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Water soluble polymers, once reserved for commodity applications (i.e., shaving cream, emulsification processes, etc.) have emerged as valuable materials for medicine.  Combining synthetic polymers with therapeutic proteins and cancer drugs improves the “therapeutic index” of the drugs, preventing their fast elimination from the body, and improving their availability for treating the disease.  Emrick at the UMass Materials Research Science and Engineering Center found that ionic liquids

In this highlight, researchers at the University of Chicago MRSEC report the development of a polymeric, pluripotent material that can be tempered (akin to the process in metallurgy) to access a wide range of room temperature mechanical properties, from stiff and high strength to soft and extensible, from a single feedstock. The feedstock was composed of a benzalcyanoacetate-based Michael acceptor, a tetrathiol crosslinker, and a dithiol chain extender to form dynamic thia-Michael networks.

High-quality single crystals of Bi2Se3 grown via the Bridgeman technique.

The New England Workshop on the Mechanics of Materials and Structures, NEW.Mech, was  held at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA on September 25th, 2010. NEW.Mech was a one-day workshop that brought together the New England Mechanics community with an interest in exploring new directions on the Mechanics of Soft Materials and Structures and in sharing the latest advances in the field.  The workshop was modeled after the MRSEC-sponsored New England Complex Fluids Workshop.  It was very successful, with more than 200 participants,

Clathrate materials present a novel class of storage media for hydrogen. These unusual crystalline solids are comprised of a lattice of polyhedral cavities that can trap a range of different guest molecules, including hydrogen. We have successfully demonstrated that hydrogen molecules can occupy large cages of clathrate hydrates at higher pressures, covalently bonded silicon clathrate cages, and hydroquinone clathrates. Computer simulations have revealed the mechanisms of clathrate hydrate formation.

Special types of plastic gels that can be induced chemically to undergo self-oscillating changes in shape and color have been known for many years. Van Vliet and Balazs have now found that the oscillations of these self-beating gels can be controlled by their shape and size, as well as by externally applied forces. With change in chemistry, the gels can oscillate on their own from red to blue or green to yellow, for many hours. When these gels are made small enough (

Solar water splitting converts solar energy into chemical fuels that can be easily stored and transported. Silicon is already used on a large scale for photovoltaics, but it is unstable in the electrolytes used for water oxidation.