Jay Gore and Robert Lucht are part of a research team that has successfully tested the conversion of large particles of pinewood char in a gasification process, a step necessary for the mass production of synthetic liquid fuel from recalcitrant biomass.

Research by Pavlos Vlachos and colleagues at Virginia Tech sheds light on how the snake's body works like an airfoil to generate lift forces to keep them airborne as they descend through the air in the Southeast Asian rainforest.

Xiulin Ruan and colleagues are proposing a new technology that might control the flow of heat the way electronic devices control electrical current, an advance that could have applications in a diverse range of fields from electronics to textiles.