Olympus, Valley, Pa., released LEXT OLS4100 laser confocal microscope system, designed to deliver nanometer-level imaging, accurate 3D measurement, and outstanding surface roughness analysis. It features auto brightness and a new high-speed stitching mode. Engineered to meet a growing demand for increased measurement precision and wider observation applicability, OLS4100 offers advanced measurement performance at ten-nanometer resolution with a variety of user-friendly performance parameters.
It was a result so unexpected that Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, researchers initially thought it must be a mistake: Under certain conditions, putting a cracked piece of metal under tension-that is, exerting a force that would be expected to pull it apart-has the reverse effect, causing the crack to close and its edges to fuse together. The surprising finding could lead to self-healing materials that repair incipient damage before it has a chance to spread.
Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, Texas, is working on a $1.5 million, three-year project awarded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to develop novel technologies for depositing thin films. The contract award is under DARPA’s Local Control of Materials Synthesis (LoCo) program, which is investigating non-thermal approaches for depositing thin-film coatings onto the surfaces of a variety of materials.
The honor of Fellow of the Society was established to provide recognition to members for distinguished contributions in the field of materials science and engineering, and to develop a broadly based forum for technical and professional leaders to serve as advisors to the Society.
A material’s nanostructure is decisive in determining how resistant it is against corrosion Corrosion eats away 75 billion euros of economic output annually in Germany alone. But it may soon be possible to better assess which steels and other alloys will be affected, and how to limit the damage: An international team led by scientists from the Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung GmbH in Düsseldorf analyzed an amorphous steel comprising iron, chromium, molybdenum, boron, and carbon.
