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Artists have always tried to embrace new materials and new technology. But today, few artists seem aware of the latest developments in materials science, which may help them to understand and exploit the dynamic nature of the media they work with.
For diamond to be a viable semiconductor it must be possible to change its conductivity by adding impurities — known as dopants. With the discovery of a new dopant that generates electron conductivity at room temperature, diamond emerges as an electronic-grade material.
New ways to interact with biological cells in vitro offer greater levels of control over their location and milieu — much as they would experience in real tissues in vivo. Such microscale control reveals new insights into their biology and may lead to new technologies.
Understanding plastic motion of solids — in which atoms change their neighbours as they move — is complicated because it is discontinuous and does not conserve energy. An elegant study of vortex dynamics in superconductors provides new insights.
The storage density of computer hard drives has increased to the point that magnetic recording media is cheaper than paper. Yet there are limits to this technology. As they decrease in size, magnetic 'bits' become thermally unstable, providing a challenge to further miniaturization.
The porous structure of synthetic zeolites is key to their catalytic performance. A new germanosilicate with large interconnected channels of different sizes is capable of unique catalytic selectivity.
Much of the interest in carbon nanotubes arises from the interesting interplay between their helical structure and electronic properties. With greater understanding of the way in which mechanical strain changes their conductance, it may soon be possible to continuously tune the electromechanical response of nanotubes.