MITs Angela Belcher, a former winner of PopScis Brillant 10, is developing new materials that could lead to gadgets that mend their cracks when dropped on the floor, and wont die if exposed to water.

When Belcher was a grad student at the University of California, Santa Barbara, she was studying how the abalone manufactures its remarkably tough shell out of a basic mineral. Her office at the time had an ocean view, and Belcher found herself glancing back and forth between the abalones watery home and the periodic table on her wall.

Congratulations are in order for two alums of POPSCIs Brilliant 10-geophysicist Michael Manga (Brilliant 10 class of 2003) of the University of California at Berkeley and laser physicist Claire Gmachl (Brilliant 10 class of 2004) of Princeton University-each of whom was awarded a $500,000 MacArthur "genius" grant on September 20.