Researchers have developed a way to use 3-D printing to create a preform that can be drawn into silica glass optical fibers, which form the backbone of the global telecommunications network. This new fabrication method could ...
Optics & Photonics
Oct 30, 2019
0
127
If you've ever dropped your smartphone on a concrete floor, you know that dreaded feeling as you turn it over to see how badly the screen has cracked—but that stress may soon be a thing of the past. Researchers at Rensselaer ...
Nanomaterials
Sep 24, 2019
2
246
Huge amounts of water evaporate from water surfaces such as reservoirs and the open sea each day. To address this issue, especially in water scarce areas, researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) found ...
Materials Science
Jul 11, 2019
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0
Better known as glass, silica is a versatile material used in myriad industrial processes, from catalysis and filtration, to chromatography and nanofabrication. Yet despite its ubiquity in labs and cleanrooms, surprisingly ...
Condensed Matter
Mar 12, 2018
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118
Lightning and volcanos both produce glass, and humans have been making glass from silicon dioxide since prehistory. Industrialization brought us boron-based glasses, polymer glasses and metallic glasses, but now an international ...
Condensed Matter
Mar 9, 2018
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304
Scientists used high-power laser beams at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory to simulate the shock effects of a meteorite impact in silica, one of the most abundant materials in the Earth's crust. ...
Condensed Matter
Sep 15, 2015
0
53
An intimate view of a key part of the payload of ESA's LISA Pathfinder satellite, which will be the 'stillest' ever flown in space – in fact, the distant-orbiting spacecraft is set to become the single most stable place ...
Space Exploration
Mar 12, 2015
0
18
Scientists have known how to draw thin fibers from bulk materials for decades. But a new approach to that old method, developed by researchers at MIT, could lead to a whole new way of making high-quality fiber-based electronic ...
Materials Science
Feb 20, 2015
0
42
Scrolls thousands of years old provide us with a glimpse into long-forgotten cultures and the knowledge of our ancestors. In this digital era, in contrast, a large part of our knowledge is located on servers and hard drives. ...
Biotechnology
Feb 12, 2015
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22
It is evident from samples from mammoths, bears, and other fossils: sequenceable DNA can last up to several hundred thousand years. But one does not necessarily need fossil bones as capsules of silica glass spheres can do ...
Biochemistry
Feb 9, 2015
0
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