This flax fiber furniture can be taken apart and reused again and again
Most seating furniture isn’t made to last.
Chairs and benches are often difficult to take apart, awkward to move, and easy to damage.
After just one...
A new organic molecule could store renewable energy for months with almost no loss
One of the biggest challenges facing renewable energy is timing. Wind turbines and solar panels often produce electricity when it is not immediately needed.
A...
AI can read and diagnose brain scans in seconds
Medical imaging plays a critical role in diagnosing diseases of the brain, but reading and interpreting brain scans is a complex and time‑consuming task.
Today,...
Lego-like smart material lets robots change stiffness like living tissue
Robots are usually built from materials with fixed properties.
Once a robot is assembled, its stiffness, flexibility and movement patterns are largely locked in.
Engineers at...
Batteries made from “rust” could be cleaner, cheaper, and surprisingly powerful
Lithium-ion batteries power everything from smartphones to electric cars, but they rely on materials that raise environmental and ethical concerns.
Metals like nickel and cobalt...
MIT engineers turn recycled plastic bottles into strong 3D-printed home frames
The plastic bottle you toss into the recycling bin today might one day help hold up the floor of a house.
Engineers at MIT are...
A one-atom-thick filter may revolutionize natural gas purification
growing role.
Both fuels are mainly made of methane, which burns more cleanly than coal or oil and is widely used for heating, electricity generation...
Scientists achieve near-perfect light transmission on silicon chips
Optical fiber quietly powers much of the modern world.
It carries internet traffic across oceans and cities with astonishing efficiency, letting light travel kilometers with...
This 4D-printed smart skin can transform its shape and reveal hidden images
Most synthetic materials are made to do just one or two things. Once they are created, their properties rarely change.
A research team at Penn...
Electric eels inspire a new kind of soft, powerful battery
From medical implants to soft robots, many emerging technologies need power sources that are flexible, safe, and able to work inside or near living...
MIT scientists turn waste heat into computing power with 99% accuracy
Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology have demonstrated a surprising new way to compute—by using heat instead of electricity.
In a proof-of-concept study published in...
A simple carbon coating could transform sodium-ion batteries forever
Sodium-ion batteries are attracting growing attention as a greener and more affordable alternative to today’s lithium-ion batteries.
Sodium is abundant, widely available, and cheaper than...
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Breakthroughs in carbon capture and storage
Climate change is one of the biggest challenges of our time, driven largely by the carbon dioxide (CO₂) we release into the atmosphere from...
A new smart device can heat and cool buildings—without using electricity
Imagine a building that can heat itself in winter and cool itself in summer without using any electricity.
A research team in South Korea has...
New computing system makes Android and iOS apps sharable on multiple devices
Computer scientists at Columbia Engineering have developed a new computing system that enables current, unmodified mobile apps to combine and share multiple devices, including...
3D-printed twisting metal could make car crashes much safer
Scientists from Scotland and Italy have created a new type of 3D-printed material that could greatly improve safety in car crashes.
The material, made from...
Next generation of greenhouses may be fully solar-powered
Many greenhouses could become energy neutral by using see-through solar panels to harvest energy –- primarily from the wavelengths of light that plants don't...