Sheng Dai, the most prolific author ever at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, had no intention of pursuing a career in science as a young man; he wanted to paint instead.
Rare earth elements are metals used in technologies from wind turbines and magnetic resonance imaging agents to industrial catalysts and high-definition televisions.
It took marine sponges millions of years to perfect their spike-like structures, but research mimicking these formations may soon alter how industrial coatings and 3-D printed objects are produced.