materials
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A new lithium refining method uses electrochemistry to cut waste and energy use, easing a key bottleneck for electric vehicles.
Space Forge's orbital furnace could redefine semiconductor production with space-grown crystals.
The definitive 100+ page guide to the thermodynamics, scarcity, and heavy assets powering the AI revolution.
To survive Venus, NASA is returning to advanced ceramic sensors that can operate where conventional silicon electronics rapidly fail.
Cardboard was once seen as just packaging, but it is now becoming a design hero. As sustainability and cost efficiency drive modern innovation, this humble material is being reimagined for far more than shipping boxes. Lightweight, strong, and easily recyclable, it inspires designers to create accessible, eco-friendly products without compromising on aesthetics or performance. From
How gypsum changed construction
A multi-institution research team has discovered a metallic material that conducts heat nearly three times more efficiently than copper or silver.
Rather than being used as a storage material, the sulfur gives up electrons.
An analysis
Just a handful of companies can make cadmium zinc telluride, a material with powerful properties.
A new “rubbery CMOS” platform combines fully stretchable p- and n-type transistors, enabling skin-like logic circuits and a tactile “sensory skin” for wearables, implants, and soft robotics.
Exotic materials with bizarre electron behavior could pave the road to revolutionary technologies
The early history of the United States runs along with the first years of the railroad.
The challenge of cure time🌌Get Nebula using my link for 40% off an annual subscription: https://go.nebula.tv/Practical-Engineering🏙️Watch 17 Pages: https:/...
How aquaporin and potassium channels filter hundreds of millions of water molecules or ions each second, by positioning the correct amino acid in the perfect place.
Lead paint was banned. Before that, it was outcompeted by a cheap and safe alternative.
How a single taxi ride saved millions of lives
InventWood just cracked the code on something that sounds like science fiction. They've figured out how to make wood stronger than steel by restructuring it at the molecular level. This isn't your typical engineered lumber story. We're talking about a material that delivers 50% more tensile strength than steel while weighing dramatically less. The Maryland
Materials breakthroughs and process innovations are unlocking next-gen chip scaling, with Southeast Asia playing a pivotal role in semiconductor evolution. By Andrew Goh, Corporate Vice President and General Manager, Southeast Asia at Lam Research
Google DeepMind has announced a new artificial intelligence system, AlphaEarth Foundations, designed to analyze the Earth's surface by integrating vast
Can microfactories solve prefab's economic problem by inverting the factory model?
Neuroscientists are discovering how this basic ability, essential to our survival, works
A new technical paper titled “Emerging Nonvolatile Memory Technologies in the Future of Microelectronics” was published by researchers at Texas A&M University, University of Massachusetts and USC. Abstract “Memory technologies are central to modern computing systems, performing essential functions that range from primary data storage to advanced tasks, such as in-memory computing for artificial intelligence... » read more
The mystifying, centuries-long failure of the coal briquette
Glass cloth maker Nittobo is latest example country's overlooked role in supply chain
A cracked piece of metal fused itself back together in a lab in front of scientist—and no one was prepared for it.
Lead has been all but eliminated in most of the developed world. Doing the same for the rest of the world might not be difficult.
The material has 50% more tensile strength than steel with a strength-to-weight ratio that’s ten-times better.
Individual construction tasks have, on average, not gotten cheaper since at least the 1950s. Bricks haven’t gotten cheaper since the mid-19th century, despite massive improvements in brickmaking technology. Construction has a reputation for being slow to innovate, but innovations seem to spread in construction at roughly similar rates to other industries, like car manufacturing or agriculture. Single family […]
Civilization's toughest technical challenges are those that require extraordinary (and constantly improving) performance to be delivered at a low cost.
Earlier this month the Trump administration announced hefty 25% tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports, along with an additional 10% tariffs on Chinese imports.
MP Materials begins manufacturing rare earth magnets, including Neodymium magnets, in the U.S. This marks a significant step for the domestic production of permanent magnets, crucial for industries like EVs and defense. Despite challenges, this move aims to reduce reliance on Chinese imports.
This sustainable, solid-state electrolyte design outlives lithium-ion batteries
We made sand think: this phrase is used from time to time to evoke the particular technological wonders of our age, especially since artificial intelligence seems to be back on the slate of possibilities.
MIT physicists created a long-lasting magnetic state in a material, using only light. The results provide a new way to control and switch antiferromagnetic materials, which are of interest for their potential to advance information processing and memory chip technology.
Electra has raised $76.3 million to clean up the dirty ironmaking industry, TechCrunch has learned. The startup has developed a novel method of using
Industrialists and researchers are plotting a new future for these critical materials
Three new species of superconductivity were spotted this year, illustrating the myriad ways electrons can join together to form a frictionless quantum soup.
The manipulation of mechanical strain in materials, also known as strain engineering, has allowed engineers to advance electronics over the past decades, for instance enhancing the mobility of charge ...
One of the oldest, scarcest elements in the universe has given us treatments for mental illness, ovenproof casserole dishes and electric cars. But how much do we really know about lithium?
Better predictions of how cracks grow can make machines and structures more reliable
Mechanical stresses increase with larger sizes and heterogeneous materials.
Use our plastics properties table to sort and compare plastic materials. Review typical, physical, thermal, optical, electrical properties. Ask an Expert or Get a Quote.
Solar is in the process of shearing off the base of the entire global industrial stack – energy – and the tech sector still lacks a unified thesis for how to best enable, accelerate, an…
This essential substance has a history—and future—that’s far from clear.
This article examines three different types of magnetic materials and how they react to an external magnetic field.
Copper is on the verge of a reign similar to oil's historic dominance, but fueled by entirely new forces. A
Scientists use nanoparticles to supercharge the mechanical properties of aluminium alloys.
Why are buildings today simple and austere, while buildings of the past were ornate and elaborately ornamented? The answer is not the cost of labor.
A recent viral tweet by Micah Springut, founder of stone-carving startup Monumental Labs, argued that it will be cheaper to build buildings with stone than with steel or concrete within the next 10 years.
This article discusses the following basic concepts related to magnetic materials: the magnetic dipole moment, magnetization vectors, susceptibility, and permeability.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81hX8WAdNXs Jesmonite, a flexible substance crafted from a fusion of gypsum sourced from sedimentary rock and water-based acrylic resin, is gaining popularity among artists, eco-conscious enterprises, and DIY enthusiasts. This material emerged in the UK in 1984 and is credited to Peter Hawkins. Jesmonite is known for its durability, flame resistance, and impact resistance, is
The deposits formed 380 million years ago when Africa collided with North America.
Researchers likened material’s structure to a big bowl of spaghetti and meatballs.
Scientists accidentally discover metals that mend themselves without human intervention
The world’s largest known deposit was just discovered in Nevada. What does that mean?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqyUdNxWazA&t=57s&pp=ygUFYXBwbGU%3D For a company that's been so bullish on Aluminum (or aluminium as Jony Ive called it), Apple's gradual shift to titanium feels like an end of an era. For two decades, Apple has pretty much revolutionized the use of aluminum in technology, but hey... it's the future, we're about to colonize Mars, and it's
Science fiction writers, who have to think deeply about the possible nature of future technology, often invent new sci-fi materials in order to make their future technology seem plausible. They seem to understand the critical role that material science plays in advancing technology. This is why sci-fi is full of fictional materials such as unobtainium,
The earth contains a lot of titanium - it’s the ninth most abundant element in the earth’s crust.
The unexpectedly interesting story of car coatings and what they tell us about the modern world
Lithium prices shined from 2020 through 2022, driven by surging demand for electric vehicles, especially in China, alongside the precious metal’s limited supply. That trend stopped short in 2023, with the lithium price dropping sharply. Falling EV demand and increasing lithium supply are the main factors, but are they short or long term?
Plastic is a staple of modern kitchens, but it comes with a frustrating problem – it doesn't dry properly in a dishwasher. Why?
Experts say a raw aluminum stockpile in Vietnam is the biggest they have ever seen.
In the late 1940s and early 1950s, a revolution took place in American military aircraft design.
Despite the profound impact rope has had on humanity, you probably know very little about these mighty functional cords. Here's your starter guide.
The FCC voted last Thursday to relax the rules for retiring copper wiring. This change was specifically aimed at Verizon and AT&T and is going to make it a lot easier for them to tear down old …
There was no shortage of trees
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] This is the Puente Hills Landfill outside of Los Angeles, California. The first truckload of trash was dumped here in 1957, and the trucks just kept coming. For more than five decades, if you threw something away in LA County, t
Will help to develop substrates, device layers, and junctions
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] If you have to know the answer right away, it’s no; or at least, my goal with this video is to convince you that the world is not running out of sand. But if it were that simple, I wouldn’t be here (right?) and you probably woul