
Researchers at Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Canberra—in collaboration with the University of Sydney, University of Technology Sydney, and the Queensland University of Technology—claim to have found a method in which soybean oil can be used to create graphene, a durable one-atom-thick sheet of carbon that is stronger than steel. In order to achieve the end result, the oil is heated until it breaks down into carbon building units, and then cooled into a lightweight sheet.
Using this method to create graphene would lower its cost significantly, making it more accessible for use in "water filters, solar panels, and batteries," according to CSIRO. [BBC]
ICYMI: University of Kansas assistant professor of architecture Keith Van de Riet discusses his class' effort to model detailing from St. Louis' Wainwright Building. The project resulted in half- and full-scale terra-cotta models of the natural system motifs from the cornice. [ARCHITECT]
In collaboration with an international team of experts, Enrico Sassoni, a visiting postdoctoral research associate in Princeton's department of civil and environmental engineering, has developed a stone treatment to preserve and reinforce marble structures. After being applied directly to marble, the highly adhesive calcium compound called hydroxyapatite seeps into the stone and binds the cracked surface. [Princeton University News]

ICYMI: Smart Glasses, which debuted at the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show, is Los Angeles–based tech company Daqri's latest addition to its line of augmented reality gear. [ARCHITECT]
Standing 722 feet tall and outfitted with 263-foot-long blades, the V164 offshore wind turbine, constructed by Danish company MHI Vestas Offshore Wind, has set a new record by generating nearly 216,000 kilowatts per hour in a day. [New Atlas]
Virigina Tech architecture professor Mehdi Setareh has developed a portable, structural-vibration-reducing device that will make the technology much more accessible due to is affordability and compactness. The PTMD—portable tuned mass damper—reduced vibrations by 40 to 75 percent during testing. [Virginia Tech News]
Researchers from Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden are working to create a computer program that could help work out how to ideally position a cluster of buildings on a landscape in response to elements such as wind and building views. [Phys.org]
A team of Harvard scientists claim to have created the rarest material on the planet, called atomic metallic hydrogen. They speculate that this new material could have far-reaching impacts on transportation systems, energy production and storage, and rocket propulsion technologies. [Harvard Gazette]
An in-house design incubator at office equipment company Steelcase has created Casper Privacy Film which, when applied to glass windows of conference rooms, blacks-out LED or LCD projection for privacy. [Wired]
Tesla has constructed 396 "refrigerator-sized stacks" of batteries in Southern California to absorb grid energy during the day and redistribute in the evening in response to anticipated energy shortages. [New York Times]