The materials used to build aircrafts need to be very strong, able to withstand high temperatures, and lightweight. Carbon fiber composites have attracted a lot of interest because they are durable at high temperature and their low density keeps the materials lightweight. However, oxygen molecules in the air can react…

Why does this help plants? Plants can capture energy from many colors of light, but they cannot use energy from ultraviolet radiation. By turning ultraviolet radiation into red or orange light, these scientists are making “unusable” light into “usable” light for plants. This “light filtering” quantum dot…

Engineered living materials are composed of both synthetic materials and living cells. They are made in a lab to do things, like respond to their environment, which goes beyond typical materials like inert plastics used to make so many of our products. What scientists want the material to do determines how it is…

Scientists have found the addition of conductive nanomaterials like copper and ceramics in a piezoelectric polymer material greatly increases power generation.

The cells in our bones play a crucial role in maintaining our bone health. Diseases such as osteoporosis can damage the health of our bones. Osteoporosis is caused by the loss of bone material. Aging increases the risk of developing osteoporosis. Researchers have found that the worldwide increase in life expectancy has…

Scientists started out wanting to study how Vitamin A affects our gut flora. They ended up coming up with a new way to count bacteria by encasing them in tiny droplets and tagging each one with DNA “barcodes”, detecting more detail than older techniques could.

Scientists aboard the International Space Station test if bacteria can get vital metals out of rock under low gravity conditions.

Imagine what it would be like to be an astronaut landing on Mars for the first time. The red planet has little more than dust and rocks as well as some frozen water and gases in the air. If you wanted to build a shelter or structure, you would need to carry the materials from Earth in your cramped spaceship. What if we…

Current antimicrobial fabrics have dangerous downsides - researchers have found a safe approach using essential oils. @ryant_kirby

As the hunt for extraterrestrial life continues, scientists are giving rovers some new game changing abilities. With the "LEMUR", we may not be so far off from finding life on other planets!

Although the term ‘gene editing’ may sound like science fiction, it isn’t! CRISPR-mediated gene editing is a technology first developed in the 1990s that enabled scientists to target and modify particular genes without damaging the whole genome. For example, they could modify crops to make them more resistant to…

A satellite constellation is a group of artificial satellites, working together. In the coming decades, companies like SpaceX, and Samsung are planning to launch a number of satellite constellations. These satellites will allow users to enjoy more reliable connectivity, independent of their location throughout the…

Could dead or living #fungi be used as a biofilter to trap and remove #methane, the potent #greenhousegas, from the atmosphere? Researchers including @shroominn from @UMNews tested both living and dead fungal biomass to determine their ability to capture methane.

Can #airplanes fly on #Mars? Maybe! Find out the perfect wing shape for flying in the thin Martian atmosphere.

Nature has been able to filter out CO2 from our air for millions of years. So how might a battery prove to be our own artificial tree? #sustainability #environment #carbonemissions

A team of scientists has made valves which can operate on tiny channels of fluid the width of 3 human hairs! This paper, published in the Journal of Biomedical Microdevices, represents a step forward in lab technology. Creating a tiny valve like this could have important implications for cancer research, where fluids…

Have you ever driven past an old factory building and wondered what ever happened to the harsh chemicals that were used there? If you guessed that a lot of the chemicals ended up in the environment, you would be right. Many of these pollutants are what we refer to as “halogenated hydrocarbons”. These are molecules…

Cement is one of those common building materials that you can find just about anywhere. When the cement starts to get cracked, fixing it is generally an easy task that involves widening the crack slightly before filling it with more cement. Now, imagine having to fix cracking cement that is buried 1 kilometer (3281…

All life on Earth has to respire. For us this means inhaling oxygen to fuel our metabolism and exhaling waste gases like carbon dioxide. When we do this, we move the energy  from the food we eat to the oxygen we breathe, creating a flow of energy that our cells use for growth. This is called respiration. However, not…