/ en-us �鶹��Ժ internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: �鶹��Ժics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Common beetles equipped with microchip backpacks could one day be used to help search and rescue crews locate survivors within hours instead of days following disasters such as building and mine collapses. /news/2025-07-cyborg-beetles-revolutionize-urban.html Biotechnology Tue, 01 Jul 2025 10:39:54 EDT news670585191 Taking a cue from ocean-dwelling species, University of Nebraska–Lincoln researchers are developing synthetic skins that will support the emergence of next-generation "soft" machines, robots and other devices. /news/2025-06-cephalopod-synthetic-skins-enable-soft.html Polymers Materials Science Tue, 17 Jun 2025 11:24:54 EDT news669378286 Earthworms often form a cluster, from which they can barely free themselves. A similarly active, writhing structure forms when the tentacles of lion's mane jellyfish become entangled. Robotic grippers utilize this principle by using multiple synthetic flexible arms to grip and move objects. And such interlinked self-propelled filaments can also be found at the smaller micrometer scale, for example in a biological cell. /news/2025-06-movement-entangled-cluster-worms-polymer.html Soft Matter Mon, 16 Jun 2025 12:51:04 EDT news669297062 Tools that offer early and accurate insight into plant health—and allow individual plant interventions—are key to increasing crop yields as environmental pressures increasingly impact horticulture and agriculture. /news/2025-06-gentle-robot-gripper-shot-sensors.html Biotechnology Agriculture Wed, 11 Jun 2025 15:56:51 EDT news668876205 Chemistry often conjures images of mixing fluids together in beakers, flasks, or test tubes. But often, chemistry happens on a much smaller scale. In many medical and industrial contexts, mixing fluids involves fractions of a milliliter, and for these applications, sometimes the best tool is a microscopic robot. /news/2025-06-magnetic-microrobot-mechanically-microscopic-materials.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Tue, 10 Jun 2025 11:00:01 EDT news668679065 Researchers from the University of Waterloo have achieved a feat previously thought to be impossible—getting a sphere to roll down a totally vertical surface without applying any external force. /news/2025-06-redefining-physics-ball-vertically.html General �鶹��Ժics Soft Matter Mon, 02 Jun 2025 14:11:03 EDT news668092261 A study published in Nature Communications presents a way to create deployable structures that transform from compact folded states into expansive configurations with perfectly smooth surfaces. /news/2025-05-origami-unfold-seamless-surfaces-deployable.html General �鶹��Ժics Fri, 30 May 2025 06:50:01 EDT news667732062 Throughout its nearly 100-year manufacturing history, the crack resistance of natural rubber—one of the world's most widely used biomaterials—hasn't improved much. Until now. Materials researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have devised a way to produce natural rubber that retains its key properties of stretchiness and durability while greatly improving its ability to resist cracking, even after repeated cycles of use. /news/2025-05-rubber-material-ten-stronger-resistant.html Polymers Thu, 22 May 2025 13:11:41 EDT news667138295 Soft-bodied robots are unlocking a new era of adaptive machines that can safely interact with the human body, squeeze through tight spaces, and propel themselves autonomously. /news/2025-05-pneumatic-soft-robot-mimics-rotating.html Biotechnology Thu, 22 May 2025 09:51:05 EDT news667126258 Astrobee is a free-flying robotic system developed by NASA that is made up of three distinct cube-shaped robots. This system was originally designed to help astronauts who are working at the International Space Station (ISS) by automating some of their routine manual tasks. /news/2025-05-astrobee-soft-cargo-source-simulator.html Space Exploration Mon, 19 May 2025 08:00:01 EDT news666624973 Researchers at McGill University, in collaboration with Polytechnique Montréal, pioneered a new way to create hydrogels using ultrasound, eliminating the need for toxic chemical initiators. This breakthrough offers a faster, cleaner and more sustainable approach to hydrogel fabrication, and produces hydrogels that are stronger, more flexible and highly resistant to freezing and dehydration. /news/2025-05-ultrasound-safer-greener-hydrogels.html Polymers Materials Science Thu, 08 May 2025 13:20:07 EDT news665928650 A new study uncovers how fine-tuning the interactions between two distinct network-forming species within a soft gel enables programmable control over its structure and mechanical properties. The findings reveal a powerful framework for engineering next-generation soft materials with customizable behaviors, inspired by the complexity of biological tissues. /news/2025-05-programmable-network-gels-interspecies-interactions.html Soft Matter Tue, 06 May 2025 16:56:02 EDT news665769361 A bioreactor that mimics a circulatory system can deliver nutrients and oxygen to artificial tissue, enabling the production of over 10 grams of chicken muscle for cultured meat applications. These results are published in Trends in Biotechnology. /news/2025-04-sized-chunks-chicken-texture-meat.html Biotechnology Agriculture Wed, 16 Apr 2025 11:00:01 EDT news663924601 Researchers from Hanyang University have developed an innovative micropillar array capable of collective and rapid magnetic oscillations, demonstrating strong potential for advanced applications in robotics, fluid transport, and dynamic surface control. /news/2025-04-synchronized-magnetic-oscillations-enable-micropillar.html Nanomaterials Wed, 02 Apr 2025 12:07:04 EDT news662814421 Imagine microscopic robots that can navigate the body, delivering medicine precisely to damaged tissues while avoiding side effects. Engineers at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa have discovered a new breakthrough that brings this vision closer to reality. /news/2025-01-microscopic-robots-chemical-precise-drug.html Bio & Medicine Mon, 13 Jan 2025 10:33:03 EST news655986781 Princeton engineers have developed an easily scalable 3D printing technique to manufacture soft plastics with programmed stretchiness and flexibility that are also recyclable and inexpensive—qualities not typically combined in commercially manufactured materials. /news/2024-12-stretchable-flexible-recyclable-3d-method.html Polymers Materials Science Fri, 13 Dec 2024 14:18:31 EST news653321905 For plants, cleaning the air, providing food and medicines, and preserving our ecosystem is just another day's work. In the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, however, plants are being studied in new ways to inspire future biohybrid soft robotic designs. /news/2024-08-defense-future-soft-robotic.html Biotechnology Thu, 29 Aug 2024 13:08:59 EDT news644155736 A team of researchers led by the University of California San Diego has developed a soft, stretchy electronic device capable of simulating the feeling of pressure or vibration when worn on the skin. This device, reported in a paper published in Science Robotics, represents a step towards creating haptic technologies that can reproduce a more varied and realistic range of touch sensations. /news/2024-06-soft-stretchy-electrode-simulates-sensations.html Nanomaterials Fri, 28 Jun 2024 11:28:20 EDT news638792874 In a May 15 paper released in the journal �鶹��Ժical Review Letters, Virginia Tech physicists revealed a microscopic phenomenon that could greatly improve the performance of soft devices, such as agile flexible robots or microscopic capsules for drug delivery. /news/2024-05-physicists-path-faster-flexible-robots.html Condensed Matter Sat, 18 May 2024 02:25:37 EDT news635217931 Researchers at Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT-Italian Institute of Technology) in collaboration with the University of Freiburg have developed a biohybrid robot, which consists of a flour-based capsule created using 3D microfabrication techniques, and two natural appendages from oat fruit capable of moving in response to air humidity. /news/2024-05-biohybrid-robot-flour-oats-biodegradable.html Ecology Biotechnology Mon, 13 May 2024 12:53:28 EDT news634823606 Tagging marine animals with sensors to track and study their movements can provide researchers with important environmental and behavioral information, including energy usage, habitat changes, and migration patterns. But existing techniques to attach sensors currently largely rely on invasive physical anchors, suction cups, and rigid glues. While these techniques can be effective for marine animals with hard exoskeletons and large animals such as sharks, the traditional tag attachment methods are not ideal for more fragile species, such as squid and jellyfish. /news/2024-04-tagging-method-bioadhesive-interface-marine.html Ecology Biotechnology Tue, 16 Apr 2024 11:40:04 EDT news632486401 Researchers led by the University of Oxford have developed a new test to assess how dangerous robotic lawnmowers are to hedgehogs. They hope this will lead to a certification scheme that will allow consumers to choose 'hedgehog-friendly' mowers to help protect these lovable mammals. /news/2024-01-hedgehog-safety-robotic-lawnmowers.html Plants & Animals Biotechnology Tue, 16 Jan 2024 11:05:54 EST news624625549 Most people can relate to having a laptop charger break right where the flexible cable meets the solid adapter. This is just one example of how difficult it is to effectively interface hard and soft materials. Using a unique 3D printing process, TU Delft researchers produced hybrid multi-material interfaces that reached a remarkable closeness to nature's design of bone–tendon connections. Their research findings, recently published in Nature Communications, have numerous potential applications. /news/2023-12-optimization-hardsoft-material-interfaces-3d.html Polymers Materials Science Tue, 12 Dec 2023 10:59:42 EST news621601180 Researchers have invented a new kind of artificial seed to sense environmental parameters without impacting the health of the environment. /news/2023-11-eco-friendly-fluorescent-artificial-seed-soil.html Biotechnology Agriculture Tue, 21 Nov 2023 17:11:29 EST news619809085 Researchers in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, in collaboration with paleontologists from Spain and Poland, have used fossil evidence to engineer a soft robotic replica of pleurocystitid, a marine organism that existed nearly 450 million years ago and is believed to be one of the first echinoderms capable of movement using a muscular stem. /news/2023-11-paleobionics-million-year-old-life-softbotics.html Biotechnology Paleontology & Fossils Mon, 06 Nov 2023 15:41:54 EST news618507705 A team of University of Waterloo researchers has created smart, advanced materials that will be the building blocks for a future generation of soft medical microrobots. They published their results in Nature Communications. /news/2023-10-scientists-cargo-tethered-untethered-soft.html Nanomaterials Mon, 23 Oct 2023 07:43:00 EDT news617265771 A team of researchers led by the University of California San Diego has developed soft yet durable materials that glow in response to mechanical stress, such as compression, stretching or twisting. The materials derive their luminescence from single-celled algae known as dinoflagellates. /news/2023-10-soft-materials-algae-stress.html Biochemistry Materials Science Fri, 20 Oct 2023 14:16:34 EDT news617030189 Researchers at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering looked to origami to create new sensors that could someday be employed to detect deformations in organs and also for use in wearables and soft robotics. /news/2023-08-origami-disease.html Biotechnology Molecular & Computational biology Fri, 25 Aug 2023 14:00:01 EDT news612172101 A new study reveals an important discovery in the realm of nanomachines within living systems. Prof. Sason Shaik from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Dr. Kshatresh Dutta Dubey from Shiv Nadar University, conducted molecular-dynamics simulations of Cytochromes P450 (CYP450s) enzymes, revealing that these enzymes exhibit unique soft-robotic properties. /news/2023-08-nanomachines-cytochromes-p450-unleashed-soft.html Bio & Medicine Nanophysics Mon, 07 Aug 2023 10:15:17 EDT news610622016 In nature, it is common to find structures that combine both soft and hard material. These structures are responsible for diverse mechanical properties and functions of biological systems. As a typical example, the human spine possesses alternating stacks of hard bones and soft intervertebral disks, which is an essential architecture that supports the human body while maintaining body flexibility. /news/2023-07-team-shape-transforming-colloidal-cargo-delivery.html Bio & Medicine Nanomaterials Thu, 06 Jul 2023 09:46:15 EDT news607855571