Tag: materials

Dispatches From The North Pole: The Science of Santa’s Sleigh

Monday, December 6th, 2010 | Tags: , , ,

Editor’s Note: This is the second in a series of occasional dispatches from Dr. Larry Silverberg, a researcher at NC State who is leading a visiting scholars program at Santa’s Workshop-North Pole Labs (NPL). Dr. Silverberg is an expert in unified field theory and is accompanied by four other mechanical and aerospace engineers: Drs. Mohammad

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Building a Better Sun-Trap

Monday, November 29th, 2010 | Tags: , , ,

How does the saying go? Build a better solar cell and the world will beat a path to your efficiently temperature-controlled and environmentally friendly door? Okay, maybe that’s not exactly the saying, but you’ve got to admit that the idea of cheaper, more efficient solar technology is at least as compelling today as the idea

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How Long Should DNA Strands Be?

Thursday, October 28th, 2010 | Tags: , , , , ,

This is not a purely abstract question (pun intended). Complementary strands of DNA are drawn to one another like magnets and iron filings – a trait that has created the emerging field of DNA self-assembly. But research, and industrial application, in this area has been hampered by a lack of reliability in how the DNA

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Introducing the Superman of Aluminums

Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010 | Tags: ,

It can’t leap tall buildings in a single bound or stop a speeding bullet, but new aluminum material studied at NC State is as strong as steel. NC State’s Dr. Yuntian Zhu, a materials science and engineering professor, worked with a team of researchers across the globe to create an aluminum alloy – a mixture

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The Microneedle And (Diagnosing) The Damage Done

Wednesday, August 25th, 2010 | Tags: , , , ,

A forthcoming paper from Faraday Discussions shows that scientists have been able to create hollow microneedles that can be used to inject quantum dots into skin. Quantum dots are emerging as powerful diagnostic tools for cancers (among other diseases), so this could be a significant advance in medical technology used to diagnose medical conditions. In

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