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- Boosting boron's utility
Boron, a metalloid element that sits next to carbon in the periodic table, has many traits that make it potentially useful as a drug component. Nonetheless, only five FDA-approved drugs contain bor... - New face mask prototype can detect Covid-19 infection
Engineers at MIT and Harvard University have designed a novel face mask that can diagnose the wearer with Covid-19 within about 90 minutes. The masks are embedded with tiny, disposable sensors that... - A test that detects COVID-19 variants in your spit
With the Delta variant wreaking havoc on unvaccinated populations and COVID-19 cases spiking around the world, the pandemic is far from over. Despite the impressively fast development of SARS-C...
- Nanoscale gradient copolymers with contradictory properties
Materials that simultaneously have contrasting properties - for example, they are soft on the one hand and hard on the other, the transition is gradual - could enable completely new applications li...
- Source of new CFC emissions discovered
Since 2013, annual emissions of the banned chlorofluorocarbon CFC-11 have increased by around 7,000 metric tons from eastern China, according to a new study by an international team of scientists i...
- Self-healing metal oxides could protect against corrosion
esearchers have found that a solid oxide protective coating for metals can, when applied in sufficiently thin layers, deform as if it were a liquid, filling any cracks and gaps as they form. The... - "Body on a chip" could improve drug evaluation
MIT engineers have developed new technology that could be used to evaluate new drugs and detect possible side effects before the drugs are tested in humans. Using a microfluidic platform that conne... - Light-controlled polymers can switch between sturdy and soft
MIT researchers have designed a polymer material that can change its structure in response to light, converting from a rigid substance to a softer one that can heal itself when damaged. "You can... - Inexpensive chip-based device may transform spectrometry
Spectrometers - devices that distinguish different wavelengths of light and are used to determine the chemical composition of everything from laboratory materials to distant stars - are large devic...
- Cell-infused gloves and bandages light up when in contact with certain chemicals
Engineers and biologists at MIT have teamed up to design a new "living material" - a tough, stretchy, biocompatible sheet of hydrogel injected with live cells that are genetically programmed to lig... - New strategy produces stronger polymers
Plastic, rubber, and many other useful materials are made of polymers - long chains arranged in a cross-linked network. At the molecular level, these polymer networks contain structural flaws that ... - Electrochemical method to remove micropollutants from water
When it comes to removing very dilute concentrations of pollutants from water, existing separation methods tend to be energy- and chemical-intensive. Now, a new method developed at MIT could provid... - Trailblazer in the field of glyco sciences: 2017 Stifterverband Science Prize
Sugar offers sweet prospects for the future - even in unexpected areas, such as medicine. Synthetic sugars, for example, are components of novel vaccines against infectious diseases such as multire... - New analysis explains role of defects in metal oxides
Sometimes things that are technically defects, such as imperfections in a material's crystal lattice, can actually produce changes in properties that open up new kinds of useful applications. New r... - Capturing Methane for use as fuel or a chemical feedstock.
Many oil wells burn off methane - the largest component of natural gas - in a process called flaring, which currently wastes 150 billion cubic meters of the gas each year and generates a staggering... - Creating plants that glow
Imagine that instead of switching on a lamp when it gets dark, you could read by the light of a glowing plant on your desk. MIT engineers have taken a critical first step toward making that visi...
- A new way to deliver microRNAs for cancer treatment
Twenty years ago, scientists discovered that short strands of RNA known as microRNA help cells to fine-tune their gene expression. Disruption or loss of some microRNAs has been linked to cancer, ra... - How to make metal alloys that stand up to hydrogen
High-tech metal alloys are widely used in important materials such as the cladding that protects the fuel inside a nuclear reactor. But even the best alloys degrade over time, victims of a reactor'... - Strength and ductility for alloys
For the steel industry, there may be a way out of the dilemma that has existed since people began processing metal. Scientists from the Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung in Düsseldorf (Germany... - A novel interpretation of Raman spectra will help the 2020 Mars rover
In 2020, NASA plans to launch a new Mars rover that will be tasked with probing a region of the planet scientists believe could hold remnants of ancient microbial life. The rover will collect sampl... - Atomic structures of proteins elucidated
The more we know about the agents that cause disease, the more specifically we will be able to combat them. These are the words of Prof. Adam Lange of the Leibniz-Institut für Molekulare Pharmakolo...
- New technique enables nanoscale-resolution microscopy of large biological specimens
Beginning with the invention of the first microscope in the late 1500s, scientists have been trying to peer into preserved cells and tissues with ever-greater magnification. The latest generation o... - Nanoparticles can clean up environmental pollutants
Many human-made pollutants in the environment resist degradation through natural processes, and disrupt hormonal and other systems in mammals and other animals. Removing these toxic materials - whi... - Gallium nitride: The new silicon?
An exotic material called gallium nitride (GaN) is poised to become the next semiconductor for power electronics, enabling much higher efficiency than silicon. In 2013, the Department of Energy (DO... - Metallic gels produce tunable light emission
Researchers at MIT have developed a family of materials that can emit light of precisely controlled colors - even pure white light - and whose output can be tuned to respond to a wide variety of ex...