Tag: materials science
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Fibers Like Wool Yarn Devised from Animal Gelatin
30 July 2015. A materials science doctoral student in Switzerland developed a process for converting animal gelatin into a fiber similar to yarn from high-quality wool. Philipp Stössel, in the Functional Materials Lab at ETH Zurich, a science and technology university, led the team that published its findings in a recent issue of the journal…
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Patent Awarded for Fractal Connections in Implants
28 July 2015. Electronic microcircuits designed to resemble fractals in nature used in implanted medical devices received a patent from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Patent number 9,079,017 was awarded on 14 July 2015 to physicist and materials scientist Richard Taylor at University of Oregon and Simon Brown at University of Canterbury in New…
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Dental Implants Found Prone to Fractures
22 July 2015. A review of manufactured dental implants discarded because of bone loss in the jaw of their wearers, indicates more than 6 in 10 of the devices had cracks or similar mechanical defects. The findings from the study by Keren Shemtov-Yona, a dentist and engineering doctoral student at Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in…
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Navy Seeks Graphene Nanoribbons for Electricity Distribution
20 July 2015. The U.S. Navy wants a more efficient way to distribute electric power on its ships, and believes ultrathin ribbons made of graphene may help them do it. The Office of Naval Research awarded an $800,000 grant to the lab led by engineering professor Cemal Basaran at University at Buffalo to find out more…
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Process Adds Antimicrobial Silver Particles to Plants
14 July 2015. Engineers at North Carolina State University developed a process that adds biodegradable nanoparticles infused with silver to plant fibers that can kill a broad range of bacteria. A team from the lab of chemical engineering professor Orlin Velev, with colleagues from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and institutions in the U.K. and…
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Commercial Space Launch Site Slated for New Zealand
2 July 2015. Rocket Lab Ltd, a company aiming to make orbital space launches frequent and less costly, says it plans to build a launch site in New Zealand, with completion scheduled by the end of 2015. The company says test flights will begin soon after completing construction of the site, with commercial operations planned…
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Smart Insulin Patch Designed to Regulate Blood Glucose
23 June 2015. A skin patch made with tiny needles can dispense insulin and regulate blood glucose levels in lab mice for up to 9 hours. The device is being developed by a joint biomedical engineering department at University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University in Raleigh, and described in…
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Anti-Infection Compound Devised for Dental, Wound Care
18 June 2015. A new formulation of a common antibacterial agent can protect against infections for weeks or months at a time, according to its developers at University of Bristol in the U.K. The team led by Bristol dental materials scientist Michele Barbour is developing Pertinax, an extended antimicrobial compound, and receiving this year’s £25,000…
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Injectable Neuro-Electronic Wire Mesh Demonstrated
9 June 2015. Researchers at Harvard University developed a tiny electronic wire mesh that can be injected into the brain and demonstrated its diagnostic and therapeutic potential with lab mice. The team from the lab of chemistry professor Charles Lieber published its findings yesterday in the journal Nature Nanotechnology (paid subscription required, but full text…
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Synthetic Spider Silk Developed with Customized Properties
28 May 2015. Materials scientists and engineers developed and produced samples of synthetic spider silk, with a process that can adjust the silk’s properties to meet special demands of users. The team from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University, led by MIT engineering professor Markus Buehler, published its findings earlier this month in the…