Two forms of the same boron nitride molecules couldn’t look and act more different – but combining them could lead to applications that have the best of both worlds.
Fingerprints have been used as unique identifiers for decades.
AP Photo/Patrick Semansky
Some space rocks you can get for free – if you know how to identify them. Rarer materials cost more, and the asteroid sample NASA just brought back has a high price tag.
This connection of springs is a new type of material that can change shape and learn new properties.
Jonathan Hopkins
Ryan H. Lee, University of California, Los Angeles
Computer-based neural networks can learn to do tasks. A new type of material, called a mechanical neural network, applies similar ideas to a physical structure.
The complexity of construction projects has driven an increase in building waste, which is difficult to recycle and reuse. But there are ways to minimise the problem.
Kéré shows how architecture can build better futures by embracing communities to help catalyse progress.
Builders construct experimental vaults of brick and cement blocks in Santiago de Cuba in December 1960.
Centro de Documentación, Empresa RESTAURA, Oficina del Historiador de la Ciudad de La Habana
After Fidel Castro took power, government plans to build new housing, schools and factories were hindered by sanctions and supply chain issues, forcing architects to come up with creative solutions.
Inside a tokamak fusion reactor.
Shutterstock/dani3315
Engineers predict a time when people and robots physically interact all day long. For that to happen safely will require new soft materials that can do things like sense touch and change shape.
XR fashion protests in April 2019.
Yui Mok/PA Wire/PA Images
Have you ever been told not to put metal in the microwave? Edie, age 8, wants to know why.
Strange new materials that propel the fictional Star Trek universe are being developed by scientists in reality today. Above, the USS Discovery accelerates to warp speed in an artist’s rendition for the TV series Star Trek Discovery.
(Handout)
The invention of silver and plastic-clad roof panels that can cool themselves down even under the Sun’s full glare promise to make air conditioning much more energy-efficient.
Executive Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science and Director of the Intelligent Polymer Research Institute, University of Wollongong
Professor of Organic Chemistry, ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science and Intelligent Polymer Research Institute, University of Wollongong
Jens Bauer
PhD student in mechanical engineering, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology