Honoring John B. Goodenough, a charged life that lit up the world

On June 25, 2023, University of Texas at Austin professor John B. Goodenough died at the age of 100. Goodenough was known for developing the metal oxide cathodes that are still used in lithium-ion batteries today, but his innovations greatly influenced many other research areas as well. His contributions to science will continue to light up the imagination of researchers in the future.

Read More

Enabling change for research evaluation

Evaluating the quality of research and researchers is neither easy nor simple. An open-access paper by two ACerS journal editors demonstrates how some newer evaluation methods can better capture the short- and long-term performance of journal articles.

Read More

Extracting the secrets of ancient masons—Maya plasters owe their strength to plant-induced biomimetic structure

Like Roman concrete, plasters from the ancient Maya civilization are another historical building material that researchers are trying to understand and replicate. In a recent open-access paper, University of Granada researchers used advanced imaging techniques to reveal that the addition of organic molecules to the Maya plasters induced the formation of biomimetic structures, which are likely key to the plaster’s durability.

Read More