A research partnership between Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has launched an online tool that lets researchers virtually mix, match and compare chemical compounds by calculating the resulting properties through the magic of supercomputing. The goal is to help registered users find substitute materials to replace existing components of objects and improve them—whether the item is a concrete column, a battery, an alloy beam or even a teddy bear.
The effort to develop the site, called the Materials Project, sprang from MIT's Materials Genome Project, which began in 2006. MIT research assistant Shyu Ping Ong has been a part of both.