Mother-of-pearl, the iridescent layer in the shells of some mollusks, inspired a Rice University study that will help scientists and engineers judge the ultimate strength, stiffness and toughness of ...

Spiders and silkworms are masters of materials science, but scientists are finally catching up. Silks are among the toughest materials known, stronger and less brittle, pound for pound, than steel.

The mechanical strength and toughness of engineering materials are often mutually exclusive, posing challenges for material design and selection. To address this, a research team from The Hong Kong ...

In these examples, a common strategy is the fusion of soft and hard elements (porous materials are considered an extreme case). Spider webs are such an example, with the web consisting of hard radial ...

As structures made of metal get smaller - as their dimensions approach the micrometer scale (millionths of a meter) or less - they get stronger. Scientists discovered this phenomenon 50 years ago ...

As light as possible and as strong as possible at the same time. These are the requirements for modern lightweight materials, such as those used in aircraft construction and the automotive industry. A ...

The strength–ductility trade-off has been a long-standing dilemma in materials science. This has limited the potential of many structural materials, steels in particular. Here we report a way of ...

A study conducted at Columbia University has revealed that even when stitched together from much smaller fragments, large sheets of graphene still retain much of their mechanical properties. The ...

A groundbreaking new material bends the rules of physics by combining surprising strength with impressive stretch. Scientists have long faced a trade-off in materials science: the stiffer something is ...

[How to Mechatronics] on YouTube endeavored to create a comprehensive guide comparing the various factors that affect the performance of 3D printed gears. Given the numerous variables involved, this ...

The most critical aspect of machine design? Material selection, according to Cameron Washak, engineering standards and ...

There’s a method to modeling cracking in brittle materials. The strength of teeth is told on the scale of millimeters. Porcelain smiles are kind of like ceramics — except that while china plates ...