3D printed Graphene Aerogel, stronger than steel and 99.8% lighter
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Tomorrow’s materials will be lighter, stronger and more flexible than todays, and that opens up a whole host of new applications. The world’s lightest 3D printed structure, a Graphene Aerogel, is so lightweight that it can be placed on top of a cotton ball...
This is the world’s first 3D printed carbon fiber bike
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Carbon fiber’s light weight and superior strength make it idea for many applications, but up until now it’s been expensive and very difficult to work with to create products, that’s all about to change. Modern carbon fibre bikes, stiffer and stronger than their metal...
BMW and MIT create the world’s first 3D printed inflatable material
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Being able to 3D print materials with different and unique properties opens up a whole new range of use cases and applications, from car design to implanted medical devices, to soft robots and beyond. A two year collaboration between BMW and MIT has produced...
Milk and dairy products without the cow, Perfect Day re-invents dairy
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The way we produce food today is, for the most part, hugely wasteful and has a huge impact on the environment, vertical farms, clean meat, and now other “animal free” products are starting to disrupt the status quo. Over the past year we’ve seen...
Japanese team show off their new flexible skin display technology
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Displays will one day be more than just slabs of glass stuck to our devices, and this is another step in that journey. Palm reading could take on a whole new meaning, thanks to a new invention from Japan in the form of a...
Fantastic self-healing material regenerates after suffering “catastrophic damage”
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF There are lots of dangerous industrial applications, and other use cases, where equipment of all kinds suffer extreme wear and tear, this new material could extend the life of products by multiples of time. The idea of creating self-repairing machines has been a popular...
Stab these soft robots and they’ll self-heal instantly
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Materials are an integral part of many products, and ones that can self-heal will help extend the life and usefulness of the products they’re used to make. Robots already seem to have a great bag of tricks to draw on. They can balance, run,...
Revolutionary Nano-antenna is hundreds times smaller than today’s state of the art
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF It’s not just our devices that are getting smaller and more powerful, the components that make our devices are also going through their own revolutions. Recently I discussed how a new Metalense breakthrough from Harvard University will help us realise atomic sized camera lenses,...
UC Berkeley’s atom thin display paves the way for truly invisible displays
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF We’re traditionally used to displays being bulky and stiff, but increasingly scientists are finding new ways to create new types of displays that break the status quo, and which will open up millions of new use cases, from health monitoring to way beyond. We’ll...
Scientists create edible electronics using Graphene to improve food safety
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Being able to quickly and easily tag foods and other products with sensors and other electronics that can be safely eaten could improve food safety and security. James Tour believes anything can be turned into the wonder material, Graphene, a material so versatile it...
New eye drops use nanotech to fix faulty vision and eliminate eye glasses
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Millions of people around the world have eye problems, whether they’re severe, or slight, but now a new nanoparticle solution looks like it could help users bin eye glasses for good. Today there are a number of ways, from using bionic eyes, gene editing...
Under Armour’s new clothes help heal your body while sleeping
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As we develop new materials, and find new ways to use them for our benefit, one day in the future we’ll suddenly discover that clothes can do much more than clothe us. Could the right clothes, in this case pyjamas, help athletes, and the...
MIT invents a 3D printed dye that lets objects change colour on demand
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF There is nothing to say that tomorrow’s products can’t change their colour, or even their functionality, on demand, and this is one of the first steps in helping achieve that goal. Do you remember the colour changing dress that took the internet by storm and went...
Molecular programming breakthrough could create better molecular assemblers
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As we learn how to create and build new, smaller molecular sized machines and robots being able to manipulate matter at the molecular scale will become increasingly important. Over the past couple of months there have been world firsts in the creation of DNA...
New theory let’s scientists bring light to a standstill
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The manipulation of light is becoming an increasingly important factor in the development of new communications, computing, energy and entertainment systems, and our mastery of it is getting better all the time. Light is famously fast, normally travels at nearly 300,000 kilometres per second through...
Chinese scientists unveil a new material that heals itself like human skin
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Up until now most self-healing materials have either been hard, or soft, and that narrows their number of applications, this new material is the first to have the best of both worlds. Imagine a smartphone, or window, that can heal from cuts and scratches...
Harvard’s Metalense breakthrough could pave the way for real invisibility cloaks
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Our ability to manipulate light is improving with every passing month, now a new Metalense breakthrough could help scientists create the first generation of genuine cloaking devices. For as long as human beings have been writing science fiction the dream of being able to...
China spends $300million to buy lab produced meats from Israel
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Food production is undergoing a revolution, and technology is helping us move away from what many experts and governments are increasingly seeing as outdated farming techniques to help us feed Earth’s growing population. Following on from a recent announcement that US start up Plenty...
Scientists have smashed the record for the world’s most powerful magnet
WHY THIS MATTES IN BRIEF Magnets are the unsung heroes of the modern era, they help produce our energy and make engines work, make MRI machines possible and make futuristic transportation technologies like the Hyperloop feasible, and developments in the field drive innovation across a variety of sectors. If...
World first as scientists manage to make carbon fiber using plants, not oil
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The knock on impact of being able to produce cheap carbon fiber at scale could help us create stronger, lighter drones, prosthetics and robots, as well as improve the fuel economy of all manner of vehicles, from aircraft to cars. Carbon fiber is the...
