/ en-us Â鶹ÒùÔº internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Â鶹ÒùÔºics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. The tongues of chameleons and salamanders might not seem like the inspiration for tomorrow's engineering breakthroughs, but inside the Deban Laboratory at the University of South Florida, biology and engineering are colliding to reveal how nature's designs could one day help solve challenges on Earth and beyond. /news/2025-09-videos-high-tongues-salamanders-chameleons.html Plants & Animals Biotechnology Mon, 08 Sep 2025 16:10:03 EDT news676566120 A team of researchers at the TechMed Center of the University of Twente has transformed real sperm cells into tiny, magnetically controlled microrobots. These sperm bots can now be tracked in real time using X-ray imaging, a breakthrough in medical microrobotics. /news/2025-09-sperm-bots-cells-coated-magnetic.html Bio & Medicine Wed, 03 Sep 2025 13:39:20 EDT news676125555 New research into the biomechanics of explosive seed dispersal in squirting cucumbers (Ecballium elaterium) reveals how these plants have adapted a suite of unique traits that help propel their high-speed seeds far and wide. /news/2025-07-ballistics-explosive-squirting-cucumber.html Plants & Animals Agriculture Tue, 08 Jul 2025 09:17:04 EDT news671185022 Remote-controlled microflow using light-controlled state transitions within DNA condensates has been reported by scientists from the Institute of Science Tokyo, Japan. By switching between ultraviolet light (UV) and visible light irradiation, the researchers demonstrated that the novel DNA motifs containing azobenzene can dissociate or reassemble. Furthermore, localized photo-switching within a DNA liquid condensate generated two distinct directional motions. This study can fuel the development of innovative fluid-based diagnostic chips and molecular computers. /news/2025-06-photo-switchable-dna-condensates-enable.html Bio & Medicine Nanomaterials Mon, 23 Jun 2025 14:40:03 EDT news669908401 Researchers at the National University of Singapore (NUS) have developed a scalable, non-viral technology that efficiently delivers genetic material into human immune cells. The platform, called Nanostraw Electro-actuated Transfection (NExT), uses tiny hollow nanostructures and electrical pulses to insert a wide variety of biomolecules—proteins, mRNA and gene-editing tools—into immune cells with high efficiency and minimal disruption. /news/2025-05-gene-delivery-nanostraws-electrical-pulses.html Bio & Medicine Thu, 22 May 2025 11:35:05 EDT news667132501 In the effort to build superconducting quantum computers, researchers around the world are working to develop electrical circuits that operate in the microwave domain using individual particles of microwave radiation (microwave photons) as qubits—the basic building blocks of quantum computing. /news/2025-03-noise-transducers-bridge-gap-microwave.html Nanophysics Thu, 20 Mar 2025 10:41:35 EDT news661686091 The development of sustainable energy sources that can satisfy the world energy demand is one of the most challenging scientific problems. Nuclear fusion, the energy source of stars, is a clean and virtually unlimited energy source that appears as a promising candidate. /news/2025-01-energetic-particles-plasma-flares-edge.html Plasma Â鶹ÒùÔºics Fri, 10 Jan 2025 04:59:01 EST news655707537 Researchers have demonstrated a new multi-functional device that could help advance the scalability of solid-state color centers, enabling them to be used in larger and more complex quantum computers and networks. As efficient photon-spin interfaces, solid-state color centers are promising candidates for qubit nodes—essential units for storing and processing quantum information. /news/2024-09-scalable-multi-functional-device-lays.html Optics & Photonics Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Mon, 09 Sep 2024 09:33:03 EDT news645093182 A perfect combination of fiber optics and micro/nanotechnology, optical micro/nanofiber (MNF) is a new type of micro/nano-waveguide structure developed in recent years. /news/2024-08-advances-optical-micronanofiber-enabled-tactile.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Fri, 30 Aug 2024 12:39:03 EDT news644240341 Soft polymers with the combined properties of electrolytes and traditional polymers offer some unique and desirable properties that can be drastically changed on demand. /news/2024-08-materials-scientists-road-responsive-gels.html Polymers Materials Science Thu, 22 Aug 2024 11:19:05 EDT news643544342 Solar storms captured the imagination of much of the American public earlier this year when auroras were visible well south of their typical northern areas. As the sun ramps into another solar cycle, those storms will become more and more common, and the dangers they present to Earth's infrastructure will continue to increase. /news/2024-08-helianthus-solar-driven-geomagnetic-storm.html Space Exploration Planetary Sciences Mon, 19 Aug 2024 14:14:04 EDT news643295642 Technologies for enabling NASA's Artemis mission are coming thick and fast, as plenty of problems must be solved before a permanent human presence on the moon can be established. A novel idea from Honeybee Robotics, one of the most prominent space technology companies now owned by Blue Origin, could solve plenty of them with one piece of infrastructure. /news/2024-08-tower-moon-astronauts-power-guidance.html Space Exploration Mon, 05 Aug 2024 10:25:07 EDT news642072302 Imagine keeping a laser beam trained on a dime that's 200 miles away. Now imagine doing that continuously for 24 hours, while riding a merry-go-round. Does it seem difficult? Well, that's basically what the Hubble Space Telescope does. /news/2024-06-hubble-telescope-shifted-gyro-mode.html Astronomy Tue, 18 Jun 2024 11:28:04 EDT news637928882 In dim light a cat sees much better than you do, as do dogs and nocturnal animals. That's because the structure of a cat's eye has a tapetum lucidum, a mirror-like layer immediately behind the retina. Light entering the eye that is not focused by the lens onto the retina is reflected off the tapetum lucidum, where the retina gets another chance to receive the light, process it, and send impulses to the optic nerve. /news/2024-03-team-acoustic-crystal-smooth-elastic.html Optics & Photonics Sat, 23 Mar 2024 07:30:01 EDT news630322112 By infusing a virtual fruit fly with artificial intelligence, Janelia and Google DeepMind, scientists have created a computerized insect that can walk and fly just like the real thing. /news/2024-03-artificial-intelligence-virtual-fly-life.html Biotechnology Other Fri, 15 Mar 2024 13:27:55 EDT news629728067 Tests on living cell cultures are becoming increasingly important for personalized medicine, drug development and clinical research. The Aachen-based Fraunhofer Institutes for Laser Technology ILT and for Production Technology IPT have developed an AI-assisted high-throughput process that now makes it possible to automatically isolate specific cell types. /news/2024-03-automated-high-throughput-cells-laser.html Cell & Microbiology Biotechnology Tue, 12 Mar 2024 17:02:04 EDT news629481721 A West Virginia University mechanical engineer has developed a way to predict the neuron and muscle patterns controlling locomotion for animals of any size, moving at any speed. /news/2024-01-movement-animals-sizes.html Biotechnology Molecular & Computational biology Wed, 31 Jan 2024 09:13:21 EST news625914796 One year ago, Caltech's Space Solar Power Demonstrator (SSPD-1) launched into space to demonstrate and test three technological innovations that are among those necessary to make space solar power a reality. /news/2024-01-space-solar-power-mission-successes.html Space Exploration Wed, 17 Jan 2024 10:34:17 EST news624710047 Space coiling acoustic metamaterials are static and require manual reconfiguration for sound-field modulation. In a new report published in Communications Materials, Christabel Choi, and a team of scientists in computer science and engineering in the U.K., and Italy, developed an approach for active reconfiguration with standalone dynamics to space-coil unit cells known as dynamic meta-bricks. /news/2024-01-magnetically-actuated-acoustic-metamaterial.html Materials Science Wed, 10 Jan 2024 10:00:01 EST news624103021 Sharks in nature swim at high speeds in a deep ocean due to their high drag reduction ability. Water flows around the sharkskin become disrupted by staggered and overlapping microscale structures named denticles. In addition to this surface roughness, water slips at a fluid-solid interface with multiple groove-like microriblets on individual microdenticles. /news/2023-12-microfabrication-strategy-multifunctional-3d-artificial.html Nanomaterials Tue, 12 Dec 2023 10:06:32 EST news621597989 Cornell researchers combined soft microactuators with high-energy-density chemical fuel to create an insect-scale quadrupedal robot that is powered by combustion and can outrace, outlift, outflex and outleap its electric-driven competitors. /news/2023-09-high-energy-density-chemical-fuel-powers-bug-sized.html Materials Science Wed, 20 Sep 2023 12:58:56 EDT news614433534 Researchers led by Prof. Zhang Weijun from the Hefei Institutes of Â鶹ÒùÔºical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) have developed a highly sensitive portable laser absorption spectroscopy formaldehyde (HCHO) sensor using a compact spherical mirror multi-pass cell. The results were published in Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical. /news/2023-09-highly-sensitive-portable-sensor-formaldehyde.html Analytical Chemistry Wed, 20 Sep 2023 12:57:03 EDT news614433421 One of the main ways cells "talk" to each other to coordinate essential biological activities such as muscle contraction, hormone release, neuronal firing, digestion and immune activation is through calcium signaling. /news/2023-07-light-activated-molecular-machines-cells.html Bio & Medicine Mon, 10 Jul 2023 11:34:38 EDT news608207675 When the RIME antenna on ESA's Juice mission failed to deploy a few days after launch, the engineering teams faced the mighty challenge of understanding the fault and rectifying it. At stake was a chance to see inside Jupiter's mysterious icy moons. /news/2023-07-rime-deployment-mystery-esa-juice.html Space Exploration Planetary Sciences Thu, 06 Jul 2023 15:21:05 EDT news607875661 A Cornell-led collaboration harnessed chemical reactions to make microscale origami machines self-fold—freeing them from the liquids in which they usually function, so they can operate in dry environments and at room temperature. /news/2023-05-self-folding-origami-machines-powered-chemical.html Materials Science Tue, 02 May 2023 11:25:59 EDT news602245548 A recent study published in Sensors and Actuators: B. Chemical highlights the development of highly active oxidase mimics using MnOx nanobelts (NBs) generated through laser irradiation in liquid (LIL) techniques by researchers from Institute of Solid State Â鶹ÒùÔºics, Hefei Institute of Â鶹ÒùÔºical Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences. /news/2023-04-defect-rich-mnox-nanobelts-glutathione.html Bio & Medicine Nanophysics Tue, 25 Apr 2023 09:28:43 EDT news601633722 Effective, accurate and quick ways to screen and sort microbes are in short supply. Most methods available now rely on additional labeling steps to sort bacteria, which are typically time-consuming and cannot work well for industrial-scale breeding. /news/2023-04-label-free-droplet-based-methods-rapid-screening.html Cell & Microbiology Biotechnology Fri, 14 Apr 2023 10:19:03 EDT news600686341 A team of researchers led by the University of Sydney's Associate Professor Niels Quack has developed a new technology to combine optics and micro-electro mechanical systems (MEMS) in a microchip, paving the way for the creation of devices like micro-3D cameras and gas sensors for precision air quality measurement, including their use in mobile phones. /news/2023-03-team-silicon-photonic-mems-compatible.html Optics & Photonics Wed, 22 Mar 2023 09:49:02 EDT news598697341 Rice University materials scientist Boris Yakobson and collaborators uncovered a property of ferroelectric 2D materials that could be exploited as a feature in future devices. /news/2023-03-2d-nanomaterial-future-technologies.html Nanomaterials Mon, 06 Mar 2023 11:47:03 EST news597325622 Let's say you needed to move an individual cell from one place to another. How would you do it? Maybe some special tweezers? A really tiny shovel? /news/2023-02-cells-ultrasound.html Biotechnology Fri, 24 Feb 2023 04:31:34 EST news596435486