Characterization

Lego Ideas goes nanoscale to build interest in materials science and engineering

By April Gocha / August 19, 2015

Lego Ideas, the toy company’s platform for crowd-sourced ideas for new Lego sets, has ventured into the materials science and engineering world.

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New atomic-scale observations could lead to engineering of ductile yet strong ceramics

By April Gocha / August 12, 2015

Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles have made new observations that could help design ultrahigh temperature ceramics that overcome the materials’ biggest limitation—brittleness.

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New phase-change ceramic stores energy and releases it under pressure

By April Gocha / July 28, 2015

Scientists at the University of Tokyo have discovered a unique ceramic that can store heat long-term and release it on-demand, opening up new possibilities for a variety of energy storage systems.

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Researchers from 45 countries descend on Vancouver for week of ceramics, energy, and environment

By Eileen De Guire / June 17, 2015

This week’s 11th CMCEE conference attendees grapple with the ceramic materials aspects of energy and environmental technologies.

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Simulations cast new light on ceramic tape casting

By April Gocha / June 4, 2015

Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials IWM in Freiburg, Germany, have figured out to improve ceramic tape casting—without performing any experiments.

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To infinity and beyond: MaterialsLab opens access to materials research in space

By April Gocha / June 3, 2015

NASA and NIST recently joined forces to establish MaterialsLab, a new data-ridden initiative aimed to accelerate “materials development and make new discoveries using data from the hundreds of investigations on the International Space Station,” according to a NASA news release.

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Most delicious materials science: Study probes chocolate with X-rays to keep surface bloom at bay

By April Gocha / May 26, 2015

A group of researchers from the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, Hamburg University of Technology, and Nestle has taken chocolately materials science goodness a step further by studying just how fat bloom forms on the surface of chocolate.

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Sponges anchor glass houses with precisely engineered glass hairs

By April Gocha / April 15, 2015

New research from Brown University shows that although the glass sponge’s anchoring fibers are thin and fragile-looking, they are engineered for maximal strength.

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Graphene pairs with alumina for strong, wear-resistant ceramic composite

By April Gocha / April 10, 2015

New research suggests a simple solution to improve the wear resistance, fracture tolerance, and conductivity of alumina ceramic—the addition of graphene.

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Can glass dental fillings provide stronger, safer alternative to metals and composites?

By April Gocha / March 31, 2015

Researchers at the University of Copenhagen, along with colleagues at various other European institutions, are not only advocating on behalf of glass ionomer cement’s benefits, but also researching ways to make the material even better for dental work.

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