In search of going greener with battery technology, collaborating principle investigators Igor Luzinov and Gleb Yushin, of their respective Schools of Materials Science and Engineering at Clemson University and Georgia Tech, have identified a new polymer known as alginate that is capable of boosting battery capacity and performance. The material works as a more efficient binder of silicon or graphitic nanoparticles in the production of battery electrodes – cathodes and anodes. Furthermore, alginate, which is produced by and extracted from rapidly growing brown algae, offers a non-toxic and environmentally friendly alternative to current battery technologies. The findings are published in a recent report in Science.

Over the past few years there has been an explosion of graphene-related news being reported throughout all avenues of media yet many people are unaware of what graphene is and why there is so much fuss over this mystery material.

So, what is graphene?

Talk about creativity! We are excited to bring you another year of the Penn State Materials Visualization competition. They get better with each year, and the technology keeps growing and unfolding, or maybe it just looks that way from seeing the decreasing scale of unfolding ends at a single 500 micron square, that came in 3rd for visual appeal. See the entire gallery.

Researchers at Kansas State University have developed a new mechanical adhesive whose unique properties might make it well suited to be in every astronaut's toolbox. Unlike traditional chemical adhesives which can become brittle when moisture is removed, this new adhesive - made from peptides - actually forms a stronger bond.

In the latest issue of the American Chemistry Society's journal Langmuir, Bar-Ilan University researcher, Aharon Gedanken and colleagues report successful lab tests of a material intended for use as a new food packaging material.

Graphene holds such promise for exciting new technologies that it is constantly being observed, tested, and strained by researchers like Chris Marianetti, Assistant Professor in Columbia Universities Engineering Department of applied physics. In a recently accepted paper published in the journal of Physical Review Letters, Marianetti demonstrates that when Graphene is subjected to equal strain in all directions it becomes mechanically unstable.

Marianetti says this failure mechanism is a novel soft-mode phonon instability. A phonon is a collective vibrational mode of atoms within a crystal, similar to a wave in a liquid. The fact that a phonon becomes "soft" under tensile strain means that the system can lower its energy by distorting the atoms along the vibrational mode and transitioning to a new crystalline arrangement. Under sufficient strain, graphene develops a particular soft-mode that causes the honeycomb arrangement of carbon atoms to be driven towards isolated hexagonal rings. This new crystal is structurally weaker, resulting in the mechanical failure of the graphene sheet.

Europe's latest public opinion poll shows concern yet optimism toward emerging technologies and new fields within science. A clear optimistic trend appears in this latest report, "Europeans and biotechnology in 2010 Winds of change?". This is of course balanced with a public concern for safety and a need for further public awareness on some topics.

We were drawn to Sarah Eichfeld's research images from the Penn State 2009 MVC competion. We wrote her and asked if she would be interested in sending over some additional photos to showcase more of her research with Silicon Nanowires. Eichfeld uses images to look through hundreds of results from her research.

In the May Issue of the Journal of Physical Chemistry letters, a research group at Caltech's W.M Keck Laboratories reported new findings on the make up of the outer most layer of water molecules.

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) announced new grants totaling $79 million that was given through the HHMI undergraduate program, and the HHMI Professors program.

Fifty research universities in 30 states and the District of Columbia will be awarded a total of $70 million through the undergraduate program. The schools will use the grants, which range from $800,000 to $2 million over four years, to develop creative, research-based courses and curricula; to give more students vital experience working in the lab; and to improve science teaching from elementary school through college.