When restoring old technology, sometimes substituting modern alternatives for original parts can improve the classic design. Researchers at Northwestern University and Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands created a clone of the 8-bit Nintendo Game Boy using an energy-aware gaming platform.
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Polymer-derived ceramic structures are difficult to manufacture using additive manufacturing processes because of low viscosity of the polymer state. Researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas successfully demonstrated the use of gel-like viscoplastic fluid to support preceramic polymers during the printing process.
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Although chocolate is a simple pleasure for many people around the world, the science behind chocolate as a food and as a material is deliciously complex. Now an industrial designer has re-engineered the chocolate chip to maximize taste and texture, giving it optimal surface area with angular features.
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Coffee is one of the most consumed beverages in the world, yet the environmental impacts of the drink can be significant. Metal and cloth are the main alternatives to paper for creating reusable filters—could ceramic and glass materials play a role in sustainability as well?
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A team of researchers in the U.K. and Germany developed a ceramic–metal composite that, despite being just 15% as dense as steel, is nearly uncuttable. The material harnesses the power of vibration to direct cutting tools’ destructive energy back upon themselves, wearing the tools down before they can inflict serious damage on the material.
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For more than 50 years, the Apollo-era Laser Ranging Retroreflector experiment helped scientists track the moon’s orbit and distance from Earth. The efficiency of the moon-based reflectors decreased over time, though, so NASA scientists looked to reflect light from a spacecraft-based reflector instead—a feat they recently achieved for the first time.
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Construction and refractory applications are main uses of bricks, but unusual applications show up in academic journals as well. In a recent paper, researchers at Washington University in St. Louis explain how they made ordinary bricks capable of storing energy like a battery.
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When Boston Dynamics premiered their dog-like robot Spot in September 2019, they imagined the robot being used in hazardous environments, such as construction and electric utility. Now in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Spot has stepped into some unusual roles that previously were not considered primary applications.
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PFAS chemicals are notoriously difficult to destroy, giving them the moniker “forever” chemicals. But researchers at Rice University were recently surprised to discover that boron nitride serves as an efficient photocatalyst for degrading PFAS chemicals.
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Optical isolators traditionally use single crystals to polarize light—could transparent ceramics be used instead? Researchers in Japan created high-performing transparent ceramics using lanthanide rare-earth oxides, materials previously believed to not be suited for optical applications.
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