An MIT researcher has developed a technique that provides a new way of manipulating heat, allowing it to be controlled much as light waves can be manipulated by lenses and mirrors.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) recently announced an award to the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) and its partners to establish a new NSF Engineering Research Center (ERC) focused on nanoscale multiferroic devices that offer unprecedented capabilities to electromagnetic components.

Globally, the quest has been on to find ultra-high-strength composites, leading scientists at the University of Southampton’s Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) to investigate light, ultra-high-strength nanowires that are not compromised by defects.

A novel clay-based coating may point the way to a new generation of “green” flame retardants.

Researchers have developed a “soft template infiltration” technique for fabricating free-standing piezoelectrically active ferroelectric nanotubes and other nanostructures from PZT.