Materials Science

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.

Materials Science

Anyone want to knit a microscopic sweater?

Microscopic polymer tubes can tangle themselves into a new and possibly useful structure—tiny "yarn balls" that flatten out and partly unravel in an electric field.

Materials Science

One-Upping Nature’s Materials

Striving for designer substances that build themselves from individual molecules.

Materials Science

To make bronze, tin flakes do a wild dance

Upsetting some prevailing ideas about how alloys form, rafts of tin atoms jitterbug madly around on a pure copper surface and leave spots of bronze in their wakes.

Materials Science

Crystal puts pressure on diamonds

A new type of synthetic crystal called moissanite allows researchers to study more material at high pressure than is possible with traditional diamond devices.

Materials Science

Scientists tone down silicon rockers

Researchers have created pairs of silicon atoms that stay level instead of slowly rocking in place, permitting scientists to study silicon-surface reactions in unprecedented detail.

Materials Science

High-temperature ceramics takes flight

A recent NASA flight test of ultrahigh-temperature ceramic materials might lead to a new aerospace design that would make the space shuttle look downright old-fashioned.

Materials Science

New work improves stainless steel surface

A novel electrochemical method improves the surface of stainless steel without making the metal brittle or prone to corrosion.

Materials Science

Titanium makes move toward mainstream

Inventors of a new process for producing titanium claim that their method can reduce the metal's cost to one-third its current price.

Materials Science

Cathedral has weathered London’s acid rain

A decrease in acid rain seems to be responsible for newly reported reduced deterioration rates of St. Paul's Cathedral in London.

Materials Science

Apollo attire needs care

Advanced spacesuits protected astronauts far from Earth just 30 years ago, but the materials have already deteriorated.