University of Massachusetts engineer Jae-Hwang Lee has co-authored a research article on cold spray additive manufacturing that seeks to provide a fundamental understanding of the process. Cold spray takes micron-sized particles and accelerates them at supersonic velocities through a specially designed rocket nozzle to strike the surface of a receiving material. The findings are published in the journal Nature Scientific Report.

Twenty years ago, microbiologist Barry Goodell, now a professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and colleagues discovered a unique system that some microorganisms use to digest and recycle wood. Three orders of “brown rot fungi” have now been identified that can break down biomass, but details of the mechanism were not known.