Every evening during the summer of 2020, Xingyi Zhou went up to the roof of her lab building at the University of Texas at Austin to check on two plastic boxes containing radish plants. Plants in one ...

Engineers find the hydrogel polyethylene glycol (PEG) doubles its water absorption as temperatures climb from 25 to 50 C, and could be useful for passive cooling or water harvesting in warm climates.

Engineers synthesized a superabsorbent material that can soak up a record amount of moisture from the air, even in desert-like conditions. MIT engineers have synthesized a superabsorbent material that ...

The material at the heart of this technology is a blend of wood, lithium chloride, and a solar-absorbing surface made of carbon nanotubes. These ingredients form a strong, porous sponge that can ...

Plants may have no muscles, but they can grow upwards against the strain of gravity and their roots can even shift soil and rocks – because their cells can absorb water to form strong structures. Now ...

Hydrogels are soft, jelly-like materials that can absorb large amounts of water. They are widely used in medical technologies such as contact lenses and wound dressings, and are also a staple of ...

image: MIT engineers have synthesized a superabsorbent material that can soak up a record amount of moisture from the air, even in desert-like conditions. Pictured are the hydrogel discs swollen in ...