All Stories by Jessica Gorman
- Materials Science
Soybeans could beef up plywood glues
Researchers have replaced animal protein with soybean protein in experimental plywood glue, potentially reducing cost and health worries.
- Agriculture
Tasteful new wrapping can protect produce
New, fruit- and vegetable-based edible packaging could reduce the amount of synthetic wrapping needed to protect food.
- Chemistry
Researchers stretch for improved surfaces
A surprisingly simple, new technique could create better coatings for everything from medical implants to ship hulls.
- Materials Science
Nanotubes get as small as they can
Two research teams have created stable carbon nanotubes with the smallest diameter that scientists believe is physically possible, at just 0.4 nanometer across.
- Materials Science
Nanotubes: Knot just for miniature work
A new technique can spin individual nanotubes into durable ribbons and threads visible to the naked eye.
- Materials Science
A hard new material with a soft touch
Adding exotic substances called quasicrystals to polymers creates nonabrasive hard materials, which could soon serve as coatings in machine parts.
- Materials Science
New lithium battery design charges up
Researchers have developed a new, safer type of electrode for lithium batteries.
- Materials Science
Making Stuff Last
Chemistry and materials science step up to preserve history, old and new.
- Tech
Tiny tubes could ease eavesdropping
A team of researchers is developing highly sensitive acoustic sensors using ordered arrays of carbon nanotubes, which act much like the rodlike stereocilia of the inner ear.
- Materials Science
One-Upping Nature’s Materials
Striving for designer substances that build themselves from individual molecules.
- Tech
Novel sensing system catches the dud spud
A new device can detect a single potato that's infected with bacterial soft rot while buried deep in a storage crate with hundreds of healthy tubers.
- Chemistry
Chemistry Catches Cocaine at Source
Scientists have devised a method for identifying cocaine's geographical origin by determining the chemical signatures of five distinct coca-growing regions in the Andes.
