Materials Science
- Earth
Keeping roofs cooler to cut energy costs
Cool it! A cheap paint-on coating for roofing shingles could help reduce a home’s heating bills and might even trim urban ozone levels, a teen shows.
- Materials Science
Cool Jobs: Big future for super small science
Scientists using nanotechnology grow super-small but very useful tubes with walls no more than a few carbon atoms thick. Find out why as we meet three scientists behind this huge new movement in nanoscience.
- Materials Science
New mirror picky in what it reflects
A new type of mirror is selective in the light it reflects. It allows some wavelengths of radiation to pass through, while others bounce off.
- Animals
Why you’ll never see a dirty gecko
By knowing how a gecko’s skin works, could self-cleaning, water-repelling, antibacterial clothes be far behind?
- Chemistry
Sunglasses on demand
Plastics that conduct electricity let new color-changing sunglasses go from dark to light and back again at the tap of a switch. The shades could come in a range of colors too.
- Computing
This ‘smart’ self-cleaning keyboard is powered by you
A new electric keyboard locks out anybody but its owner. It’s not only self-cleaning but also powered by your fingertips.
- Materials Science
‘Smart’ windows could save energy
Tiny chemical droplets in a liquid sandwiched between panes of glass turn cloudy when they warm up. This will block some sunlight and potentially save on air conditioning bills.
- Materials Science
Scientists Say: Colloid
When water hovers in the air as fog and when bits of fat disperse in water as milk, they form a type of substance called a colloid.
- Chemistry
Rewritable paper: Prints with light, not ink
Rewritable paper could save money, preserve forests and cut down on waste — and all without using any ink.
- Materials Science
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.
