Plastics are excellent insulators, meaning they efficiently trap heat—a quality that is an advantage in something such as a coffee cup sleeve. But this insulating property is less desirable in ...

The performance of an object that has been dependent upon whether the object is composed of a conductive or a nonconductive material. Conductors are materials that allow electrons to flow freely from ...

CAMBRIDGE, MASS.--Plastics are excellent insulators, meaning they can efficiently trap heat - a quality that can be an advantage in something like a coffee cup sleeve. But this insulating property is ...

Sometimes we want to heat things up - like these beans. Oh, wait. Hang on. You need to put the beans in something first. But what should it be made of? Wood? Plastic? Or metal? The metal saucepan is ...

Most polymers -- materials made of long, chain-like molecules -- are very good insulators for both heat and electricity. But scientists have now found a way to transform the most widely used polymer, ...

Managing heat is a major challenge in electronics and engineering, and it’s controlled using materials that either conduct or insulate heat. A new material blurs that line by blocking heat in one ...

Mechanical engineering major Brendan Scott isn't taking the summer off with other University of Massachusetts Amherst students this year. But he says he's having a blast. NASA has granted him a $6,000 ...

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Looking only at their subatomic particles, most materials can be placed into one of two categories. Metals — like copper and iron — have free-flowing electrons that allow them to ...

Graphene is widely seen as the most-promising candidate to replace silicon as the building block of ever-smaller, more-complex, and more-numerous transistors. To speed that transition along, engineers ...

Is your laptop or phone overheating? Newly engineered plastic could lead to self-cooling casings for common electronics. Plastics are excellent insulators, meaning they can efficiently trap heat -- a ...

Fran: You might be thinking that a conductor stands at the front of an orchestra waving their arms around, and they do. But we're talking about a different kind of conductor. A conductor of ...