Porous polymer coatings dynamically control light and heat

Engineers have developed dynamic porous polymer coatings that enable inexpensive and scalable ways to control light and heat in buildings. They took advantage of the optical switchability of PPCs in the solar wavelengths to regulate solar heating and daylighting, and extended the concept to thermal infrared wavelengths to modulate heat radiated by objects.

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Remarkable story of shock wave physics in post-World War II America

Physicists predicted the Hubble Space Telescope would see a rising vapor plume as the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet crashed into the far side of Jupiter in 1994. And sure enough, the plume produced by the impact matched their computational analysis.

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Composite metal foam outperforms aluminum for use in aircraft wings

The leading edges of aircraft wings have to meet a very demanding set of characteristics. New research shows that a combination of steel composite metal foam and epoxy resin has more desirable characteristics for use as a leading-edge material than the aluminum currently in widespread use.

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Ceramic industry should use carbon reducing cold sintering process says new research

A new techno-economic analysis shows that the energy intensive ceramic industry would gain both financial and environmental benefits if it moved to free the cold sintering process from languishing in labs to actual use in manufacturing everything from high tech to domestic ceramics.

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Bioprinting: Living cells in a 3D printer

A high-resolution bioprinting process has been developed: Cells can now be embedded in a 3D matrix printed with micrometer precision — at a printing speed of one meter per second, orders of magnitude faster than previously possible. Tissue growth and the behavior of cells can be controlled and investigated particularly well by embedding the cells in a delicate 3D framework. This is achieved using so called 'bioprinting' techniques.

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Why modified carbon nanotubes can help the reproducibility problem

Scientists have conducted an in-depth study on how carbon nanotubes with oxygen-containing groups can be used to greatly enhance the performance of perovskite solar cells. The newly discovered self-recrystallization ability of perovskite could lead to improvement of low-cost and efficient perovskite solar cells.

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All plastic waste could become new, high-quality plastic through advanced steam cracking

A research group has developed an efficient process for breaking down any plastic waste to a molecular level. The resulting gases can then be transformed back into new plastics – of the same quality as the original. The new process could transform today's plastic factories into recycling refineries, within the framework of their existing infrastructure.

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