Concrete is one of the largest single sources of human-induced carbon dioxide emissions. Engineers at Washington State University have now developed a new method for making concrete that absorbs more carbon than it emits.

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Knots are known for boosting the strength of materials, and now Caltech engineers have developed a new material consisting of microscale knots, showing that it’s far tougher than a version of the material made of the same stuff without knots.

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Bacteria often get a bad rap, but in many cases they’re helpful little critters. Engineers have now developed a protective coating for buildings that’s loaded with bacteria, which absorb CO2 to produce a barrier against erosion by the elements.

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Although glass is known for being fully recyclable, the US Environmental Protection Agency states that only about one third of post-consumer glass actually gets recycled. A new glass-based building cladding material could help boost that number.

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Georgia Tech scientists have discovered a new quantum state in a quirky material. In a phenomenon never before seen in anything else, the team found that applying a magnetic field increased the material’s electrical conductivity by a billion percent.

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Ohio State researchers have shown how a common ceramic material can change its thermal conductivity in response to an electrical field, opening the door to solid-state heat switches that could make thermoelectric generators much more efficient.

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Ice on roads isn't a good thing, but neither are the eco-unfriendly chloride-based salts used to melt it. Scientists have developed a greener and more effective alternative, however, that could be mixed into the asphalt and remain active for years.

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Researchers have used a novel 3D printing technique to create a new superalloy with "previously unobtainable combinations of high strength, low weight and high-temperature resiliency" – and they say the implications in aerospace and energy are huge.

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Although we've seen a number of systems that use sunlight to purify tainted water, their output is often quite limited. A new loofah-inspired hydrogel, however, uses sunlight to treat much more water in one go … enough to meet a person's daily needs.

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Nanofibers have recently been utilized in many applications, ranging from wound dressings to high-strength composite materials. Scientists have now developed a faster and simpler method of producing those fibers, which was inspired by the silkworm.

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