Polylactic acid, or PLA, is a biodegradable polymer commonly used to make a variety of products from disposable cups to medical implants to drug delivery systems. A team of Brown University researchers has shown that by treating ...
Polymers
Jul 25, 2016
0
12
How nature makes its biominerals—things like teeth, bone and seashells—is a playbook scientists have long been trying to read.
Materials Science
Oct 20, 2015
0
51
The color of dinosaurs is a fascinating topic, and in recent years the discovery of melanosomes - small, pigment-filled sacs - associated with fossilized dinosaur feathers has given rise to all sorts of speculation about ...
Archaeology
Oct 5, 2015
0
37
Metallic glasses are very strong and elastic materials that appear with the naked eye to be identical to stainless steel. But metallic glasses differ from ordinary metals in that they are amorphous, lacking an orderly, crystalline ...
Condensed Matter
Sep 21, 2015
0
60
Materials known as conjugated polymers have been seen as very promising candidates for electronics applications, including capacitors, photodiodes, sensors, organic light-emitting diodes, and thermoelectric devices. But they've ...
Polymers
Jul 15, 2015
1
150
Using molds to shape things is as old as humanity. In the Bronze Age, the copper-tin alloy was melted and cast into weapons in ceramic molds. Today, injection and extrusion molding shape hot liquids into everything from car ...
Nanomaterials
Jul 3, 2015
1
653
Glass ranks as one of the most important materials of our age. You have only to think about smartphones, or drinking glasses, or look out of the window to realise that glass in its various forms is omnipresent. Fibre-optic ...
Condensed Matter
Jun 5, 2014
0
0
(Phys.org) —The lightweight skeletons of organisms such as sea sponges display a strength that far exceeds that of manmade products constructed from similar materials. Scientists have long suspected that the difference ...
Nanomaterials
Sep 5, 2013
1
0
If a liquid metal alloy is cooled slowly it will eventually form a solid phase. Before it solidifies, however, the liquid undergoes a liquid-liquid transition to a phase in which it has the same concentration but a more ...
Condensed Matter
Jul 5, 2013
1
0
(Phys.org) —Most Americans want the U.S. to place more emphasis on developing solar power, recent polls suggest. A major impediment, however, is the cost to manufacture, install and maintain solar panels. Simply put, most ...
Nanomaterials
May 13, 2013
1
0
