Thirty years ago, a botanist in Germany had a simple wish: to see the inner workings of woody plants without dissecting them. By bleaching away the pigments in plant cells, Siegfried Fink managed to ...

Researchers have developed a quick and easy way to turn the wood-based bioproduct lignin into nanoparticles that can create a transparent coating with anti-fog properties or a colorful antireflective ...

Becoming invisible usually requires magic. For some thumb-sized squid, though, all it takes is a little genetic tweaking. Once these squid are genetically altered, "they're really hard to spot," even ...

Transparent wood is the most recent novel development that could replace conventional glass or plastic windows. While glass and plastics are transparent and can be made to provide structural support, ...

Scientists at Rice University and the University of Houston have created a powerful new material by guiding bacteria to grow cellulose in aligned patterns, resulting in sheets with the strength of ...

Ubiquitous Energy and Michigan State University researchers have created a fully transparent solar concentrator, which could turn any window or sheet of glass (like your smartphone's screen) into a ...

A group of physicists from Russia, Sweden, and the U.S. has demonstrated a highly unusual optical effect: They managed to "virtually" absorb light using a material that has no light-absorbing capacity ...

Scientists with the University of Chicago have discovered a way to create a material that can be made like a plastic, but conducts electricity more like a metal. The research, published Oct. 26 in ...

MOCHI uses microscopic, air-filled channels to stop heat in its tracks while remaining nearly crystal clear. If scaled up, it could transform windows into powerful energy savers and solar harvesters.