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Archive for the ‘materials’ category: Page 215

Jul 2, 2019

Humans Reportedly Have Made 9.1 Billion Tons of Plastic Since 1950

Posted by in category: materials

Humans have generated nearly 10 billion tons of plastic in the last 70 years (via NowThis)

Jul 2, 2019

Ai Can Write Its Own Computer Program

Posted by in categories: materials, robotics/AI

For many, it’s the material of nightmares: machines capable of continuously refining themselves. What if they turn malevolent? Will they enslave humanity? Fortunately, given the current status of machine learning research, we will not have to worry about such a scenario for quite some time.

Jul 1, 2019

Terahertz radiation to enable portable particle accelerators

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, materials

Researchers at MIT in the US and DESY (Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron) in Germany have developed a technology that could shrink particle accelerators by a factor of 100 or more. The basic building block of the accelerator uses high-frequency electromagnetic waves and is just 1.5 cm (0.6 in) long and 1 mm (0.04 in) thick, with this drastic size reduction potentially benefitting the fields of medicine, materials science and particle physics, among others.

Jun 29, 2019

Google’s six rules for great data design

Posted by in category: materials

Think of it as Material Design for data visualization.

[Image: courtesy Google].

Jun 28, 2019

Latest claim of turning hydrogen into a metal may be the most solid yet

Posted by in category: materials

If true, the study would complete a decades-long quest to find the elusive material. But such claims have been made prematurely many times before.

Jun 28, 2019

Confirmation of old theory leads to new breakthrough in superconductor science

Posted by in categories: materials, science

Phase transitions occur when a substance changes from a solid, liquid or gaseous state to a different state—like ice melting or vapor condensing. During these phase transitions, there is a point at which the system can display properties of both states of matter simultaneously. A similar effect occurs when normal metals transition into superconductors—characteristics fluctuate and properties expected to belong to one state carry into the other.

Scientists at Harvard have developed a bismuth-based, two-dimensional superconductor that is only one nanometer thick. By studying fluctuations in this ultra-thin material as it transitions into superconductivity, the scientists gained insight into the processes that drive superconductivity more generally. Because they can carry with near-zero resistance, as they are improved, will have applications in virtually any technology that uses electricity.

The Harvard scientists used the new technology to experimentally confirm a 23-year-old theory of superconductors developed by scientist Valerii Vinokur from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory.

Jun 28, 2019

Material Could Help Storm-Proof Future Buildings

Posted by in categories: climatology, materials

A formerly little-known molecule created in labs by scientists could help future buildings withstand even the most ferocious of storms, tornadoes, and hurricanes by making walls that are virtually indestructible, according to new research from a team of British scientists at the University of Exeter.

The substance is known to researchers and construction experts as graphene, a combination of the prefix graphite and the suffix –ene, coined by the German scientist who pioneered it. The product has a wide array of potential applications including anti-corrosive coatings, lubricants, and motor oils. But in the last two decades, a radical new application has become apparent to those who study this innovative new product. The application of graphene in construction became apparent when researchers established that the inclusion of graphene oxide significantly increases both tensile and compressive strength in concrete composites—in other words, the world’s most common construction material can be fortified to become a kind of “super-concrete.”

Jun 27, 2019

Scientists stumbled upon a plastic-eating bacterium—then accidentally made it stronger

Posted by in categories: food, materials

We’re slowly suffocating a lot of natural ecologies with our trash. Fish, birds, and other animals all unwittingly consume the five trillion tons of plastic (and counting) strewn about the ocean, and doing so can kill them.

Jun 27, 2019

Adidas is making 11 million shoes out of recycled ocean plastic

Posted by in category: materials

The demand for these shoes has blown away expectations.

Jun 26, 2019

Physicists Are Making Solid Light

Posted by in categories: materials, particle physics

Circa 2014


A team of researchers from Princeton University has started doing some very strange things with light. Instead of letting it zip by at incredibly high speed, they’re stopping it dead: freezing it into crystal.

Crucially, they’re not shining light through crystal; rather, they making light into crystal. It’s a process that involves fixing the particles of light known as photons in a single spot, freezing them permanently in one place. It’s never been done before, and it could help develop new exotic materials with weird and wonderful properties.