Program Highlights for year 2014
Topological insulators (TIs) are a novel class of quantum materials characterized by an insulating bulk and metallic conducting states at the surface. This metallic behavior however, can be changed by applying a magnetic field or, equivalently, by coupling the TI to a ferromagnetic material.
The thermal properties of oxides are of interest for a number of important applications, including thermoelectrics, thermal barrier coatings, memristors, and fuel cells. MIT MRSEC researchers demonstrated, for the first time, the controllable impact of oxygen defects on the thermal conductivity of a reducible oxide.
Nearly 300 postdoctoral researchers and graduate students attended masterclasses on the visual communication of materials science and engineering between October 2013 and January 2014.
Topological superconductors
are a distinct form of matter that is predicted to host boundary Majorana
fermions. These quasi-particles are the emergent condensed matter analogs of
the putative elementary spin-1/2 particles originally proposed by Ettore
Majorana in the 1930’s with the intriguing property of being their own
Immucor,
Inc., a global leader in transfusion and transplantation diagnostics, has
acquired Sentilus,
Inc., a company focused on developing a novel, inkjet-printed antibody
microarray-based technology called Femtoarrays™.
Terminator 2 is widely remembered for its metal shape-shifting villain. Impervious to bullets, explosives, and fire, theT-1000 robot was capable of changing shape at will. Researchers at the North Carolina State University have taken a step towards making science fiction a reality by developing a technique for controlling the surface tension of liquid metals using very low voltages.
Pages