Search
Materials Science
The deep study of friction and surfaces — so crucial to industrial manufacture — emerged from a mid-century engineering conference.
For millennia, diamonds were the hardest known material, but they only rank at #7 on the current list. Can you guess which material is #1?
Behind America's hunt for a superior semiconductor.
It’s 50% stronger than comparable materials used in aerospace.
Chemists could replace bubbling flasks with tumbling ball mills.
A unique combination of DNA and silica is the strongest known material for its density (but you’ll need a lot of it before you can build a suit from it).
You can’t farm spiders — but putting spider genes into silkworms works even better.
It’s early days, but if the efforts can be efficiently scaled-up, such biological recycling could put a dent in the plastic waste problem.
Time to rewrite our understanding of structural engineering.
Smarter building materials can control indoor temperatures without external power.
LK-99, almost certainly, isn't a room-temperature superconductor. The underlying physics of the phenomenon helps us understand why.
Recent claims put LK-99 as the first room temperature, ambient pressure superconductor ever. Has the game changed, or is it merely hype?
The material is both stronger and lighter than those used to make conventional power plant turbines.
But it's still challenging to build a 22,000-mile elevator.
The intensely white coloration of the shrimp is a remarkable feat of bioengineering.
The cathedral is being explored as never before.
What if we could harvest energy from human heat, sweat, or vibrations?
Using shaped ultrasound, researchers can 3D print objects in one shot.
An unexpected ancient manufacturing strategy may hold the key to designing concrete that lasts for millennia.
Some solar cells are so lightweight they can sit on a soap bubble.
Lithium-ion batteries pose challenges for our transition toward renewable energy. Sodium-sulfur batteries might be a solution.
2022 was another busy year in the realm of science, with groundbreaking stories spanning space, materials, medicine, and technology.
Bend it. Stretch it. Use it to conduct electricity.
Vanadium dioxide is a strange material that "remembers" information and when it was stored. This is akin to biological memory.
The new material may make marine uranium extraction economically feasible.
The synthetic cartilage was made from cellulose fibers — the stuff found in wood — mixed with a goo called polyvinyl alcohol.
Scientists turn to nature to improve a ubiquitous building material.
A two-dimensional material made entirely of carbon called graphene won the Nobel Prize in 2010. Graphyne might be even better.
From Amazon to the US Army, everybody wants one (or 150).
Cement production currently accounts for 8% of global carbon emissions.