Biomolecular Materials Group

Forget 9-volts, AAs, AAAs or D batteries: The energy for tomorrow’s miniature electronic devices could come from tiny microbatteries about half the size of a human cell and built with viruses.

Read on:  “MIT engineers work toward cell-sized batteries”

When 40-year-old materials chemist Angela Belcher was a child, she wanted to be an inventor. “I would try to build things out of scrap material that we had in the garage,” she says. To her disappointment, everything she made had already been invented. Then, in college, she “fell in love with large molecules” and found a whole new way to build things.

Read on:  “3 People Who Are Pushing the Edge of Science“

MIT’s Angela Belcher, a former winner of PopSci’s Brillant 10, is developing new materials that could lead to gadgets that mend their cracks when dropped on the floor, and won’t die if exposed to water.

Read on:  “From Abalone to Self-healing gadgets”

An MIT materials scientist’s research on sea snails has helped transform battery technology and may end the era when cell phones die if they’re dropped and PDAs must be replaced if they get dunked in the tub.

Read on:  “Eureka! Shell Shock“