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A D V A N C E D M A T E R I A L S & P R O C E S S E S | M A R C H 2 0 1 5
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STRESS RELIEF
THE UNSTAINABLE T-SHIRT
Dubbed The Cavalier, a new 100% cotton t-shirt
created by Threadsmiths, Australia, incorporates
lotus leaf-inspired nanotechnology that complete-
ly repels dirt and liquids, leaving the surface of the
fabric crisp, dry, and stain-free. The fibers of the
shirt were created with new “water-fearing” nano-
technology. While other white t-shirts are stained
and ruined by liquids such as coffee and wine, The
Cavalier’s hydrophobic properties cause liquids to
bead up and fall off the fabric—cleaning it in the
process. The patented fabric is free of carcinogens
and completely safe, according to company sources. Threadsmiths hopes to expand
the technology to other industries such as medical, hospitality, and sports in the near
future.
CHEMISTRY THESIS IS THE STUFF OF COMICBOOKS
As thesis writing approached, University of Wisconsin-
Madison graduate student Veronica Berns faced a conundrum.
She knew how hard it was to describe her work to friends and
family—pretty much anybody outside the tight clan of struc-
tural chemists. And that was particularly true because she con-
centrated on a category of should-be-impossible structures
called quasicrystals.
Berns liked drawing and using “normal, English-
language words,” and so about a year before graduation,
she opted to accompany her traditional Ph.D. thesis with a
comic book version. About a year before graduation, she be-
gan drawing with pen and ink on paper, then scanned and
digitally colored the images. Berns had one ground rule for
the comic treatment: “It was really important to me that I
not simplify the science until it wasn’t true. I learned a lot
about how to talk about my work from drawing and writing
the comic book.” .
OCTOBOT FEATURES 3D-PRINTED SKELETON
Scientists from the University of Southampton, UK, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT), Cambridge, and the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Tech-
nology built a deformable octopus-like robot featuring a 3D-printed skeleton with no
moving parts and no energy storage device other than a thin elastic outer hull. The
30-cm-long self-propelling robot is inflated with water and then rapidly deflates by
shooting water out through its base to power propulsion and acceleration, despite
starting from a non-streamlined shape. It works like blowing up a balloon and then
releasing it to fly around the room. However, the polycarbonate skeleton keeps the
balloon tight and the final shape streamlined, while fins on the back keep it going
straight. ,
Octopus robot. Courtesy of University of
Southampton.
Veronica Berns, a 2014 chemistry Ph.D., wrote and illustrated a comic
book to make the science in her thesis more accessible. Her studies
concerned rule-breaking structures called quasicrystals.