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The article discusses research on high-temperature superconductors, materials that conduct electricity with virtually perfect efficiency. Manufacturing processes involving heating and the use of various materials including iron are discussed, as conducted by research physicist Johnpierre Paglione. Superconductor technology is discussed and physicist Paul Canfield is cited regarding research on materials that can be used to make superconductors.

In the beginning, there was heaven and a sizzling chunk of rock called Earth. Asteroids bombarded the surface of the infant planet, while radioactive elements seethed below, building up so [...]

Thermoelectric coolers were expected to render ordinary mechanical refrigerators obsolete, but these semiconductor-based gadgets remain costly bit players in refrigeration. While the electric-powered devices today chill such items as spaceborne [...]

Like the sticky stuff on Post-It notes, a new epoxy adhesive can bind and unbind materials repeatedly. The adhesive is the first epoxy that's sticky enough to hold materials together [...]

The hard-pressed semiconductor industry strives to replace silicon's near-perfect mate Breaking up is hard to do--especially after 40 years together. It's even tougher when those 40 years were spent constantly [...]

A derivative of capsaicin, the compound that gives chili peppers their fiery flavor, could soon find its way into products as diverse as marine paint, veterinary sutures, and fiber-optic cables. [...]

A new device takes researchers one step closer to making electronic displays completely out of plastic. A group at the University of Cambridge, England, has succeeded in replacing crucial inorganic [...]

Already common in such gadgets as highway passes for paying toils on the move, miniature radio-equipped circuit cards may ultimately become as widespread as bar codes. First, however, the cost [...]

The unsung heroes of the microeleetronics revolution are impurities intentionally added to semiconducting materials. A sprinkling of such atoms as boron or phosphorus, for example, is pivotal to much of [...]

Joints around windows and between masonry panels in public buildings erected or renovated during the 1960s and 1970s were often sealed with a caulk containing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). The oily [...]

A newly paved stretch of road, flat and smooth, slips unnoticed under a driver's wheels. After several seasons, however, driving down that same road requires the obstacle avoidance skills of [...]

The article reports that a crystalline material composed of metal and organic building blocks holds more carbon dioxide than other porous substances do. The discovery could lead to a device that reduces power plant emissions of this greenhouse gas. About 40 percent of the carbon dioxide released in the United States in 2003 came from electric power plants, according to the Department of Energy. A potential strategy for reducing emissions is to fit plant flues with materials that capture the gas from exhaust. In a study, Omar M. Yaghi and Andrew R. Millward of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor measured the adsorption of carbon dioxide by nine different frameworks, each composed of organic compounds and either zinc or copper.

Reports on the discovery that osmium can be compressed more than diamonds. Industrial uses of osmium; Outlook for the development of materials using osmium; Role of Hyunchae Cynn in the study of the element; Discussion of the hardness of the material.

Reports on the efforts of researchers to design their own porous materials. Benefits of the tailored materials, including trapping pesticides or radioactive pollutants as well as storing large amounts of fuel; Details of experiments to create specialized porous materials; Challenges of instability and interlocking in the creation process.

Scientists have proposed a way to control the distribution of contaminants in silicon, potentially opening up the use of cheaper, 'dirtier' starting materials for making solar cells. In a study [...]

Researchers in Germany have modified standard solar cell designs so that they can be made from cheaper materials. That could be important, because price has long been a major obstacle [...]

Researchers worldwide are racing to develop low-cost wire with no electric resistance. Making it in practical lengths has been a tough challenge. A wire-making company has now demonstrated a process [...]

Drills, lathes, and milling machines produce metal trimmings that machine shops discard as trash or melt down for reuse. A new study finds that these trimmings often end up with [...]

Using ribbons made of organic molecules as minuscule templates, researchers have coaxed a semiconductor material into tiny helical coils. Made of cadmium sulfide, the helical structures could serve as components [...]

The data capacity of a computer's magnetic hard drive depends largely on the sensitivity of a detector, or read head, that's used to decipher its contents. Scientists have now exploited [...]

Doctors may someday routinely replace failed organs with substitutes made in a factory. One leading strategy for making artificial tissues is to supply a scaffold of a material, such as [...]

Microchip manufacture is horrendously complex. As designers cram more components onto minuscule patches of silicon, the enterprise just gets tougher--so much so that some industry savants worry that the march [...]

Examines the efforts of scientists to achieve the largest pressures ever sustained in a laboratory, pressures that exceed those found at the earth's center. Types of materials squeezed; Ruby fluorescence technique; Effects of high-pressure squeezing on some materials; `Equations of state' formulas; Problems with calibration methods.

Reports on the Materials Research Society International Symposium on the Scientific Basis for Nuclear Waste Management at Boston, Massachusetts, that focused on the importance of safe disposal of nuclear wastes. Criteria to be met by a glass suitable for containment of nuclear wastes; Advantages of tailoring glass to give particular mineral products; Comparison of nuclear rate leach rates of sphene and synroc.

The article discusses a February 3, 2014 report from the periodical "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences" which concerns the work of scientists at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in constructing honeycomb structures that withstand 280 megapascals of pressure with densities below 1,000 kilograms per cubic meter.

Plastics that don't burn could stop a fire in its tracks In Greek mythology, the Titan Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to humankind--an act of insubordination [...]

Many polymers are called plastics because of their mechanical flexibility, but these materials are chemically versatile as well. Now, a researcher has used a polymer to remake a basic electronic [...]

Silk threads may one day stitch together not only clothing, but muscles and bones as well. Researchers are examining the material as a replacement for tendons and ligaments. Silk fibers [...]

Of what do electronics-laden consumers dream? A cheap, compact battery that lasts a long time, holds up well even after repeated rechargings, and is environmentally friendly. Now, researchers from the [...]

Daily brushing may get rid of plaque, that sticky bacterial film on teeth, but unfortunately for many people, the bacteria that build up on medical implants are not so easily [...]

Glue? Maybe. Stew? Definitely. But it's hard to imagine the eastern oyster having anything to do with detergents and disposable diapers. Those two commercial applications are in the works, however, [...]

A cross section of a computer chip reveals multiple layers of metals, insulators, and semiconductors-a materials sandwich that would make Dagwood Bumstead proud. Now, researchers have added an improved sandwich- [...]

In the dry heat of southwest Texas, where the Pecos River melds with the mighty Rio Grande, there stands an archaeological site known as White Shaman. More than 10,500 years [...]

As the number of people who use computers grows each year, so does the need for better ways to record and preserve electronic information. Compared to the first disk storage [...]

Materials that change their shape - moving and bending controllably after exposure to specific wavelengths of light - may make possible a new class of communication devices. Improvements in such [...]

Technological dreams of a cheap plastic material that can store an optical pattern yet allow rerecording with another image have for years beckoned like a siren. While crystalline materials partly [...]

The article discusses a plastic material developed by a team of scientists led by Ludwik Leibleras and reported in the November 18, 2011 journal "Science." The polymer is a result of combining epoxy resins and acids with a zinc-based compound. When heated the material acts like a thick liquid and is capable of being remolded, repaired, or recycled without loosing any of its original properties.

The article discusses molecular computer modeling of diamond polishing that elucidates the process. Published online November 28, 2010 in "Nature Materials" by materials scientist Michael Moseler and team, the research isolated a liquid-like carbon layer that forms between the diamond and polishing skeif that is thought to be essential to the polishing process.

This article discusses research into the development of polymers that change color when subjected to strain. The research, which was conducted by Nancy Sottos and published in the May 7, 2009 issue of "Nature," consisted of the spiking of polymers that could stretch, but changed colors as a result of such strain. The potential application of this technology to in-line skate wheels, paints for use in construction, and other materials is described.

The article reports that scientists have developed a polymer that repairs itself when exposed to ultraviolet light. The key component of the material developed by polymer scientist Marek Urban and student Biswajit Ghosh is a precursor to chitosan, which is found in the shells of crustaceans. An oxetane molecule that is easily broken is added to the chitosan precursor.

The article discusses two separate papers regarding invisibility. One published online by "Nature" and one in the August 15, 2008 issue of "Science." Two materials that can bend light backwards suggest that an invisibility cloak, like the one used in the motion picture "Harry Potter," is feasible. Details related to how it would work and the materials used are presented.

Two researchers have discovered that the kitchen-counter microwave can be a handy tool for making bulk materials used in semiconductors. Andrew R. Barron and Christopher C. Landry of Harvard University [...]

The immense pressures inside the collapsed, extremely dense objects known as neutron stars (pulsars) create an extraordinary environment for matter. In principle, such extreme pressures can compress ordinary nuclear matter [...]

The article reports that chemists and engineers at the University of Illinois have created a new material that can heal itself repeatedly at the same spot without external assistance from heat or pressure. The material employs a three-dimensional network of microscopic capillaries that can heal the same damaged area as many as seven times.

The author reports that chemists have fashioned tiny dots of carbon that glow in response to light. The nanoparticles may find uses in biological imaging as alternatives to quantum dots, fluorescent spheres of semiconductors. Although scientists envision quantum dots in a variety of applications, the toxicity of their starting materials could limit their use, notes Ya-Ping Sun of Clemson (S.C.) University, whose findings are reported in the June 21 Journal of the American Chemical Society. The dots, from 2 to 10 nanometers (nm) across, are typically made of cadmium selenide or lead sulfide.

This article discusses the creation of flexible silicon. Scientists have created thin, wavy silicon ribbons that stretch along with their rubber backing. The technique could lead to comfortable, sensor-filled uniforms that monitor a soldier's vital signs or to electric devices that can wrap around complex shapes such as aircraft wings. Fashioning a rigid material such as silicon into a thin film can make it bendable but not stretchable, says materials scientist John A. Rogers of the University of Illinois, at Urbana-Champaign. Rogers' team uncovered silicon's flexible nature by accident, he says. The ribbons expand and compress much as an accordion bellow might, notes Rogers.

The article reports that chemists have devised a new approach that creates crystalline material with some of the largest pores yet. It is the size of a crystal catalyst's pores that determines what particular reactions can occur. Xiaodong Zou, a physicist and chemist at Stockholm University, chemist Michael O'Keeffe of Arizona State University in Tempe, and their colleagues had been synthesizing porous crystals made with germanium oxide. Unlike basic units of silicon oxide and other metal oxides in widely used porous crystalline materials, the germanium-oxide units form secondary structures that contain six tetrahedra and four octahedra.

This article reports on the creation of synthetic gecko hairs by materials scientists. The talented gecko can walk up a glass wall or hang from the ceiling by only one toe. The little lizard owes its gravity-defying powers to carpets of microscopic hairs, called setae, covering its feet. These hairs, when in close contact with a surface, induce intermolecular attractive forces called van der Waals forces between themselves and the surface. Materials scientists have now created synthetic gecko foot hairs that stick to surfaces 200 times as strongly as the setae do. To make this superstrong adhesive, Ali Dhinojwala of the University of Akron in Ohio and his colleagues grew a forest of carbon nanotubes on glass.

This article reports on the creation of the world's thinnest materials. By isolating single layers from materials with naturally layered structures, physicists in England and Russia have created what they say are the world's thinnest freestanding materials, some just one atom thick. The liberated layers are surprisingly robust, persisting as flat sheets at room temperature and preserving their crystalline structures, the scientists report in the July 26 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. What's more, the freed sheets can differ from their parent materials in key properties. "It's really the thinnest material possible," says Kostya S. Novoselov of the University of Manchester in England.

Discusses research being done the development of a synthetic material that mimics the internal architecture and strength of nacre. Reference to a study by Nicholas Kotov et al published in a June issue of 'Nature Materials.'