Toward tires that repair themselves

A cut or torn tire usually means one thing—you have to buy a new one. But some day, that could change. For the first time, scientists have made tire-grade rubber without the processing step—vulcanization—that has been ...

A flexible material that generates electricity when stressed

Researchers from Empa have developed a flexible material that generates electricity when stressed. In future, it might be used as a sensor, integrated into clothing or even implanted in the human body, for instance, to power ...

Physicists develop a metamaterial that can count

A block of rubber that can count to ten and even remember the order in which it is pressed—physicists Martin van Hecke and Lennard Kwakernaak (Leiden University and AMOLF Amsterdam) have published about this latest metamaterial ...

A revolution in knot theory

In the 19th century, Lord Kelvin made the inspired guess that elements are knots in the "ether". Hydrogen would be one kind of knot, oxygen a different kind of knot---and so forth throughout the periodic table of elements. ...

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