57+ min ago  (273+ words) To discover the new material, researchers focused on trinitite, a silicate glass containing rare metallic phases. Using some techniques like x-ray diffraction, the team was able to identify a type I clathrate based on calcium, copper, and silicon within a…...

3+ mon, 1+ week ago  (671+ words) It's an idea that's been around since the Apollo era and has been touted in recent years by the likes of former NASA administrator Bill Nelson and Space X's Elon Musk. But here's the thing: No one has ever successfully…...

3+ mon, 2+ week ago  (1316+ words) I don't know who invented this crazy challenge, but the idea is to put someone in a carved-out ice bowl and see if they can get out. Check it out! The bowl is shaped like the inside of a sphere,…...

6+ mon, 23+ hour ago  (764+ words) The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. In March, a group of biophysicists in France reported that the Marangoni effect is responsible for the pivotal moment when a homogeneous blob of cells elongates and develops a head-and-tail…...

7+ mon, 1+ week ago  (1045+ words) The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. "Quasicrystals are one of those things that as a materials scientist, when you first learn about them, you're like, "That's crazy," said Wenhao Sun, a materials scientist at the University…...

10+ mon, 2+ week ago  (309+ words) Researchers at the University of Edinburgh have succeeded in transforming certain plastic waste into acetaminophen using the natural properties of the common bacterium Escherichia coli (E. coli). This breakthrough represents a milestone with the potential to drive more sustainable methods of…...