While some of us can be considered lucky since we don’t have sensitive teeth, about 3 out of every 4 people have teeth with a form of sensitivity to hot, cold, sweet or sour foods and drinks. Inspired by the adhesive that mussels use to attach to rocks and other surfaces in water, a group… »
A group of researchers from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya and BarcelonaTech (UPC), Spain, have developed a type of biological concrete that supports the natural, accelerated growth of pigmented organisms. The material has been designed for Mediterranean climates, and it is adapted to offer environmental, thermal and aesthetic advantages over other similar construction solutions. Unified… »
Inspired by structures found in the nature’s own fuel cells and solar cells (mitochondria and chloroplasts), researchers at the University of Reading have patented a new method to create electrode coatings with a thousand-fold increase in surface area compared to a flat electrode. The increased contact surface could lead to more efficient and greener vehicles,… »
According to the ancient Chinese myth, in year 2853 before the common era, the legendary Emperor Shennong of China proclaimed that soybeans are one out of five sacred plants, and it is estimated that soybeans were a crucial crop in eastern Asia even before the written records. Aside its growing worldwide utilization in food industry,… »
An interdisciplinary team of researchers, led by researchers from MIT and Harvard University, has been inspired by mussels and their ability to cling to rocks, piers and boat hulls, to develop a bioadhesive gel that may find its use in various medical applications. Current version of the gel enables it to be painted onto the… »
More than 3,500 years ago, civilizations in Asia and the Middle East used boiled rose madder roots to color fabrics in vivid colors such as orange, red and pink. Rose madder roots owe this ability to an organic compound in them named purpurin. Aside being a natural plant dye, purpurin could be used to power… »
North American porcupine upper parts are covered with thousands of sharp, barbed hollow spines (quills), which are used for defense. The ability of these quills to easily penetrate tissues are often hard to remove once lodged in flesh intrigued an international group of researchers, and their investigation might inspire development of medical needles that easily… »
An interdisciplinary team of researchers consisting out of civil and environmental engineers, mathematicians, biomedical engineers and musical composers from MIT, Tuffs University and Boston University, cooperated in order to develop a novel method that can be used to synthesize new variants on silk’s natural structure as well as for making further improvements in the synthetic… »
