materials

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.

McDermitt Caldera, the site of an ancient volcanic eruption, straddles the border of Oregon and Nevada.

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.

An army of replicators belonging to national laboratories, research universities, and amateur garages is rushing to replicate ambient superconductivity in LK-99.

Recent claims put LK-99 as the first room temperature, ambient pressure superconductor ever. Has the game changed, or is it merely hype?

The biggest nuclear blast in history came courtesy of Tsar Bomba. We could make something at least 100 times more powerful.

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.

500 sheep were slaughtered to produce the 2,060 pages of the "Codex Amiatinus," a Latin translation of the Bible.

The cathedral is being explored as never before.

So far, two papers have been retracted, and a third is under investigation. Accusations of plagiarism appear convincing.

3D-printing robots are being used to build a 100-home housing development in the US state of Texas.

Using shaped ultrasound, researchers can 3D print objects in one shot.

Was it the enormous magnitude of the quake, or is the problem with the buildings?

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 future of American jobs isn't only services and tech.

"Ghost gear" leads to hundreds of thousands of animal deaths.

The new material may make marine uranium extraction economically feasible.

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.

In paint form, the world's "whitest white" reflects so much light that surfaces become cooler than the surrounding air.

Cement production currently accounts for 8% of global carbon emissions.

A team of scientists hopes deep-earth lithium could sustain America's vast demand for batteries. But extracting it won't be easy.