Materials Science

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.

Animals

Speedy sharkskin

Tiny, toothlike bumps boost sharks’ swiftness.

Computing

Electronic skin

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

Chemistry

Superslim silicene

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

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

Chemistry

The memory of a material

A popular polymer can remember what shape it was in.

Tech

The science of disappearing

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

Tech

Lighting goes digital

Brighter and more efficient, LED lights are on the horizon.