The realities of climate change have driven another big year in material innovation in 2024. Here are 10 of the best solutions that have put a promising spin on cement, plastic, fur, linoleum, or even ...

New functions for more efficient rendering and enhanced material visualisation. Pixar has released RenderMan 26.2, introducing technical updates designed to enable artists to work more efficiently and ...

Oxford University scientists may have solved one of the greatest hindrances of expanding access to solar energy. Scientists from the university’s physics department have created an ultra-thin layer of ...

For decades, the construction industry followed a familiar rhythm: design came first, materials followed. The pressing need for sustainable buildings has shattered this routine. Material selection is ...

How to explain the British writer Dolly Alderton to an American audience? It might be best to let her work speak for itself — it certainly does! — but Alderton is such a cultural phenomenon in her ...

Diamonds are the hardest natural substance on Earth, but that may not necessarily be true on carbon-rich exoplanets where certain temperature and pressure conditions create an ultra-dense form of ...

Researchers have shown that material purchases, from sweaters to skateboards, provide more frequent happiness over time, whereas experiential purchases, like a trip to the zoo, provide more intense ...

MATERIAL GIRL. Your first associations with this glamorous phrase might be Madonna’s 1984 hit of the same name. However, if you’re active on TikTok, or virtually anywhere on the internet at this point ...

It all started in a nondescript building tucked in an industrial park. “It was amazing-looking stuff they were doing with practical effects, and we were doing computer graphics,” said Phillips, now a ...

RenderMan 25 is the latest edition of Pixar's rendering tools, available to everyone. RenderMan has always been a bit of an enigma in my experience. The fact that it’s been used to render some of the ...

As a journalist, Gabriella Sotelo covers the environment, climate change, and agriculture. She has a bachelor's in Journalism/Environmental Studies from NYU. Plastic has become ubiquitous in the ...