But in the next four years he had the pleasure of proving them wrong--and showing how an STM could virtually excavate the structure of materials such as semiconductors and superconductors.

FORBES: The Titan of the Teensy

Oliver Delaire, a scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, is spearheading research with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology using neutron scattering and computer simulations to tweak the structure and dynamics of thermoelectric materials.

FORBES: The Trillion Mile-Per-Gallon Engine

In the past we talked about "dual use" military-civilian technologies, but truth be told, not much of what's in a bomb migrates back to a BMW. However, the money flowing into military and homeland infra-structure security will leverage revolutionary technologies and materials of the new digital age.

FORBES: The Security-Industrial Complex

Conducting polymers are known as intelligent materials with the unique behaviour of trapping an ion into their structure and release the ion by an electric potential.

UNESCO: 2012 UK and Ireland Fellows

He has surprised foreign capitalists by maintaining a market structure, allowing Brazil to gain from a commodities and basic materials boom.

FORBES: Retrograde Region

Tuesday's explosion at the No. 2 reactor in the Fukushima complex, 150 miles north of Tokyo, for the first time raised the possibility that the key containment structure of the unit, which protects the reactor vessel and keeps dangerous radioactive materials from leaking out, had been damaged.

WSJ: Japan's Nuclear Crisis Escalates

Researchers have already become much better at understanding how the structure of new nano-engineered materials will behave, although the process remains largely one of trial and error because different samples have to be repeatedly manufactured and tested.

ECONOMIST: New materials for renewable energy

High-tech lab analyses revealed panguite's chemical composition and crystal structure, which Ma said is new, and as such, could be explored for novel engineering materials.

MSN: 1969 fireball meteorite reveals new ancient mineral