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Spinning spider silk

A female golden silk orb-weaver spider. Credit: Rain0975 on flickr.com. Used under CC BY-ND 2.0 licence.
Researchers at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, Canada, are working out how to make artificial spider silk. Spiders build their webs out of lightweight, incredibly tough, [...]

Superdry

Professor Chunlei Guo has developed a technique that uses lasers to render materials hydrophobic, illustrated in this image of a water droplet bouncing off a treated sample. Credit: J. Adam Fenster / University of Rochester
Scientists at the University of Rochester in the USA have treated metals so that they keep dry even when splashed with water. Chunlei Guo, professor of optics at the [...]

Nappies and microscopes?

Swollen brain cells: scientists modified the superabsorbant nappy compound, polyacrylate, to magnify brain tissue. Credit: Courtesy of Boyden lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Scientists have worked out a way to take better pictures of tiny parts of our bodies called cells, using disposable nappies. Professor Boyden and his colleagues found that [...]

Morning Glory

A photograph of the Morning Glory Pool from 23 August, 2012, showing bright colours of red, orange, yellow and green. Credit: Joseph Shaw, Montana State University.
Researchers at Montana State University (USA) and Brandenburg University of Applied Sciences (Germany) have come up with an explanation for the beautiful colours of hot [...]

Superstrong and lightweight

The high-entropy alloy. Credit: North Carolina State University
Researchers from North Carolina State University in the USA and Qatar University have developed a super-strong mixture of metals that is stronger for its weight than any [...]
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