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Materials

rubber tapping

Environment

The world’s supply of rubber is in jeopardy. Can we find new sources?

Rubber is essential to modern life, but the trees that provide it could be wiped out by a deadly disease. Some scrubby weeds may provide the unlikely solution

Features
A sponge

Physics

Artificial sponges could pull uranium from seawater for nuclear power

News
wooden tower blocks

Technology

Our wooden future: making cars, skyscrapers and even lasers from wood

Features
plastic wood

Technology

To avert environmental disaster, we need to return to the trees

News

Environment

The US has started burning recycling but it should only be temporary

News
The new fabric

Technology

Heat-sensitive fabric cools you on hot days and warms you in the cold

News

Physics

Material made from citrus fruit peel could help clean up oil spills

News
hydrogel muscle

Physics

Self-growing material could make muscles that become stronger with use

News

Physics

Droplets don’t have to be round – here’s one squished into a square

News
A pile of clothes

Technology

Your old, unwanted clothes can be turned into building materials

Every year millions of tonnes of clothes are sent to landfill. A new project shows how they could be reused as tiles and panels for home interiors

News

Technology

What it’s like to play Call of Duty in a blacker-than-black room

Culture

Life

Mantis shrimps punch with the force of a bullet – and now we know how

News

Mind

New Call of Duty trials no-helmet immersion – using superblack paint

Culture

Health

Bandages laser-bonded to your skin may fix wounds better than stitches

News