Ceramics such as this, hard and heat-resistant, protect the nose of the space shuttle. Then from above his desk Datye takes a small bottle filled with tiny gray globules-aerogels. But making aerogels has been heat-intensive. Now CMEM holds a patent on a process for making them at room temperature. This too is ceramics, great material for fiber optics, where transparency is crucial.
Ceramics also have the ability to create high-frequency vibrations.
Some ceramics have micropores that act as filters, while others deposited on surfaces act as catalysts for chemical reactions. If you've ever been annoyed by the thin scum that forms inside your car's windows, then you'll welcome what Datye predicts will soon be standard on car windows-a thin, transparent catalytic layer to trigger a chemical reaction that will remove the scum as soon as it forms. It's layers of chalk bonded by very thin layers of polymers, molecules linked together. And again, human technology mirrors nature. Today, CMEM's 15-plus staff includes scientists from the core departments of chemistry and chemical engineering, as well as researchers from physics, earth and planetary sciences and mechanical engineering.