Seashells Inspire New Superstrong Glass Composite

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November 09, 2021

Dear Reader, Nacre, better known as mother-of-pearl, is a beautiful, iridescent material that lines the shells of certain sea creatures. But this material's value goes beyond its appearance: it's also both strong and damage-resistant. And now its structure has inspired a sturdy new glass composite.

Sophie Bushwick, Associate Editor, Technology @sophiebushwick

Materials Science Seashells Inspire New Superstrong Glass Composite The novel material mimics the layered structure of nacre By Sophie Bushwick

Artificial Intelligence Why We Forgive Humans More Readily Than Machines When things go wrong, flexible moral intuitions cause us to judge computers more severely By César A. Hidalgo

Automobiles The New Deal Came Too Late for Electric Vehicles Lack of energy infrastructure explains the rise of the gasoline car By Josef Taalbi,Hana Nielsen

Automobiles Access to Electric Vehicles Is an Environmental Justice Issue We must build tomorrow's transportation infrastructure with equity at its core By Neha Palmer

Energy What Is a Smart Grid, and How Might One Protect Our Energy Future? Our electric grid is old and fraying, but new technology could insulate us from the possibility of widespread blackouts and cyberattacks. By Michael Tabb,Jeffery DelViscio,Andrea Gawrylewski

Quantum Computing 2-D Room-Temperature Magnets Could Unlock Quantum Computing A new magnetic material, just one atom thick, can manipulate electrons' spin for next-generation data storage By Joanna Thompson

Astronomy NASA's Hubble Space Telescope Goes Dark Due to Glitch The space agency is working to bring the observatory's science instruments back online By Meghan Bartels,SPACE.com

Planetary Science Can Digital Replica of Earth Save the World from Climate Disaster? A new virtual model of our planet could help resolve lingering climatic uncertainties By Tereza Pultarova,SPACE.com

Space Exploration At Long Last, the James Webb Space Telescope Is Ready for Launch The long-delayed successor to the Hubble Space Telescope is set to take flight in December By Clara Moskowitz,Chris Gunn

FROM THE STORE Scientific American Space & Physics, Volume 4, Issue 5

QUOTE OF THE DAY "The unavoidable flaw in China's personal data law is that it doesn't stop the state itself from being able to access its citizens' personal information. People living in China will still be some of the most surveilled and censored on the planet." Matt Burgess, Wired UK

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FROM THE ARCHIVE Mother-of-Pearl Holds the Key to Historical Ocean Temperatures Studying this iridescent material in mollusk shells may give scientist a more accurate way to track historical ocean temps By Kavya Balaraman,E&E News | December 2016

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