Molecular teamwork makes the organic dream work

Researchers at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology discovered a way to trigger this cooperative behavior in organic semiconductors. The energy- and time-saving phenomenon may help enhance the performance of smartwatches, solar cells, and other organic electronics.

WHY TOOTHPASTE AND CEMENT HARDEN OVER TIME

Cements, clays, soils, inks, paints, and even toothpaste. Many paste materials, also known as dense colloidal suspensions, stiffen as they age. Structural dynamics, or changes in the loads the materials undergo over time, are partly responsible for this change, but for decades, experts have suspected that there’s more going on inside these materials. Now, a University of Delaware professor and an international team of researchers have discovered a process called contact-controlled aging that explains some age-related changes in paste materials.

Six Berkeley Lab Scientists Named AAAS Fellows

Six scientists from the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have been named Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).