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… »
Researchers at the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) of Japan cooperated with researchers at the RIKEN Nanoscience Joint Laboratory to develop a metal oxide film transistor which utilizes a material with newly developed atomic composition. The new composition brings the use of potential amorphous silicon transistors successors in next-generation consumer displays a step closer… »
Researchers from North Carolina State University have devised a way to create nature inspired elements out of germanium sulfide (GeS) – a non-toxic semiconductor material – that could one day be used in creation of next-generation energy storage devices and solar cells. They managed to use this method to create flower-like GeS structures that have… »
A team of experts in mechanics, materials science, and tissue engineering at Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have created an extremely stretchy and tough hydrogel which is a hybrid of two weak gels that combine to create something much stronger. This new gel can stretch up to 21 times of its original… »
Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory developed a process that can be used to convert polyethylene into carbon fiber. Polyethylene is the most common plastic material, with annual production of approximately 80 million metric tons, and it is used for all sorts of packaging. The process is very useful since the… »
Two separate research groups have applied two different approaches to improve cement in order to make it more durable and greener. Researchers from the Michigan State University have found that mixing ground waste glass into the cement makes resulting concrete stronger, more durable and more resistant to water, while Drexel University researchers found a way… »
Current electronic devices are becoming faster and denser, but such complex circuitry is prone to reliability problems, and once one tiny circuit within an integrated chip breaks, the whole chip or even whole device is unusable. A team of University of Illinois engineers has developed a self-healing system capable to repair a cracked circuit by… »
A chemical compound used to stabilize particles in suspension has proved capable of controlling the growth of ice crystals. Unlike the macromolecules previously known for their antifreeze properties, the compound in question is a simple molecule which offers many advantages, including low production costs, stability and ease of use. The research could also lead to… »
