Learn about thermoelectronics -- and more -- via ’Material Marvels’

In this latest segment of "Material Marvels," Yale scientist Ainissa Ramirez describes how simple devices like cell phones can be powered by heat using thermoelectric materials, which convert heat to electricity.

Check out the other videos in the "Material Marvels" series:

Nanomaterials

Find out how their strange properties can make future products a reality and might even help kill cancer cells.

Graphene

Discover how a layer of carbon that is one atom thick, called graphene (found in everyday pencils), will revolutionize our lives -- making. blazingly fast computers and video games a reality.

Quasicrystals

Learn about the properties of this stronger-than-steel material, discovered by a scientist who recently won the Nobel Prize in chemistry, years after his work was ridiculed.

Solar cells

Explore how the science behind solar materials made from "silicon sandwiches" could some day provide free, unlimited power.

Shape memory alloys

Hear what the Mars Rover, robots, and the braces in your mouth have in common.