Remember how graphene, the single-atom thick layer of carbon was so slick it was going to change everything? Well it looks like silicene is here to steal the spotlight. Researchers have just made the first sheet of single-atom thick silicon.

When Charles Goodyear figured out how to take the smelly sap from some trees and turn it into the rubber of industry, the finished, stretchy product bounced a crazy diverse number of materials out of their soon-to-be former jobs. Like sheep intestines. Ick.

You probably haven't given much thought to the fact that there's a slab of chemically strengthened glass in your pocket, deflecting blows from keys or change or any other hard objects might slide or scrape or scratch against it, or that the hundreds of millions of similar slices of glass lining pockets around the world …

There's a reason why Jony Ive has forged so much of Apple's success from aluminum for the last decade or so.

There's a reason the screw cap hasn't dominated the wine stopper industry: Cork still kicks the ass of stamped aluminum for the good stuff-and not just for nostalgia's sake. This is what keeps our evening libations from turning sour.