Video: LED wall, the future of movie backgrounds

Green- or blue-screen compositing is the typical technique used in the film industry to create different backgrounds for a scene. Yet this well-established technique comes with disadvantages, ones that can be overcome using a novel LED wall developed for the television series The Mandalorian.

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Tough beetles reveal secrets that could help join dissimilar materials

The diabolical ironclad beetle can withstand crushing by forces up to 39,000-times its body weight. But what makes this little beetle so tough? A new study reveals some of the secrets the beetle stores in its tough exoskeleton, secrets that could aid in development of biomimetic materials and structures to join dissimilar materials in more robust ways.

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An en‘light’ening approach to cancer treatment: New GO-templated gold nanosheet shows promise for photothermal therapy

Traditional methods of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy for treating cancer can be extremely taxing on the body. Photothermal therapy is a minimally invasive and locally focused alternative, and a recent paper by researchers in China looks at the potential of a new graphene oxide-templated gold nanosheet for use in this treatment.

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Video: Electrified wingsuit lets fliers gain altitude

Wingsuit flying is an exhilarating sport that gives participants an experience akin to flying, though they are unable to gain altitude during the flight. Wingsuit pilot Peter Salzmann teamed up with vehicles company BMW to develop an electrified wingsuit that gives fliers the ability to swoop upward as well.

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Building community in the time of COVID-19: ACerS Annual Meeting at MS&T20 offers engagement for hundreds of materials scientists

Though in-person gatherings were cancelled due to COVID-19, the materials science community gathered virtually for ACerS Annual Meeting at MS&T on November 2–6. Over 1,200 attendees engaged with the online platform, which hosted prerecorded videos and live streams of award lectures, student competitions, a diversity town hall, and dozens of parallel sessions.

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A gain in understanding: Researchers investigate the influence of processing parameters on ceramic oxides for laser applications

Transparent ceramics serve as the gain medium in many commercial lasers, yet the push to develop new and improved ceramics for this application continues. In two papers published this year, an international team of researchers investigates the influence of different processing parameters on the properties of nanocomposite yttrium magnesium oxide ceramics.

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