Science and Enterprise

Tag: materials science

  • Sliding Metal Parts Found to Exhibit Fluid-Like Properties

    Researchers at Purdue University in Indiana found solid pieces of metal that slide over each other to display properties resembling fluids rather than solids. Their research — funded by National Science Foundation, U.S. Army and General Motors — appears in the journal Physical Review Letters (paid subscription required). The team led by materials engineer Srinivasan…

  • Nanotech Process Developed to Detect Heavy Metal Pollution

    Researchers at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland and Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois developed a nanoscale process to test for heavy metals such as mercury and cadmium in water and fish. Their findings appear onlne in the journal Nature Materials (paid subscription required). The process created by EPFL nanomaterials scientist Francesco Stellacci (pictured…

  • New Materials Developed with Vast Surface Areas

    Materials scientists and engineers at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois and University of Surrey in the U.K. created two new synthetic materials with the largest reported amounts of internal surface area. The researchers published their findings online in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (paid subscription required). The two new materials, known as NU-109…

  • Tough, Stretchable Hydrogel Cartilage Replacement Developed

    Biomedical engineers at Harvard University created a tough, stretchable, and biocompatible synthetic material with the capacity to replace damaged cartilage in human joints. The findings from Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences appears in this week’s issue of the journal Nature (paid subscription required). The hydrogel developed by lead author and postdoctoral researcher Jeong-Yun…

  • University Consortium to Research Nanotech Health Monitors

    North Carolina State University in Raleigh will lead a group of universities in the U.S., Australia, and Asia to develop self-powered health monitoring sensors and devices. Some 30 industry partners are expected to join the five-year, $18.5 million consortium, known as the Center for Advanced Self-Powered Systems of Integrated Sensors and Technologies (ASSIST), and funded…

  • Methods Developed to Detect, Remove Ice from Aircraft Wings

    Engineers at two Fraunhofer Institutes in Germany are devising new solutions for dealing with ice accumulating on aircraft wings in flight, a serious safety concern. The technologies developed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Structural Durability and System Reliability in Darmstadt and Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials in Bremen will be discussed at the…

  • Nanotech Solution Could Block Laser Beams from Aircraft

    Researchers at University of Central Florida in Orlando and Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh created a new material based on nanotechnology that could keep lasers from affecting aircraft pilots and sensitive equipment. Optical science professor Jayan Thomas of Central Florida’s NanoScience Technology Center (pictured right) led the team, which published its findings last month in…

  • Lasers Employed to Created Precise Molecular Designs

    Researchers in materials science and chemistry at Vienna University of Technology in Austria devised a method to place living molecules to grow tissue in precise locations on three-dimensional surfaces. The teams led by Vienna materials scientist Jürgen Stampfl and macromolecular chemist Robert Liska published their findings last week in the journal Advanced Functional Materials (paid…

  • Electronic Nanotech Sensors Added to Bioengineered Tissue

    Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, and Boston Children’s Hospital developed a way to embed nanoscale electronic sensors in engineered tissues. The team of medical researchers and engineers published their findings yesterday online in the journal Nature Materials (paid subscription required). The study addressed the need to better monitor bioengineered tissues as well…

  • Process Developed for Stronger Alloys at High Temperatures

    Materials scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology devised a process for growing and merging nanoscale metallic crystals to create alloys that can withstand the stress of high temperatures. MIT graduate students Tongjai Chookajorn and Heather Murdoch (pictured left), with faculty advisor Christopher Schuh, discuss their methods in this week’s issue of the journal Science; paid…