Natural rubber, one of the world's most widely manufactured biomaterials, has been used by humans for thousands of years. Its resistance to crack growth, however, hasn't improved much for decades. 

Until now. Materials researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences have devised a way to produce natural rubber that retains its key properties of stretchiness and durability while greatly improving its ability to resist cracking, even after repeated cycles of use.  

The work is published in Nature Sustainability and is led by Professor Zhigang Suo.

Researchers from the University of South China and the Shanghai Advanced Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences carried out precise measurements of the photoneutron cross-section of ⁶³Cu using quasi-monochromatic and energy-tunable γ-beams generated by the Shanghai Laser Electron Gamma Source (SLEGS). High-precision (4%) data of the photoneutron cross-section of ⁶³Cu were obtained. The gamma-ray strength function (γSF) of the ⁶³Cu(γ, n) reaction was extracted, and the cross-section of its inverse reaction, ⁶²Cu(n, γ), was successfully calculated. This research provides important support for the measurement and evaluation of photonuclear reaction data, and offers a new approach for extracting the neutron capture cross-sections of some unstable nuclides.

Cosmic radiation occasionally contains enormous amounts of energy, but we don’t know why or where this radiation comes from. New research may have found the answer.

A study published in Joule demonstrates a fast, solvent-free process that boosts efficiency and operational stability of perovskite solar cells—compatible with industrial-scale manufacturing

Near-infrared fluorescent dyes hold promise for applications like bioimaging, solar energy, and more, but their synthesis is often complex. Researchers at Shibaura Institute of Technology have developed redox-switchable pyrazinacene-based dyes using an intramolecular charge transfer design. This approach enables tunable fluorescence from the visible to near/short-wave-infrared regions and supports applications such as real-time redox sensing in cells. This is useful for monitoring cellular redox processes and imbalances.

A team demonstrates, at laboratory scale, that a variation in the molecular geometry of a compound can make a difference in the performance of perovskite solar cells, an alternative to silicon solar panels due to their low cost and ease of manufacturing