Aerogel is usually the preserve of expensive laboratory experiments—but what if you could make it from trash? Now, a team of researchers has developed a technique to turn scrap paper into an incredibly light, highly insulating super material.
Imagine a world where robots creep up on you: Electric motors just a gentle whir, hard shells changing color to blend in with their surroundings. Well, there’s no need to imagine—it’s happened.
Bendable devices may still be a little way off, but a new kind of ceramic that is flexible in the same way as paper could certainly help speed things along.
This looks like the kind of thin material you might make a trash bag out of. But that would be a waste because this material, made from carbon nanotubes, is stronger and more compliant than kevlar or carbon fiber.
The sounds bamboo chopsticks emit when they’re snapped in half are remarkably similar to the laws that govern the magnitude and frequency of earthquakes. Such insights could one day help engineers determine more precisely when a bridge or dam, for instance, might be about to fail.
A new form of matter, in which electrical charge swirls in a vortex, has been observed in a ferroelectric material. The discovery could usher in new kinds of memory and processors that take up far less space.
While 3D printing has yet to fully prove itself to some people, that doesn’t stop scientists from pushing on with 4D printing—a similar process that creates objects able to transform themselves over time. Now, a Harvard lab has produced these delicate folding flowers using the approach.
How fast can the thermometer drop? If you’re a physicist armed with a graphene sandwich, it could be as fast as 30 quadrillionths of a seconds, at least if you’re studying electrons.
It can be time-consuming to check components—whether it’s on an airplane or in a nuclear power planet—for wear and tear. Now a team of researchers has created dye-spilling capsules that can reveal faults quickly and clearly.
A book is a very simple thing, right? It’s just a bunch of paper with some scribbles. But if you wanted to make a book from scratch, it’s basically an impossible task. Watch as Andy George from How to Make Everything chops wood, strips papyrus, makes glue from hide, carve out a pencil from a stick, make a brush from…
There’s no denying that 3D printing is a fast and effective way to build new objects, but most engineers are taking tentative steps to its mass adoption because the results aren’t proven to be truly robust. Now, physicists hope to convince them once and for all.
When you compress most materials, you squash their atoms or molecules up against each other, shortening the bonds between them. But a new kind ultra-compressible material acts like a set of gears and springs that shrink in size.
Imagine clothes, houses or cars that soaked up heat during the day and then released it on demand when things turned cold. That’s exactly what a new material made at MIT could provide in the future.
If you’ve ever looked at a picture of graphene and compared it to your kitchen sieve, you weren’t alone. Researchers from the University of Manchester, the birthplace of graphene, reckon it might be the perfect mesh with which to filter different isotopes of hydrogen.
Ceramics are amazing materials—strong, light and with amazing thermal properties. Now, researchers have developed a new way to 3D print the materials more effectively than in the past, and the results can withstand temperatures of 2,500°F.
Thermites are a class of materials known for producing dazzling pyrotechnic displays in high school chemistry classes, and they’re used in all kinds of real-world applications. But these reactions are very unpredictable, releasing a lot of energy all willy-nilly. Scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National…
Researchers from UCLA have created a new kind of metal composite made from magnesium infused with silicon carbide nanoparticles, and it’s both lightweight and super-strong.
Graphene is the best-known two-dimensional material, with its atom-thick layers proving plenty of fascinating material properties. But now a team of scientists has developed a new material with a similar structure that they’re calling borophene.
This protective lens filter might look like any other, but it’s got an invisible secret. Making use of a new kind of clear ceramic, it’s ten times tougher than most conventional protective filters, and therefore able to keep your lens perfectly safe.
Seals and otters stay warm in cold water because their fur is ideally structured for trapping insulating air. These unique hairy surfaces could inspire the design of new kinds of textiles, such as wet suits that are textured instead of smooth to keep divers warm in cold water.