CU Boulder engineers found that staple-shaped particles can tangle together to form materials that are both strong and tough, yet can quickly come apart when shaken or vibrated. This approach could lead to new materials for buildings, robotics and manufacturing that are durable, adaptable and easy to disassemble or recycle.

 

As climate change intensifies heatwaves around the world, soils are increasingly exposed to repeated drying and rewetting cycles that can mobilize toxic contaminants. A new study shows that a specially engineered biochar material can keep mercury locked safely in soil even under these stressful environmental conditions.

From lazy ripples to towering breakers, the mechanics of ocean waves should vary widely from one planet to another, according to a model developed by scientists at MIT and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.

School at the University of São Paulo (Brazil) aims to strengthen proficiency in advanced electrochemical techniques relevant to next-generation batteries, catalytic interfaces, and sensors. Register by June 15.

Syracuse University scientists learned how a flexible, reshaping protein creates temporary sorting and storing centers in stressed cells to potentially protect their health. A companion study found that disrupting this process could be linked to ALS.

Astronomers are puzzled by the existence of extremely massive black holes—up to a billion times the mass of the Sun—forming less than a billion years after the Big Bang, far earlier than current theories predict. Standard models of black hole growth cannot explain how they became so large so quickly. New research suggests that energy from decaying dark matter may have altered early galaxies’ chemistry, allowing some to collapse directly into massive black holes instead of forming stars.

Astronomers at The University of New Mexico have recently published new research confirming three bodies orbiting the dynamic exoplanet system TOI-201. They include a super-earth (TOI-201 d), a warm Jupiter (TOI-201 b) and a brown dwarf (TOI-201 c). Ismael Mireles, a PhD candidate in the UNM Department of Physics and Astronomy advised by Professor Diana Dragomir, led the research. The paper titled, “Uncovering the Rapidly Evolving Orbits of the Dynamic TOI-201 System” is published in Science Advances.