Making ceramics that bend without breaking

Ceramics are not known for their flexibility: they tend to crack under stress. But researchers from MIT and Singapore have just found a way around that problem—for very tiny objects, at least.

Creating Denser Magnetic Memory

(PhysOrg.com) -- One of the issues afflicting magnetic memory is the fact that it is difficult to store information for as long as 10 years. In order to overcome this problem, scientists and engineers have been looking for ...

New strategy to effectively prevent component failures in metals

When a metal is stressed far below its yield strength at elevated temperatures, a process known as creep can occur. Creep, the time-dependent deformation of materials, is responsible for a great number of component failures ...

New technique builds super-hard metals from nanoparticles

Metallurgists have all kinds of ways to make a chunk of metal harder. They can bend it, twist it, run it between two rollers or pound it with a hammer. These methods work by breaking up the metal's grain structure—the microscopic ...

Finding the missing step of an important molecular process

Lysine is an important amino acid that must be supplied in our diets, as our bodies can't produce lysine on their own. Most cereal grains have low levels of lysine, and scientists have worked to breed crops with higher lysine ...

Transparent ceramics make super-hard windows

Scientists have synthesised the first transparent sample of a popular industrial ceramic at DESY. The result is a super-hard window made of cubic silicon nitride that can potentially be used under extreme conditions like ...

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