Researchers Saarland University (Saarbrücken, Germany), are studying metallic-glass alloys in experiments carried out on board the International Space Station (ISS). Working with the European Space Agency and the German Aerospace Center, in the fall of 2026, the team will investigate the properties of these alloys using hot, levitating droplets.
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In a new study, researchers from Yale University (New Haven, Conn.) show that a mold about half the size of a fingernail could lead to the development of stronger, higher-performing materials for airplanes and other uses. Their novel method provides unique insight into the microstructure and properties of a metal and eliminates the limitations of more traditional analysis.
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A research team at Pohang University of Science and Technology, South Korea developed an interferometric second-harmonic generation imaging approach capable of optically identifying hidden structural defects in thin films of hexagonal boron nitride, a promising material for next-generation semiconductor technologies.
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A multi-disciplinary team led by Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., has developed a material that is both tunable and efficient, marking an achievement that was one of the most elusive goals in microwave electronics.
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Materials scientists at Rice University, Houston Texas, have developed a custom Python-based software tool that uses high-resolution X-ray diffraction to rapidly analyze microscopic defects and calculate dislocation density in diamond and other advanced semiconductor materials.
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Japan’s Shimadzu Corporation fully acquired Czech electron microscopy pioneer Tescan, marking an important milestone in Tescan’s continued growth and evolution.
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Gatan Inc., Pleasanton, Calif., a business of AMETEK Inc., has launched the next-generation PECS III and Ilion III ion milling systems to provide high-quality, consistent sample preparation for advanced materials characterization and industrial laboratory workflows.
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Tescan, Czech Republic, unifies non-destructive Micro-CT, ultrafast laser processing, and high-precision FIB-SEM into a single, integrated workflow to accelerate root-cause determination in advanced semiconductor packaging while minimizing preparation-induced artifacts.
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JEOL Ltd., Japan, has launched global sales for LazEdge, a SEM system that integrates proprietary Hamamatsu Photonics laser technology directly into the specimen chamber for high-speed, high-quality sample processing.
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Researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Calif., created a new model for crystal defects at realistic temperatures. As most materials, especially metals and ceramics, are crystals, their atoms are arranged in three-dimensional lattices that repeat the same exact pattern, over and over again. But there’s a well-known saying in materials science: “Crystals are like people. It is the defects that tend to make them interesting.”
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To determine what Earth was like early in its lifetime, researchers turn to minerals called zircons, which are resilient against physical and chemical alteration over time and thus preserve a precise chemical record about the moments in which they were formed. Some of the oldest zircon crystals are 4.4 billion years old. Now, a new study at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) examines these most ancient zircon grains and discovers evidence for two key findings.
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Fraunhofer ICON Project “UltraGRAIN” demonstrates local microstructure control in metallic components during laser-based directed energy deposition, using pulsed-laser-induced melt pool excitation with potential for tailored products.
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Blacksmiths fire metals before hammering them, as heat always softens metal, making it more malleable and easier to reshape. Or does it? In a surprising new study, engineers from Northwestern University (Evanston, Ill.) discovered that, in extreme conditions, heat does not soften pure metals—it strengthens them.
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Stainless steel is widely known for its corrosion resistance. But when it is exposed to environments containing chloride ions, such as seawater, the risk of corrosion increases. Manufacturers typically grind the surface to smooth it. However, this finishing process reduces corrosion resistance even further. Researchers at Tohoku University in Japan have recently shed light on why this occurs.
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A new University of Florida study reveals how hidden flaws in design and installation of aluminum light poles on a Central Florida bridge contributed to their unexpected collapse when Hurricane Ian moved across Florida in 2022, even though wind speeds remained below the structures’ design limits.
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Researchers at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, U.K., have shown that consumer-grade 3D printers and low-cost materials can be used to produce multi-element optical components that enable super-resolution imaging, with each lens costing less than $1 to produce. The new fabrication approach could broaden access to fully customizable optical parts and enable completely new types of imaging tools.
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A research team at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University is teaming up with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory to test thin yet durable materials for hypersonic flight using an upgraded source of ultrabright x-rays.
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Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and their collaborators conducted experiments with gold to learn more about the unexpected structures and properties it would adopt under high pressure. The results, which show gold switching structure at 10 million times the Earth’s atmospheric pressure, are essential for planetary modeling and fusion science.
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New research shows that diamond—although known for being the best natural heat conductor on Earth—at the atomic scale it can briefly trap heat in unexpected ways. The findings could influence how scientists design diamond-based quantum technologies, including ultra-precise sensors and future quantum computers.
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Materials scientists at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities have found a way to create and control tiny internal “flaws” inside ultra-thin materials known as extended defects, that could give next-generation nanomaterials entirely new properties, opening the door to advances in nanotechnology.
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Hitachi High-Tech Corporation, Japan, has launched the Ultrahigh-Resolution Scanning Electron Microscope SU9600, which allows for highly accurate and precise observation of substances down to the sub-nano level.
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Photothermal Spectroscopy Corp., Santa Barbara, Calif., released stRAMos, a next-generation Raman microscope based on photothermal detection of Stimulated Raman scattering that delivers unmatched speed, sensitivity, spatial resolution, and multimodal imaging capabilities for life science and materials research.
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Microscopy images are indispensable in nanomaterials science. Yet scientists now fear that generative AI is diluting the significance of these images by polluting the pool with fake, AI-generated photos that are indistinguishable from the real ones. Even seasoned researchers find it increasingly difficult to distinguish between real microscopy images of nanomaterials and those created by AI as shown in a new study.
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Researchers from the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have discovered a new way to produce high-entropy alloys (HEAs), at near-room temperatures. Their technique gives users much more control of the alloy’s crystal structure and overall morphology compared with existing methods, opening the door for a new paradigm of custom-made HEAs.
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Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, have developed a new way to probe inside an atom’s nucleus, using the atom’s own electrons as “messengers” within a molecule.
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Scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) now have a new technique in their toolkit for nuclear forensics examinations, which is the art and science of extracting information about the provenance and history of nuclear materials.
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Imagic Bildverarbeitung AG and the Materials Engineering Center Saarland (MECS) of Zürich and Saarbrücken, respectively, entered into a strategic partnership in September. The collaboration combines MECS’s expertise in materials science, which bridges the gap between research and industry, with Imagic’s leading software expertise in microscopy, image analysis, and image data management.
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A team of international researchers have discovered a novel photothermal coherence tomography technique—frequency-multiplexed photothermal correlation tomography (FM-PCT)—that brings infrared thermography (IRT) from limited 2D imaging to 3D tomography.
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NASA has tapped a lunar rover built at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, to advance our understanding of water on the moon as it autonomously explores near the lunar south pole. MoonRanger will be among the payloads aboard a 2029 mission to the moon. The rover will carry a neutron spectrometer to study the lunar soil for traces of hydrogen, a good indicator of the presence of water, and demonstrate new levels of autonomous navigation on the moon.
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Carl Zeiss Microscopy GmbH, Germany, has acquired all equity shares of the Swiss company Pi Imaging Technology SA, developer of single-photon avalanche diode arrays and image sensors.
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