Episode 046

Spray-on windshield coatings that repel rain are really slick: they consist of a thin film of silicone, the same rubbery material used as caulking around the home. Silicones are hydrophobic, which means that they repel water, but some materials repel water so strongly that they are called superhydrophobic....

Episode 045

In nanotechnology, the big ideas involve really small things, such as quantum dots. Quantum dots are very small chunks of matter that can be tuned to absorb or emit light of different colors simply by changing the size of the dot...

Episode 044

Making beer by fermentation of barley and hops has been around for centuries. But could nanotechnology improve the process? Recently, to help with making beer, scientists have developed nanostructures called BioBots...

Episode 043

Have you ever wished you could get needed medical injections without being poked with a needle? Well, instead of using needles, hand-held devices called jet injectors use high-pressure puffs of gases or liquids to deliver medicines just under the skin...

Episode 042

Skinned knees are bad enough, but why is taking a bandage off sometimes as painful as the original accident? Well, when moms (and doctors) treat a large skin wound...

Episode 041

Cleaning up environmental pollutants is a big problem that needs "out of the box" answers. Recently, scientists have been investigating a new kind of material called a metal-organic framework or MOF for water purification.

Episode 040 When scientists take pictures or movies of atom-sized objects, they often use a T.E.M. a type of electron microscope that transmits an electron beam through the sample. At first, however, only solids could have their picture taken, because liquids tend to evaporate into the vacuum that the electron beam needs to travel through.

Episode 039

If you enjoy comics or superhero movies, you've probably heard of someone who's just a genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist when you take away his metal suit. But our superhero admitted that he liked the name iron man, even though the fictional suit was actually made of gold-titanium alloy.

Episode 038

Cell phones and other mobile electronic devices are everywhere. Manufacturing them in large numbers, however, depends on the availability of rare elements that increasingly are in short supply. For example, the light emitting material in display screens must be situated between two layers of electrodes, and one of these electrodes must be transparent.

Episode 037

You can light fires with wood, but how about wood that emits light without burning? Scientists from New Zealand recently took thin sheets of balsa wood and extracted them with a solvent to dissolve away some of the more soluble components. They then filled the holes in the resulting porous, spongy solid with nano-sized luminescent quantum dots.