There’s a good chance that you spend at least part of your day sitting on polyurethane foam. The foam is ubiquitous in upholstery across the world—in cars, couches, bedding, and more. Unfortunately, ...

Flame retardants slow the spread of fires but they can have serious, unintended human health and environmental impacts. Inadequate toxicity testing and inconsistent regulations make it difficult to ...

New lines of white-cotton plant produce a fabric that doesn’t burn. When the fabric is set alight, the flames extinguish on their own — a trait previously observed only in textiles made from cotton ...

A form of cotton that is able to resist flames has been created by breeding parent strains that had no similar characteristics themselves. This could let us make fire-resistant fabrics without having ...