Earlier this year, we reported about a finding which revealed that physical structure of Psaltoda claripennis cicada wings can shred certain types of rod-shaped bacteria. After analyzing the surface, researchers at the Swinburne University of Technology used biomimicry to create a surface with similar properties. This nanosurface could lead to development of a new generation… »

Princeton University researchers developed a new nanomaterial which dramatically improves the sensitivity of immunoassays – a common medical test which mimics the action of the immune system to detect the presence of chemicals associated with diseases. According to researchers, their method increases the sensitivity over 3 million times more sensitive compared to other similar tests…. »

A team of researchers from UC Irvine, HRL Laboratories and the California Institute of Technology has developed the World’s lightest material which is about one hundred times lighter than Styrofoam. Developed for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the novel material could be used for battery electrodes and acoustic, vibration or shock energy absorption. “Modern… »

The material properties of metals and alloys are set once and for all during production, and it forces engineers to compromise during the selection of the mechanical properties of a material. A group of researchers came up with a material which is capable to change its strength nearly at the touch of a button. The… »

New findings in materials science research from the University at Buffalo (UB) could accelerate the creation of “smart” windows. UB researchers managed to manipulate the trigger temperature for vanadium oxide, in order to make it transparent to infrared light at lower temperatures, but it goes through a phase transition to begin reflecting infrared light once… »