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14 news posts in Frontiers in Materials

Featured news

26 May 2023

Termite mounds reveal secret to creating ‘living and breathing’ buildings that use less energy

By Mischa Dijkstra, Frontiers science writer Macrotermes termite mound in Namibia. Image credit: D. Andréen Scientists studied the ‘egress complex’ of Macrotermes michaelseni termites from Namibia, which appears to promote moisture regulation and gas exchange. They showed that the layout of this lattice-like network of tunnels can intercept wind around the termite mound to create turbulence inside, which can power ventilation and control the interior climate. These properties can be copied to create a comfortable climate in human buildings with little energy. Among the approximately 2,000 known species of termites, some are ecosystem engineers. The mounds built by some genera, for example Amitermes, Macrotermes, Nasutitermes, and Odontotermes, reach up to eight meters high, making them some of the world’s largest biological structures. Natural selection has been at work improving the ‘design’ of their mounds over tens of millions of years. What might human architects and engineers learn if they go to the termites and consider their ways? In a new study in Frontiers in Materials, researchers showed how termite mounds can teach us to create comfortable interior climates for our buildings that don’t have the carbon footprint of air conditioning. “Here we show that the ‘egress complex’, an intricate network […]

Environment

04 May 2023

Ill-fitting gear puts female firefighters at risk: Five Frontiers articles you won’t want to miss

By Deborah Pirchner, Frontiers science writer Image: CAL FIRE_Official/Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) At Frontiers, we bring some of the world’s best research to a global audience. But with tens of thousands of articles published each year, it’s impossible to cover all of them. Here are just five amazing papers you may have missed. Ill-fitting gear increases female firefighters’ risk on the job Over the past years, the number of female firefighters has been rising steadily. As of 2020, women make up 9% of firefighters in the US. Despite this, the gear they are wearing is still made for male bodies. Using 3D body scans of 189 female firefighters, US-based researchers have studied this gear to improve comfort, mobility, and safety for female firefighters. They published their results in Frontiers in Materials. The scientists found that female firefighters are wearing personal protective clothing (PPC) with significant fit issues. This reduces comfort, restricts mobility and increases safety risks on the job, they wrote. Between 15% and 21% of female firefighters were found to intentionally leave off a part of their PPC, mostly pants and coats, at least ‘sometimes,’ if not ‘nearly always’. The researchers also identified where the highest potential for design […]

Engineering

07 Nov 2022

5 articles you need to check out on the future of materials research

By Angharad Brewer Gillham, Frontiers science writer Image: Shutterstock.com In a fast-moving field of research like materials science, it can be difficult to keep up with the latest breakthroughs. Now at Frontiers, we highlight just five of the latest research articles to shed more light on the way we build our world around us, published by top researchers in the Frontiers in Materials Research Topic ‘Horizons in Materials’. Growing green technology: from trees to tech Scientists aiming to power the appliances of the future are developing special phenolic compounds from resins instead of petrol – a first step towards organic electrodes. Since biomass is the only green, renewable source of carbon materials, carbon-based electrodes for new-generation metal-ion batteries could be a more eco-friendly replacement for lithium-ion batteries. Some of the methods to make these compounds currently available are problematic because they require dangerously high temperatures and pressures and hazardous chemicals, but new methods are being developed which use mechanical forces instead. If these compounds can be developed into renewable sources for electronics, Dr Javier Quílez-Bermejo and his team at the Université de Lorraine point out, the potential for revolutionizing electronic devices would be huge, opening the way for greener fuel […]

Frontiers in Materials is delighted to announce Professor Nicola Pugno as its new Field Chief Editor. Professor Pugno will lead our international Editorial Board of experts and oversee the strategic development of our Journal, taking it from one strength to the next.

Frontiers news

10 Oct 2017

Frontiers in Materials welcomes Professor Nicola Pugno as its new Field Chief Editor

Frontiers in Materials is delighted to announce Professor Nicola Pugno as its new Field Chief Editor for Frontiers in Materials

Engineering

08 Oct 2015

Smart physics models for designing new glass compositions

Frontiers Science Hero: John Mauro from Frontiers on Vimeo. Frontiers Science Hero, John Mauro is Frontiers’ Chief Editor of Glass Science. He is also Senior Research Manager in Glass Research at industrial glass company Corning Inc. in Corning, NY, USA. A Fellow of the American Ceramic Society, Mauro is also the co-inventor of several new glass compositions. “If it’s glass, I’m interested,” says Mauro, in an interview with Frontiers where he shares how his passion for glass initially started. “I first fell in love with glass when I was 6 years old,” he says. Better understanding the structure and the properties of matter, makes it possible to produce glass with better characteristics for industrial applications. “Glass is well known as one of the most difficult problems in condensed matter physics,” he says. As part of his job, John Mauro builds new glass models, together with colleagues, to understand the material’s behaviour. These models can, in turn, be used to efficiently design new glass compositions. But John Mauro is not only interested in the scientific aspect of the material. He also loves the artistic side of glass applications. In this interview, he tells us about Corning’s work with artists to help him “learn […]