Atomic-level flyovers show how impact sites of high-energy ions pin potentially disruptive vortices to keep high-current superconductivity flowing. High-energy gold ions impact the crystal surface from above at the sites indicated schematically by dashed circles. Measurement of the strength of…
Discovered in 1817 by Jöns Jakob Berzelius and Johan Gottlieb Gahn, selenium was initially assumed to be a tellurium compound. When Berzelius reanalyzed his sample he ended up naming the new element for the Greek word selene, meaning moon, since it was so similar to tellurium, named for the Earth.
Graphene Ink 3-D Printed Medical Implant Grows Nerve Cells
There is no shortage of excitement for the possibilities of 3-D printing. The manufacturing technique uses a machine that squirts layer upon layer of material to build three-dimensional objects. The prevailing vision for 3-D printing is that one day we’ll be able to make smartphones, sensors, drones or other complex machines right in our homes.
But if we’re ever to have desktop devices that can output things like consumer electronics or novel biomedical devices, there are a number of obstacles that need to be overcome. Today’s consumer units most commonly use hot plastic that quickly solidifies to build shapes. This material is neither particularly strong nor is it electrically conductive, a characteristic necessary to build electronic components into devices.
Researchers all around the world are looking for materials that can unlock some of 3-D printing’s bigger promises. Now Northwestern University researchers say they have created a 3-D printing ink that is stronger, electrically conductive and biocompatible using another material that has been generating much excitement over the last decade–graphene. See more gifs and learn more below.
In a new twist on the use of DNA in nanoscale construction, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and collaborators put synthetic strands of the biological material to work in two ways: They used ropelike configurations of the DNA double helix…
In 1974, Roger Penrose, a British mathematician, created a revolutionary set of tiles that could be used to cover an infinite plane in a pattern that never repeats. In 1982, Daniel Shechtman, an Israeli crystallographer, discovered a metallic alloy whose atoms were organized unlike anything ever observed in materials science. Penrose garnered public renown on a scale rarely seen in mathematics. Shechtman won the Nobel Prize. Both scientists defied human intuition and changed our basic understanding of nature’s design, revealing how infinite variation could emerge within a highly ordered environment.
At the heart of their breakthroughs is “forbidden symmetry,” so-called because it flies in the face of a deeply ingrained association between symmetry and repetition. Symmetry is based on axes of reflection—whatever appears on one side of a line is duplicated on the other. In math, that relationship is reflected in tiling patterns. Symmetrical shapes such as rectangles and triangles can cover a plane with neither gap nor overlap, and in an ever-repeating pattern. Repeated patterns are called “periodic” and are said to have “translational symmetry.” If you move a pattern from place to place, it looks the same.
Penrose, a bold, ambitious scientist, was interested less in identical patterns and repetition, and more in infinite variation. To be precise, he was interested in “aperiodic” tiling, or sets of tiles that can cover an infinite plane with neither gap nor overlap, without the tiling pattern ever repeating itself. That was a challenge because he couldn’t use tiles with two, three, four, or six axes of symmetry—rectangles, triangles, squares, and hexagons—because on an infinite plane they would result in periodic or repeated patterns. That meant he had to rely on shapes believed to leave gaps in the tiling of a plane—those with forbidden symmetries.
High Definition images of Vertically Aligned NanoTube Arrays, or Vantablack - The Darkest known material since 2014.
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“vantablack is a substance made of carbon nanotubes and is the blackest substance known, absorbing a maximum of 99.965% of radiation in the visible spectrum. It comprises a forest of vertical tubes which are “grown”. When light strikes vantablack, instead of bouncing off, it becomes trapped and is continually deflected between the tubes before eventually becoming heat.Early development was carried out at the National Physical Laboratory, UK.” - wikipedia
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory have found a way to use tiny diamonds and graphene to give friction the slip, creating a new material combination that demonstrates the rare phenomenon of “superlubricity.” From left, researchers Ani Sumant, Ali Erdemir, Su…
Developed by researchers at the University of Texas, Austin, the new membrane-free semi-liquid battery, consisting of a liquid ferrocene electrolyte, a liquid cathode and a solid lithium anode, exhibited encouraging early results, encompassing many of the features desired in a state-of-the-art…
Yet this photonics advancement – called a metamaterial hyperlens – doesn’t climb down stairs.
Instead, it improves our ability to see tiny objects.
Described in a research paper published today by the journal Nature Communications, the hyperlens may someday help detect some of the most lethal forms of cancer.
It could also lead to advancements in nanoelectronic manufacturing and boost scientists’ ability to examine single molecules – a development with implications in physics, chemistry, biology and other fields.
“There is a great need in health care, nanotechnology and other areas to improve our ability to see tiny objects that elude even the most powerful optical systems. The hyperlens we are developing is, potentially, a giant step toward solving this problem,” says Natalia Litchinitser, PhD, professor of electrical engineering at the University at Buffalo and the paper’s lead author.
Sandia National Laboratories researchers have made the first measurements of thermoelectric behavior by a nanoporous metal-organic framework (MOF), a development that could lead to an entirely new class of materials for such applications as cooling computer chips and cameras and energy…
The study of metallurgy and materials require of the knowledge of microstructures. Here is a microstructure of a non-chemical-attacked metal (steel1010). We can see absolutely nothing but little dots. This remarks the importance of chemical attacks to unveil the microstructure of metals.
Selenium is the thirty fourth element, consisting of thirty four protons and electrons. A rare element, it is mostly found as impurities in various minerals, primarily as a replacement for sulfur.
On the periodic table, it is classified as a nonmetal. A nonmetal is typically highly volatile, with low elasticity, and good insulation for both heat and electricity. Despite the number of metals versus nonmetals, living organisms are composed almost entirely of nonmetals and nonmetals form more compounds than metals.
Like sulfur above it, selenium has many allotropes, some of which take cyclic, or ring-shaped forms. Selenium has six naturally occurring isotopes, only one of which is not stable.
Material sciences have long influenced decision-making in the design and engineering of products. From vernacular architecture that sources local materials to the revolutionary introduction of plastics in the mid-20th century, there is no mistake that material properties guide building and manufacturing processes.
What if it also works the other way around? Eli Block (Brown Biology & RISD Industrial Design ’17) is a current student that thinks of material sciences and design as a two-way street. Having taken a few classes with him, I’ve witnessed his diverse range of geekery from alchemy to geology, and it’s awesome.
“I think the capabilities, functionality, and certainly aesthetics of designed objects are always influenced by the materials from which they’re made,” Eli said. “Still, the water can flow in the other direction and design can influence the creation of new materials.”
It’s a great point that man-made and natural materials are no longer as separate as we think. Because we have designed objects that force foreign materials together in new, unique combinations, this may give rise to novel sediments in the future. However, today we understand that this process can often be disruptive to natural processes and ecosystems.
One project that addresses this is the International Genetically Engineered Machines (iGEM) competition, for which Eli teamed up with other students to compete in 2014. Their goal was to create a biologically-produced industrial plastic material that could be used in a number of applications, which they hoped to achieve by producing cellulose acetate (a hard, durable plastic) from cellulose (commonly produced by various bacteria and plants).
“We wanted to be able to produce desirable materials as organisms do without traditional, harsh manufacturing,” Eli said. “And since our team was sponsored by the exobiology department at the NASA Ames Research Center, we were interested to see if it would be possible to produce bioplastic in space without a lot of equipment.”
Because everything is better in space! His team engaged in a complex process to achieve a fairly simple objective, aiming to transfer genes for cellulose acetylation into bacteria that could produce a high volume of bacterial cellulose. From there, they sought a high bioplastic output. Though they encountered hurdles along the way, Eli thought it was interesting to learn and experiment as they went.
Just as biology and design can form a nearly symbiotic relationship, so can geology and design. Ceramics is an age-old practice deeply tied to material properties, from mixing the clay to firing to the right temperature to applying glaze. Eli put his own spin to it when he 3D printed a series of strange, lumpy rocks and cast them in porcelain. These cast bowls are now being used as a canvas for glaze experimentation.
“I wanted to make something that mashed up result and process and randomness, kind of like Earth systems,” Eli said. “I wanted to explore texture and color at the same time that I learned about firing minerals and mixing functional glazes.”
If you’ve ever glazed ceramics, you would agree that it takes experience to understand what colors you’re going to end up with when your work is fired. Eli plans to make use of the wide range of pigments, fluxes, and fillers in the RISD glaze room to explore the possibilities. Next, he’d like to experiment with clay and mix his own blends with his collection of rocks and minerals.
When we’re so tied in the realistic constraints of materials, it’s also helpful to take a step back to be inspired by fictitious materials. Rhino is a 3D modeling and rendering program that can create images of impossible objects, so Eli employed it to create a series of strange artifacts in a number of unrealistic material combinations. Some of the composites included chrome metal with glass, or plastic with porcelain.
“The results were super weird. It’s something I’d like to pursue further.”
Yeah, the results were pretty strange, but millions of years of natural processes have given rise to much stranger creatures and formations. Yet as Eli said and many scientists and designers would agree, “many biological structures are an ideal marriage of material form and function.” So perhaps we can all take some biophilic inspiration and do something a little weird. We might just discover something new.
Energy-harvesting magnets that change their volume when placed in a magnetic field have been discovered by US researchers. The materials described by Harsh Deep Chopra of Temple University and Manfred Wuttig of the University of Maryland produce negligible waste heat in the process and could displace current technologies and lead to new ones, such as omnidirectional actuators for mechanical devices and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). [Nature, 2015, 521, 340-343; DOI:10.1038/nature14459]
All magnets change their shape but not their volume, even auxetic magnets were previously characterized on the basis of volume conserving Joule magnetostriction. This fundamental principle of volume conservation has remained unchanged for 175 years, since the 1840s, when physicist James Prescott Joule found that iron-based magnetic materials would elongate and constrict anisotropically but not change their volume when placed in a magnetic field, so-called Joule magnetostriction.
The work of Chopra, Wuttig changes that observation fundamentally with the demonstration of volume-expanding magnetism. “Our findings fundamentally change the way we think about a certain type of magnetism that has been in place since 1841,” explains Chopra. “We have discovered a new class of magnets, which we call ‘Non-Joulian Magnets,’ that show a large volume change in magnetic fields.” Chopra described the phenomenon to us: “When ‘excited’ by a magnetic field, they swell up like a puffer fish,” he says.
Where do electronics go when they die? Most devices are laid to eternal rest in landfills. But what if they just dissolved away, or broke down to their molecular components so that the material could be recycled?
University of Illinois researchers have developed heat-triggered self-destructing electronic devices, a step toward greatly reducing electronic waste and boosting sustainability in device manufacturing. They also developed a radio-controlled trigger that could remotely activate self-destruction on demand.
The researchers, led by aerospace engineering professor Scott R. White, published their work in the journal Advanced Materials.
“We have demonstrated electronics that are there when you need them and gone when you don’t need them anymore,” White said. “This is a way of creating sustainability in the materials that are used in modern-day electronics. This was our first attempt to use an environmental stimulus to trigger destruction.”
Over the last seven years, Javier Sanchez-Yamagishi has built several hundred nanoscale stacked graphene systems to study their electronic properties. “What interests me a lot is that the properties of this combined system depend sensitively on the relative alignment between them,” he says.
@botanyshitposts so what exactly is a quillwort, and what’s the big deal on this particular one?
imagine if there was a single remaining mammoth species on earth, and it only was able to get by into the modern era by sacrificing it’s status as a huge landscape-changing roaming herbivore to evolve into a small animal the size of a dog. it looks a lot like a dog, actually. people often mistake the tiny mammoth species as a dog, and will just casually say it’s a dog.
small-mammoth enthusiasts, however, will avidly remind people that they are notin fact a dog, and their organs, although shrunken to the size of a dog’s organs, are still wooly mammoth organs. you actually have to seek out special vets for the small wooly mammoths because even though it looks remarkably like a dog to the untrained eye, when you’re faced with the internal anatomy it’s so far deviated from anything living today that it’s difficult to understand and work with.
this is because there is, quite literally, no animal anatomy quite like the small woolly mammoth’s left alive on earth. this means that there’s no living approximation of how their organs work, or what the fuck is going on in there, even though they look like a dog from the outside. the closest living relative of the small woolly mammoth is so far deviated from it’s anatomy that’s literally of no help to anyone to compare the two, because the only thing they have in common is how they reproduce. scientists studying the wooly mammoth’s anatomy are forced to debate with each other constantly about what a certain organ mightdo, or what it at least used to do based on the fossils of the giant wooly mammoths that once dominated the landscape, but they just…have no idea.
so the small woolly mammoth is not at all like a dog, even though it looks like one. how it works, how it reproduces, how it functions on a basic anatomic level are so utterly and completely prehistoricthat they’re not at all like any other living animals. this makes them the subject of infinite fascination to paleontologists trying to approximate the biology and ecology of the giant woolly mammoths that once lived…but it’s incredibly challenging. it’s also incredibly challenging to explain why they’re different to people who just don’t care, or just see them as dogs because they look like them, because the significance of something like it is so easily lost when something looks ‘normal’.
isoetes –Quillworts– are that tiny wooly mammoth. their ancestors lived 400 million years ago and included the giant prehistoric spore-reproducing trees lepidodendron,which made up the bulk of massive prehistoric forests that were eventually compressed into the coal we’re still using today. they’re so old that the roots aren’t roots, they’re leaves, and it took botanists 100 years of bickering to finally confirm this. they’re so old that the change that weeded out all the giant 100+ foot tall members of the lineage was literally the original shifting of the continents, as in, like, when pangea split. they’re so old that it reproduces through ENORMOUS spores contained in spore packets on it’s leaves. they’re so old that we just have no fucking idea how to process it.
quillwort anatomy is, quite literally, that of a comically small 400 million year old spore tree with the trunk squished into a woody structure so small that you could miss it if you didn’t know what you were looking for on a dissection. the anatomy of this genus doesn’t function like any other modern plant genus on earth. quillworts have organs and cell structures that we still don’t understand in the year 2019.
quillworts are incredibly valuable finds to paleobotanists because they’re so easily passed over in botanical surveys, and their habitats are constantly being threatened, making a great deal of species endangered. although they’re still around on almost every continent– see the earlier point on them evolving before the continents split– there are a lot fewer of them out there now; like anything, they can be more common in some areas than others, but my state has only found one recorded colony in the past 50 years to give an idea of what we’re dealing with here.
@sad-excited-corvid Yes! Relatives of these little guys made up the massive coal forests of the Paleozoic (the Carboniferous is literally named for the forests these plants were the dominant part of), and the arborescent lycopsids could be huge: some species grew up to 50 meters. And they are very cool and very, very weird.
