• Better bullet-proof vests with advanced fiber weaves

    Manchester University researchers say that bullet-proof vests used to protect the lives of police officers could be further improved with advanced fiber weaves

  • New anti-crime approach: vigilant windows

    Windows are coated with special polymer which contains nanoparticles that convert light into fluorescent radiation; this radiation is channeled to the edges of the window where it is detected by sensors; when a person approaches the window, the sensors wirelessly relay this currency information to a computer program, which alerts security officials of the potential intruder

  • A simpler route to invisibility

    Two years ago Duke University researchers built an invisibility cloak — a device that can make objects vanish from sight, at least when viewed using a narrow band of microwave frequencies; researchers now show how to create cloaks that work across a wider range of frequencies

  • Acoustic cloak silences nuisance noise

    Spanish researchers prove metamaterials can be designed to produce an acoustic cloak — a cloak that can make objects impervious to sound waves

  • New class of meterials offers many benefits

    Microspheres to carry hydrogen, deliver drugs, filter gases, and detect nuclear weapons development

  • "Fibrous" steel withstands extremely cold temperatures

    Steel is very strong, except that in cold temperatures it becomes brittle; new method of making steel withstand cold temperatures could make steel structures in Arctic areas, like ships or oil rigs, cheaper to construct

  • Breakthrough: Dramatic increase in thermoelectric efficiency achieved

    Two hundred years ago scientists discovered the thermoelectric effect: Certain materials can convert heat into electricity and vice versa; trouble is, most materials which conduct electricity also conduct heat, so their temperature equalizes quickly; until now: Boston College, MIT researchers solve this vexing problem

  • New material captures carbon dioxide

    Georgie Tech researchers developed material which captures CO2 from the chimneys of coal-fired power plants and other generators of the greenhouse gases

  • European consortium to make RFID tags more affordable

    To make RFID more popular, there is a need to make them cheaper; a team of major technology companies is confident that the cost will be reduced once the tags can be printed because electrically conductive and semiconducting plastics can be used in high-volume printing processes

  • Invisibility cloak for nanoparticles designed

    Researchers design invisibility cloak for nanoparticles; the new particle invisibility cloak will help create a vast array of new material technologies that combine unknown property combinations such as strength and durability with optical transparency

  • Sea cucumber inspires new plastic for body armor, brain implants

    Sea cucumbers’ skin is usually supple, allowing them to slide through narrow spaces between rocks and corals; when touched, however, a defensive reaction makes their skin go rigid in seconds, thanks to enzymes that bind protein fibers together; researchers apply this process to clothing, creating garments which switch stiffness in response to a pulse of electricity

  • Nano-bristle clothes to generate power from body motions

    Yellow Jackets researcher develops energy-generating fiber: If clothes are made from this piezoelectric fabric, the wearer’s body motions would produce useful amounts of power

  • Day of ultra-clean engine nears

    One of the major obstacles facing the development of ultra-clean car engines is the need for permanent-magnet electric motors to operate well at temperatures up to 200 degrees Celsius; Iowa researchers offer a way to create such magnets

  • Breakthrough: Acoustic cloak theoretically possible

    Invisibility cloak — deflecting microwaves around a cloaked object and restoring them on the other side, as if they had passed through empty space — has already been demonstrated; Duke researcher now shows that an acoustic cloak is theoretically feasible: Sound waves would travel seamlessly around the cloaked object and emerge on the other side without distortion; submarines could be hidden from sonar

  • Helmet sensors measure munition impact

    Worried about ever-more-powerful IEDs, the Army is providing soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division with helmets equipped with sensors which measure the energy wave generated by an “event” and the acceleration or jolt that follows