- How did Barkla's mapping of characteristic X-rays give chemists a non-destructive way to identify elements?
Materials Science and Engineering
The design and properties of engineered materials.
- How did Fritz Pregl redesign combustion analysis to work with milligram-sized samples instead of grams?
- Why was it previously so difficult to chemically analyze rare or biological compounds before Pregl's methods?
- What kinds of modern instruments trace their lineage back to Pregl's quantitative organic microanalysis?
- What early applications did the military find for Teflon before it became a household non-stick coating?
- What properties of nylon made it useful for products as different as parachutes, toothbrushes, and surgical sutures?
- How did Néel's ferrimagnetic materials become the basis for magnetic data recording?
- What structural properties give carbon nanotubes their exceptional tensile strength and tunable conductivity?
- How does a microcapsule layer on a magazine insert release fragrance when rubbed?
- What materials went into the construction of Hurtubise's bear-proof suit?
- How does microencapsulated fragrance stay bonded to fabric and release slowly over a working day?
- What role did arsenic in the statue's alloy play in keeping pigeons away?
- What properties make graphene unusual compared to other known materials?
- What everyday hazards could set the treated fabric smouldering or detonating?
- How did the Stardust spacecraft use aerogel to capture particles from comet Wild 2?
- What made Kao's purity requirements for glass seem impossible to the engineers of his time?
- What property of tequila's ethanol-water ratio makes it suitable for depositing diamond film?
- Why isn't tequila-derived diamond film a practical alternative to industrial diamond synthesis methods?
- How did Geim and Novoselov actually isolate a single-atom-thick sheet of carbon?
- What physical properties make graphene stronger than steel and more conductive than copper?
- How did Eren, Bebber, and Norris test whether a frozen faecal knife could actually butcher an animal?
- What happened when the researchers tried to cut with the knives they made?
- Why does this finding matter for designers of control panels, medicine bottles, and door handles?
- What design rules did Kitagawa, Robson, and Yaghi work out for controlling the pore geometry of metal-organic frameworks?
- What ceramic materials are used in FDM filaments and what applications does each target, such as zirconia for dental use and PZT for piezoelectric devices?
- How does the orientation of carbon nanotubes within the polymer matrix (aligned axially, aligned radially, or randomly dispersed) affect stress transfer in nano-reinforced polymer composites?
- What role does sequential spin-coating of PVA and polystyrene layers play in fabricating efficient pigment-loaded Bragg reflectors?
- How does silane coupling agent (KH550) treatment of wood flour compare to acetic anhydride treatment in their effects on the mechanical properties of FDM-printed PLA biocomposites?
- Why do surface treatments like silane coupling and acetic anhydride improve water resistance in wood flour/PLA biocomposites?
- What practical processing considerations, such as particle size and print speed, affect the quality of FDM-printed wood-PLA filaments?