Research on molecular machines won last year's Nobel Prize in chemistry. Now scientists have figured out a way to get these tiny molecules to join forces and collaborate on real work on a macro scale.
Coating paper with an inexpensive thin film can allow users to print and erase a physical page as many as 80 times. That reduces both the cost and the environmental effects of paper use.
Gotcha, five times faster than the blink of an eye.
Candler Hobbs/Georgia Tech
Alexis Noel, Georgia Institute of Technology and David Hu, Georgia Institute of Technology
How do a frog's tongue and saliva work together to be sticky enough to lift 1.4 times the animal's body weight? Painstaking lab work found their spit switches between two distinct phases to nab prey.
Tragedies involving building collapses prompt structural engineers to figure out what happened, and how to prevent it from recurring.
Hydrogen fueling stations like this could become more common if materials scientists and other researchers keep pushing for new breakthroughs.
fueling station photo via shutterstock.com
Molybdenum disulphide, hexagonal boron nitride and other materials yet to be discovered will be used to build the electronics of the future.
Nano-architects design materials that can work together at very tiny scales, like these interlocking gears made of carbon tubes and benzene molecules.
NASA
Our civilisation is built on chemistry, and the science has a bright future, with the launch of a new Decadal Plan that will steer the science into the future.
