Government funding in science
I noticed a recent article in this week’s Financial Times newspaper that worried me, it highlights the effects of the continued weak government spending on scientific research, not surprisingly the...
View ArticleWorld’s thinnest glass
Louis Pasteur once said, “chance favours the prepared mind”. The Guinness book of records will have a new entry for 2014, the worlds thinnest sheet of glass, which is just two atoms thick. Just like...
View ArticleSell me a thtory
There's lanthanum and osmium and astatine and radium, And gold and protactinium and indium and gallium, And iodine and thorium... Aah, thorium…the nuclear panacea. Or, is it? CERN, home of the Large...
View ArticleEnergy storage database
The US department of Energy (DOE) have created an excellent free resource for all those who work in the energy sector and for those with an interest in energy. The database currently holds information...
View ArticleForensics
Today we're all familiar with programs such as Crime Scene Investigation (CSI) and NCIS; where a team of scientists are able to systematically piece together the culprit of a crime by evidence on or...
View ArticleBattery efficiency
As winter approaches, electric cars like us begin to slow down, they take longer to charge and re-charge. They are also, heavy and bulky and still not very efficient, even during warm weather. You can...
View ArticleMaterials characterization, in space
It has been 10 years since NASA's Opportunity rover landed on Mars, marking a historic moment in time. What might be even more noteworthy is the original mission was only meant to be a 90 Mars day...
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UK facilities: the big science of looking at small stuff
Somewhere in a field in Oxfordshire, United Kingdom, there are, side-by-side, two very large scientific instruments. One is housed partly in buildings as large as aircraft hangars, and partly under...
View ArticleMOF stabilizing effect on immiscible polymer blends
Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) or coordination polymers, are compounds consisting of inorganic (metallic) and organic units (organic carboxylates or similar negatively charged molecules) joined by...
View ArticleDon't forget to comment
A common journalistic trick is to play Devil's Advocate, to adopt the point of view that generally opposes the more common consensus, if that isn't an oxymoron. To play the contrary card, the Yin to...
View ArticleNickel alloys and the challenge of thermal analysis
As part of Materials Today’s new section on Thermal Analysis, Laurie Winkless looks at the many challenges surrounding the characterization of nickel-based superalloys. Learn more about thermal...
View ArticleMicro goes nano for Nobel chemists
Once this year's Nobel Prize for Physics had been awarded to the invention of blue LEDs, was there much chance that the prediction of conducting polymers winning the Chemistry? Aside from the...
View ArticleReflecting on diffraction
In case you didn't know, it's the International Year of Crystallography. A year-long celebration of all metrics crystalline initiated by the United Nations to celebrate the centenary of the discovery...
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Ice crystals give up their secrets in microgravity
An ice dendrite grown in space (Credit: Hokkaido Univ./JAXA).Although ice crystals are all around us, both on Earth and in space, it isn’t fully understood how their beautiful structures form. Japanese...
View ArticleAll the days of our lives
I'm writing this on St Patrick's Day, which is also apparently Happy Song Day, Sunday just gone was Mothering Sunday (or Mother's Day if you want just the commercialized, non-religious version), it's...
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Enhancement of photovoltaic power of single-walled carbon nanotube films by...
(a) Schematic illustration of the thin/thick SWCNT film. The right side of the film is thick. The yellow dotted square is the area of solar light irradiation. The numbers represent the size in...
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Nature shows the way for new material design
Cicada.Over two thousand years ago Aristotle is reputed to have said, “Nature does nothing in vain”. This view of organisms being endowed with an inherent purposefulness is also true when one considers...
View ArticleSteroids for the brain
There are countless illicit drugs used by sports people to boost muscle growth, improve stamina and enhance their performance. The analytical laboratories used by the sports authorities expend vast...
View ArticleDanceroom spectroscopy
What does molecular physics, cutting edge light technology, ambient sound and dance all have in common? They were all put together recently to create a Danceroom Spectroscopy event. The event was held...
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Focus on apparel complexity: Cotton fabric topography by CLSM
2014 cover competition runners up Dario Donnarumma and colleagues discuss their winning image. Explore more winning images, that will be featured on the 2016 covers of the Materials Today journal....
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