Materials Science
- Physics
Nobel goes for making white LEDs possible
The 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to scientists who discovered how to make blue light-emitting diodes. People really wanted white LEDs. The missing ingredient in making them was a building block: the blue LED.
- Tech
Repelling germs with ‘sharkskin’
A biotechnology company has found a way to repel superbugs without toxic chemicals. It mimics the texture of a shark’s skin.
- Tech
Invisible plastic ‘ink’ foils counterfeiters
Hidden images make a new label virtually counterfeit-proof, thanks to a combination of chemistry and nanotechnology.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Climate
Explainer: Why a tornado forms
Tornadoes start with a thunderstorm. But they also require other ingredients, such as instability.
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- Materials Science
Battery powered to heal
With its own first-aid kit, this battery can really keep going.
- Tech
When love-hate is materially good
Researchers copy nature's water-loving, water-repelling ways to make smarter stuff
