aircraft wings. The inspiration? The goo produced by slugs.
- Health & Medicine
Flexible electronics track sweat
A flexible, wireless health monitor that can wrap around the wrist tracks temperature and analyzes sweat to detect signs of too much water loss.
- Chemistry
New bendy device could power wearable electronics
A new device with lithium and silicon electrodes uses chemistry to generate electricity as it bends back and forth.
