Breakthrough furnace can cut solar costs

(PhysOrg.com) -- Solar cells, the heart of the photovoltaic industry, must be tested for mechanical strength, oxidized, annealed, purified, diffused, etched, and layered.

Escher's angels and demons woodcut predicts how matter deforms

Dutch artist M.C. Escher's most famous drawing, "Circle Limit IV (Heaven and Hell)", shows angels and demons in a tessellation that fills a circle without empty spaces. This masterful woodcut inspired an international partnership ...

Superflimsy graphene turned ultrastiff by optical forging

Graphene is an ultrathin material characterized by its ultrasmall bending modulus, superflimsiness. Now the researchers at the Nanoscience Center of the University of Jyväskylä have demonstrated how an experimental technique ...

Turning wood into plastic

Efforts to shift from petrochemical plastics to renewable and biodegradable plastics have proven tricky—the production process can require toxic chemicals and is expensive, and the mechanical strength and water stability ...

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