24-01-2011

An international research group led by Professor Stephan Förster of the University of Bayreuth has discovered colloidal quasi-crystals for the first time. In contrast to the quasi-crystals previously documented, which can only be produced under special laboratory conditions, they are ...

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22-06-2010

Wrinkles are not all bad news according to European scientists, who have used them to improve a spectroscopic technique used to identify molecules. Luis Liz-Marzán and colleagues have developed a versatile method for making improved SERS substrates. They made a wrinkled strip of a ...

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Discovery opens the way toward biomimetic production of ultra-strong, elastic fibers

21-05-2010

Five times the tensile strength of steel and triple that of the currently best synthetic fibers: Spider silk is a fascinating material. But no one has thus far succeeded in producing the super fibers synthetically. How do spiders form long, highly stable and elastic fibers from the spider ...

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Gel- and polymer-coated surfaces stick together and separate in response to an environmental stimulus

26-07-2007

Two surfaces stick together, separate, and stick together again - on command. This discovery by a team of researchers from the Universities of Sheffield (UK) and Bayreuth contradicts our day-to-day experience. In the animal kingdom, geckos can climb up vertical inclines, displaying an ...

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03-11-2004

In addition to the well-known compounds carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, carbon and oxygen form other compounds of which carbon suboxide (C3O2) is one of the most stable. C3O2 was discovered in 1906; it is a linear molecule in which all five atoms are bound to each other with double bonds, ...

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