Franklin was a strong advocate of paper currency from the start. For instance, in 1736, he printed a new currency for New Jersey, a service he also provided for Pennsylvania and Delaware.

Researchers employed cutting-edge spectroscopic and imaging instruments to get a closer look than ever at the inks, paper and fibers that made Benjamin Franklin’s bills distinctive and hard to ...

Thicker notecards and photo paper, however, means the surface area simply won’t cut through much. But the closer a paper is to 65 micrometers wide, the more primed it is for a cut.

Rather than fighting paper’s tendency to cut, the researchers embraced it. They designed a 3-D printed tool they call the Papermachete, which, when loaded with a strip of printer paper, acts as ...

Cutting edge: A 3D-printed “papermachete” based on the experimental findings could cut through apple, banana peel, cucumber and even chicken (courtesy: S. Arnbjerg-Nielsen, M. Biviano & K. Jensen, ...