Researchers show how borophene, the 2D form of boron, can be grown to simplify its use for applications. Materials theorist Boris Yakobson of Rice’s George R. Brown School of Engineering and his group suggest a method to synthesize borophene, the 2D version of boron, in a way that could make it easier to free up…

A team of scientists is developing wearable skin sensors that can detect what’s in your sweat. In a new article, the team describes a sensor design that can be rapidly manufactured using a ‘roll-to-roll’ processing technique that essentially prints the sensors onto a sheet of plastic like words on a newspaper. The sensors can provide…

Researchers recently announced a major theoretical and experimental breakthrough that allows scientists to predict, with an unprecedented precision, when a soft material will crack and fail. The findings have immediate implications for the engineering and manufacture of a wide range of polymers. They also provide insights into how natural soft materials — such as the…

Metalenses — flat surfaces that use nanostructures to focus light — are poised to revolutionize everything from microscopy to cameras, sensors, and displays. But so far, most of the lenses have been about the size of a piece of glitter. While lenses this size work well for some applications, a larger lens is needed for…

NASA JPL are developing autonomous capabilities that could allow future Mars rovers to go farther, faster and do more science. Training machine learning models on the Maverick2, their team developed and optimized models for Drive-By Science and Energy-Optimal Autonomous Navigation. Four generations of rovers have traversed the red planet gathering scientific data, sending back evocative…

Lasers in conventional laser printers for paper printouts are very small. 3D laser printers for 3-dimensional microstructures and nanostructures, by contrast, have required big and expensive laser systems so far. Researchers now use another process for this purpose. Two-step absorption works with inexpensive and small, blue laser diodes. As a result, much smaller printers can…

Blue mussels (Mytilus edulis) spend their days being buffeted by crashing waves. They manage to stay tethered to the rocks or their fellow mussels thanks to a highly effective underwater glue they produce. Because achieving adhesion in the presence of water is so challenging, scientists who are interested in producing effective adhesives for use in…

Researchers devise a new approach to a highly studied exotic elastic material, uncover an intuitive geometrical description of the pronounced — or nonlinear — soft deformations, and show how to activate any of these deformations on-demand with minimal inputs. This new theory reveals that a flexible mechanical structure is governed by some of the same…

This method allows users to identify legal versus illegal gamma rays. Detectors like these are critical for national security, where they’re used to detect illegal nuclear materials smuggled across borders and aid in nuclear forensics, as well as in medical diagnostics imaging. Using cesium lead bromide in the form of perovskite crystals, the research team…

The adsorption of ions from the electrolyte at an electrode surface is a ubiquitous process, of use for both existing and emerging electrochemical energy technologies. But what happens when these ions penetrate very small spaces? To address this question, researchers examined the behavior of birnessite. Birnessite is a hydrated layered form of manganese oxide that…