Some scientific links from this week, including my Materials Today news round up.
- Periodic Table of Parodies – Yet more periodic table fun and games
- Similar websites to Sciencebase – This neat little tool automagically works out your site's keywords and searches for other sites with the same keywords
- The long and winding road to synthetic silk – Unravelling the secret of silk's incredible strength could allow materials scientists to develop a synthetic version for a wide range of applications in engineering, aeronautics, and even clothing.sc
- Bubbling up water repellence – Nanoscopic air bubbles prevent water from wetting a nanopatterned superhydrophobic surface
- Magnetic solder for 3D microelectronics – A low-melting and magnetically-responsive alloy could be the key to soldering the components of three-dimensional microelectronics
- Water vapor and global warming – Climate change denialists often cite water vapour as the main greenhouse gas, supposedly accounting for almost 100% of the greenhouse effect, but this is wrong. Water vapour and clouds account for only 65-85% of the greenhouse effect.
- Light controls matter, matter controls X-Rays – Light has an upper speed limit, but not a lower one, in some materials it is possible to slow light to almost a standstill