The silk fibers produced by Bombyx mori, the domestic silkworm, has been prized for millennia as a strong yet lightweight and luxurious material. Although synthetic polymers like nylon and polyester are less costly, they ...
Nanomaterials
Oct 30, 2018
0
147
Researchers in Singapore can now explain what gives the mantis shrimp, a marine crustacean that hunts by battering its prey with its club-like appendages, the most powerful punch in the animal kingdom. In a paper publishing ...
Plants & Animals
Oct 18, 2018
0
91
Food needs to be broken down in the mouth before it can be swallowed and digested further. How this is being done depends on many factors, such as the mechanical properties of the foods and the morphology of the masticatory ...
Archaeology
Aug 28, 2018
0
90
Chimpanzees are generally known as the ripe fruit specialist among the great apes, but also incorporate other food items such as leaves and seedpods into their diets. Savannah chimpanzees are thought to rely on these non-fruit ...
Plants & Animals
Aug 13, 2018
0
29
It's a remarkable choreography. In each of our bodies, more than 37 trillion cells tightly coordinate with other cells to organize into the numerous tissues and organs that make us tick.
General Physics
Jun 19, 2018
0
182
The nervous system is loaded with encoded information: thoughts, emotions, motor control. This system in our bodies is an enigma, and the more we can do to understand it, the more we can do to improve human life. Brain-machine ...
Materials Science
Jun 15, 2018
0
184
Inorganic semiconductors such as silicon are indispensable in modern electronics because they possess tunable electrical conductivity between that of a metal and that of an insulator. The electrical conductivity of a semiconductor ...
Condensed Matter
May 17, 2018
0
20
While defects in a diamond are mostly undesirable, certain defects are a quantum physicist's best friend, having the potential to store bits of information that could one day be used in a quantum computing system.
Quantum Physics
Apr 30, 2018
0
117
From cell phones and laptops to electric vehicles, lithium-ion batteries are the power source that fuels everyday life. But in recent years, they have also drawn attention for catching fire. In an effort to develop a safer ...
Nanophysics
Apr 25, 2018
0
25
Biological tissues have complex mechanical properties – soft-yet-strong, tough-yet-flexible – that are difficult to reproduce using synthetic materials. An international team has managed to produce a biocompatible synthetic ...
Polymers
Mar 30, 2018
0
137
