‘Bendable concrete’ is not an oxymoron. Mimicking designs found in nature, engineers are making concrete that gives under stress without shattering – an advance that could improve US infrastructure.
What’s inside Olympians’ skis?
AP Photo/Luca Bruno
Marc Zupan, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Highly engineered composite materials let skis ride smoothly, carve neatly and turn quickly – for top athletes and regular consumers alike.
Strange new materials that propel the fictional Star Trek universe are being developed by scientists in reality today. Above, the USS Discovery accelerates to warp speed in an artist’s rendition for the TV series Star Trek Discovery.
(Handout)
Researchers have found a way to turn cheap 3D printers into a simple method for making super-strong but light composite materials for things like aircraft.
Shapeshifting: 3D printed materials that change shape over time.
Dan Raviv/Scientific Reports
Dan Raviv, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Additive manufacturing – or 3D printing – is 30 years old this year. Today, it’s found not just in industry but in households, as the price of 3D printers has fallen below US$1,000. Knowing you can print…
Carbon fibre: it’s super light and super strong (even more so than dreadlocks).
Lucas Grumet/Flickr
A unique cutting-edge carbon fibre research facility Carbon Nexus officially opened at Deakin University in Geelong last week. It houses laboratories, a pilot scale carbon fibre line and a smaller single-tow…
Materials shape human progress – think stone age or bronze age. The 21st century has been referred to as the molecular age, a time when scientists are beginning to manipulate materials at the atomic level…
More than 50% of the Airbus A350 is made of composite materials.
EPA/DB/EADS
What do Novak Djokovic’s tennis racket, Mark Webber’s F1 car and the new Boeing 787 have in common? They all extensively rely on composite materials. A composite material is a strategic combination of…