Researchers didn't think they could test minuscule samples of materials and grasp their properties.

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The technique only works in materials that have both piezoelectric and semiconducting properties.

BBC: Sensors

Such fields are everywhere, and the researchers suggest that their approach could be used for mapping electric fields on the surfaces of materials and getting a better understanding of their properties.

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Specifically, unexpected physical, biological, and chemical properties emerge that are not present in the same materials at larger scales.

WHITEHOUSE: Office of Science and Technology Policy Blog

Scientists can thus create new building blocks that produce materials with the exact properties they desire, which are smaller, stronger and lighter than the current technologies.

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Once they can manipulate atoms--which combine to form molecules, the building blocks of our natural world--scientists can create new building blocks that produce new materials with the exact properties they desire: smaller, stronger, tougher, lighter and more resilient than what has come before.

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Thousands of properties in Scotland date from before World War One and many desperately require repairs using traditional materials and techniques.

BBC: Historic skills kept alive at Edinburgh Castle

It is also important to make sure that operators of Explosive Detection Systems (EDS) and Trace Detection Systems (TDS) learn to identify specific X-ray transmission properties of the materials they are called upon to identify.

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Unfortunately, these chains come in several varieties, and making useful materials from them requires that the amount of each variety in the mixture be controlled, as the properties of the resulting material depend on the proportions of its components.

ECONOMIST: Evanescent or evergreen?