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Blueprint for Robust Artificial Tissues: Synthetic Hydrogel Mimics Lobster Underbelly’s Stretch and Strength

Lead image: An MIT team has fabricated a hydrogel-based material that mimics the structure of the lobster’s underbelly, the toughest known hydrogel found in nature. The membrane’s structure could provide a blueprint for robust artificial tissues. A lobster’s underbelly is lined with a thin, translucent membrane that is both stretchy and surprisingly tough. This marine under-armor, as MIT engineers reported in 2019, is made from the toughest known hydrogel in nature, which also happens to be highly flexible. This combination of strength and stretch helps shield a lobster as it scrabbles across the seafloor, while also allowing it to flex…

A giant space rock demolished an ancient Middle Eastern city, possibly inspiring the Biblical story of Sodom

Lead image: Artist’s evidence-based depiction of the blast, which had the power of 1,000 Hiroshimas. (Image credit: Allen West and Jennifer Rice, CC BY-ND) As the inhabitants of an ancient Middle Eastern city now called Tall el-Hammam went about their daily business one day about 3,600 years ago, they had no idea an unseen icy space rock was speeding toward them at about 38,000 mph (61,000 kph). Flashing through the atmosphere, the rock exploded in a massive fireball about 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) above the ground. The blast was around 1,000 times more powerful than the Hiroshima atomic bomb. The…

The sun has spots. Here’s what we’ve learned about them so far.

Of all of the features associated with our sun, sunspots are by far the most conspicuous. Long before the invention of the telescope, the Chinese Chronicles recorded numerous sightings of dark areas on the face of the sun, apparently seen when the sun’s light was significantly dimmed by clouds and haze, especially around sunrise or sunset. The Chinese often referred to these dark areas as “flying birds.” When Galileo looked at the sun through his crude telescope in 1610, he was blinded for a week, and his eyesight remained permanently affected. But he came up with a solution: He darkened…

Newly Created High-Performance Solid-State Battery Even Surprises the Engineers Who Created It

Engineers create a high performance all-solid-state battery with a pure-silicon anode. Engineers created a new type of battery that weaves two promising battery sub-fields into a single battery. The battery uses both a solid state electrolyte and an all-silicon anode, making it a silicon all-solid-state battery. The initial rounds of tests show that the new battery is safe, long lasting, and energy dense. It holds promise for a wide range of applications from grid storage to electric vehicles. The battery technology is described in the September 24, 2021 issue of the journal Science. University of California San Diego nanoengineers led…

The Next Generation of Nanobionic Light-Emitting Plants

Lead image: Using specialized nanoparticles embedded in plant leaves, MIT engineers have created a novel light-emitting plant that can be charged by an LED. In this image, the green parts are the nanoparticles that have been aggregated on the surface of spongy mesophyll tissue within the plant leaves. Credit: Courtesy of the researchers Using nanoparticles that store and gradually release light, engineers create light-emitting plants that can be charged repeatedly. Using specialized nanoparticles embedded in plant leaves, MIT engineers have created a light-emitting plant that can be charged by an LED. After 10 seconds of charging, plants glow brightly for…