Science

Someone once said: today’s technology is tomorrow’s bread and today’s science is tomorrow’s technology. With this in mind, taking a look at the bigger picture – at what the research & development community has to offer – can be inspiring and eye-opening, particularly where an industry like plastics and rubber is concerned in which technology has such high priority.

Overview: Science

Swimming without an engine

20/06/2018

Using nothing but 3D printing, scientists have developed a paddling submarine that requires no engine, propellant or power supply.

Novel insulators with conducting edges

04/06/2018

Physicists at UZH are researching a new class of materials: Higher-order topological insulators. The edges of these crystalline solids conduct electric current without dissipation, while the rest of the crystal remains insulating. This could be useful for applications in semiconductor technology and for building quantum computers.

Atomically thin nanowires convert heat to electricity more efficiently

04/06/2018

Waste heat can be converted to electricity more efficiently using one-dimensional nanoscale materials as thin as an atom - ushering a new way of generating sustainable energy - thanks to new research by the University of Warwick.

Scientists develop material that could regenerate dental enamel

01/06/2018

Researchers at Queen Mary University of London have developed a new way to grow mineralised materials which could regenerate hard tissues such as dental enamel and bone.

AI for nanoparticles

01/06/2018

MIT researchers have used a computational neural network, a form of artificial intelligence, to 'learn' how a nanoparticle's structure affects the way it scatters light, based on thousands of examples. The approach may help physicists tackle research problems in ways that could be orders of magnitude faster than existing methods.

Combining experts and automation in 3D printing

30/05/2018

Researchers in CIT have developed a novel approach to optimizing soft material 3D printing. The researchers' Expert-Guided Optimization method combines expert judgment with an optimization algorithm that efficiently searches combinations of parameters relevant for 3D printing, enabling high-fidelity soft material products to be printed.

Firing up a new alloy

30/05/2018

A centuries-old materials bonding process is being tested aboard the International Space Station in an experiment that could pave the way for more materials research of its kind aboard the orbiting laboratory. Sintering is the process of heating different materials to compress their particles together.

Engineers design color-changing compression bandage

29/05/2018

Engineers at MIT have developed pressure-sensing photonic fibers that they have woven into a typical compression bandage. As the bandage is stretched, the fibers change color. Using a color chart, a caregiver can stretch a bandage until it matches the color for a desired pressure, before, say, wrapping it around a patient's leg.

Scientists discover key mechanism behind the formation of spider silk

29/05/2018

A group of scientists led by researchers from the RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science (CSRS) have examined the soluble precursor of spider silk and found that a previously undiscovered structural element is key to how the proteins form into the beta-sheet conformation that gives the silk its exceptional strength.

Lego-like chemical building blocks self-assemble into catalyst for hydrogen fuel cells

28/05/2018

What's better than platinum? In hydrogen fuel cells, the answer may be cofacial cobalt porphyrins. These self-assembled molecules - which are great at facilitating a chemical reaction needed to produce power from hydrogen and oxygen - could be the next advance in alternative energy.