A slide ring material (SRM) paint is able to heal a majority of surface scratches by itself. When disturbed by minor abrasions, the paint’s cross-linked molecules retain mobility, and the oleophilic polyrotaxane coating redistributes its tension to slide back into place along the polymer chains, erasing the...

Springs, polymers, and pneumatic or hydraulic devices react to impacts, but a recently developed damping technology calculates and controls the forces that should be applied. Within the device, two electromagnets with different polarities are put in contact, and the repulsion force is used against the forces...

An organization seeks a low-cost way to render dirty, contaminant-filled water clean enough to use for washing or sanitary purposes. The treatment system should reduce dirt particles, lower pH levels, and remove surfactants like linear alkylbenzene sulphonate (LAS). A large water treatment plant...

A company is interested in licensing a film material that can be printed, sprayed, or transferred onto an anodized aluminum surface, such that the applied layer prevents oxygen from reaching and reacting with copper or other colored metals that are electro-deposited into the alumina pores. The...

After a brief career teaching at University College London in the U.K., Dr. Robert Youngquist returned to the U.S. and went to work as a contractor at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in 1988. He established KSC’s Optical Instrumentation Laboratory,...

Matter and antimatter are almost identical, but their one crucial difference, an opposite charge, can cause mutual annihilation when the two are mixed. So if there's plenty of matter here in the world, where is its counterpart? When the universe formed, matter and antimatter should have been produced in equal...

Like many other alluring things on this Earth, video games can toe the line between good and evil. They are notoriously addicting (sometimes to their users' detriment) — but that quality also allows them to function as a successful medium in rehabilitation and therapy applications. “There are some people who claim that...