/ 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. 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 The vast majority of students now use generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) programs on a regular basis. Can teachers get students past the principle of least effort and turn these programs into educational tools? /news/2025-05-ai-students-creatively.html Education Fri, 16 May 2025 10:58:04 EDT news666611881 A research team has synthesized a novel red sea star-inspired polyurethane, which can achieve rapid underwater self-healing. The study was published in Macromolecules. /news/2025-05-red-sea-star-polyurethane-enables.html Polymers Materials Science Fri, 16 May 2025 09:48:02 EDT news666607681 Researchers at the University of Tokyo and their collaborators have developed a digital laboratory system that fully automates the material synthesis and the structural and physical property evaluation of thin-film samples. /news/2025-05-team-digital-lab-robot-driven.html Analytical Chemistry Materials Science Wed, 14 May 2025 05:00:01 EDT news666272101 An international study featuring scientists from Curtin University's School of Earth and Planetary Sciences and Space Science and Technology Center offers new insights into the moon's history and provides a better understanding of what lies beneath its cratered surface. /news/2025-05-glass-beads-window-moon-hidden.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 12 May 2025 09:17:02 EDT news666260221 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 Five millennia ago, wealth inequality—which had stayed roughly constant for thousands of years—exploded. It has stayed constant, albeit much higher, ever since. /news/2025-05-year-technology-politics-culture-modern.html Social Sciences Economics & Business Thu, 08 May 2025 08:32:03 EDT news665911921 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 How do robots feel in space? This is both a practical and possibly an existential question. Still, today, we'll focus on the practical side by looking at a review paper from Hadi Jahanshahi and Zheng Zhu of York University in Canada that discusses different tactile sensor types and their advantages and disadvantages for use in space. /news/2025-04-robots-space.html Space Exploration Wed, 30 Apr 2025 13:32:04 EDT news665238722 The first case of an electric circuit created using a simple marker and a laser beam shows that simple and sustainable materials can generate innovative applications on any surface, such as a coffee cup. /news/2025-04-marker-ink-graphene-based-electric.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Wed, 30 Apr 2025 03:30:02 EDT news665197504 When NASA astronauts return to the moon under the Artemis campaign and eventually venture farther into the solar system, they will encounter conditions harsher than any humans have experienced before. Ensuring next-generation spacesuits protect astronauts requires new varieties of tests, and a one-of-a-kind chamber called CITADEL (Cryogenic Ice Testing, Acquisition Development, and Excavation Laboratory) at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California is helping. /news/2025-04-nasa-key-spacesuit-icy-chamber.html Space Exploration Thu, 24 Apr 2025 15:09:10 EDT news664726143 An interdisciplinary team of scientists and engineers is arguing the research community should make a concerted effort to capitalize on advances in robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) to expedite work that addresses sustainable energy, emerging diseases and other global challenges. /news/2025-04-qa-labs-era-scientific.html Education Thu, 24 Apr 2025 11:50:06 EDT news664714201 On a wave-battered rock in the northern Pacific Ocean, a fish called the sculpin grips the surface firmly to maintain stability in its harsh environment. Unlike sea urchins, which use their glue-secreting tube feet to adhere to their surroundings, sculpins manage to grip without a specialized adhesive organ like tube feet or the suction cups of octopuses. /news/2025-04-microscopic-fin-features-sculpins-turbulent.html Plants & Animals Cell & Microbiology Wed, 23 Apr 2025 15:41:04 EDT news664641661 In a breakthrough that blends ancient design with modern materials science, researchers at the University of Houston have developed a new class of ceramic structures that can bend under pressure—without breaking. /news/2025-04-reinvents-ceramics-origami-3d.html Polymers Materials Science Wed, 23 Apr 2025 12:22:03 EDT news664629722 Over the past decades, electronics engineers developed increasingly small, flexible and sophisticated sensors that can pick up a wide range of signals, ranging from human motions to heartrate and other biological signals. These sensors have in turn enabled the development of new electronics, including smartwatches, biomedical devices that can help monitor the health of users over time and other wearable or implantable systems. /news/2025-04-carbon-nanotube-based-strain-sensor.html Bio & Medicine Nanomaterials Wed, 23 Apr 2025 07:50:02 EDT news664544793 From microscopic robots that can carry and deliver drugs inside the human body to tiny particles that can detect and break down microplastics, an emerging field called active matter is looking toward the microscale to solve some of the world's biggest problems. /news/2025-04-qa-microscopic-traffic-solution-insights.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Tue, 22 Apr 2025 16:07:05 EDT news664556821 In a study co-authored by a Texas A&M University scientist, researchers have revealed new insights into the geological history of Mars's Jezero Crater, the landing site of NASA's Perseverance rover. Their findings suggest that the crater's floor is composed of a diverse array of iron-rich volcanic rocks, providing a window into the planet's distant past and the closest chance yet to uncover signs of ancient life. /news/2025-04-unveils-volcanic-history-clues-ancient.html Astrobiology Planetary Sciences Sat, 19 Apr 2025 13:30:01 EDT news664201654 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 have developed a machine-learning workflow to optimize the output force of photo-actuated organic crystals. Using LASSO regression to identify key molecular substructures and Bayesian optimization for efficient sampling, they achieved a maximum blocking force of 37.0 mN—73 times more efficient than conventional methods. /news/2025-04-machine-superior-driven-crystals.html Biochemistry Analytical Chemistry Tue, 15 Apr 2025 16:49:04 EDT news663954542 In late 2017, a mysterious object tore through our solar system at breakneck speed. Astronomers scrambled to observe the fast-moving body using the world's most powerful telescopes. It was found to be one quarter mile (400m) long and very elongated—perhaps 10 times as long as it was wide. Researchers named it 'Oumuamua, Hawaiian for "scout." /news/2025-04-mysterious-stars-solar-scientists.html Astronomy Tue, 15 Apr 2025 11:54:05 EDT news663936841 Four space tourists who orbited the north and south poles returned to Earth on Friday, splashing down in the Pacific to end their privately funded polar tour. /news/2025-04-space-tourists-earth-private-flight.html Space Exploration Fri, 04 Apr 2025 12:49:11 EDT news662989746 Multiple plans exist to explore Mars in the coming decades using robotic and crewed missions. The ultimate goal of these missions is to determine whether human beings could live there someday. This requires access to building materials, water, cutting-edge manufacturing technology, and closed-loop habitation systems with bioregenerative life support systems (BLSS). Basically, future settlers will need to create conditions that mimic Earth's self-sustaining ecological systems—essentially, we need to "take Earth with us" to other planets. /news/2025-04-quickly-temperatures-mars.html Planetary Sciences Fri, 04 Apr 2025 11:42:03 EDT news662985722 In the quest to design the next generation of materials for modern devices—ones that are lightweight, flexible and excellent at dissipating heat—a team of researchers led by the University of Massachusetts Amherst made a discovery: imperfection has its upsides. /news/2025-04-polymers-flawed-fillers-boost-plastics.html Polymers Analytical Chemistry Fri, 04 Apr 2025 11:39:04 EDT news662985541 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 Plants don't just grow, they build. From towering trees to delicate flowers, complex plant shapes are sculpted with remarkable precision. Now a study by biologists and biophysicists at Université de Montréal reveals how plants build their organs in three dimensions. /news/2025-04-physical-generate-complex-3d.html Plants & Animals Molecular & Computational biology Tue, 01 Apr 2025 17:10:12 EDT news662746201 Could microbes survive in the permanently shadowed regions (PSRs) of the moon? This is what a recent study presented at the 56th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC 2025) hopes to address as a team of researchers from the United States and Canada investigated the likelihood of long-term survival for microbes in the PSR areas of the moon, which are craters located at the poles that don't see sunlight due to the moon's small axial tilt. /news/2025-04-lunar-polar-regions-microbes.html Astrobiology Tue, 01 Apr 2025 15:54:05 EDT news662741641 Capturing precise 3D details with a single camera has long been a challenge. Traditional methods often require complex dual-camera setups or specialized lighting conditions that are impractical for real-world applications. However, a groundbreaking approach developed at Nanjing University is set to redefine 3D imaging. /news/2025-03-revolutionizing-3d-vision-miniaturized-snapshot.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 01 Apr 2025 07:20:02 EDT news662633824 A bitcoin investor who bought a SpaceX flight for himself and three polar explorers blasted off Monday night on the first rocket ride to carry people over the North and South poles. /news/2025-04-bitcoin-investor-buys-entire-spacex.html Space Exploration Tue, 01 Apr 2025 04:39:30 EDT news662701163 In a leap forward for materials science, a multi-institutional team of researchers has developed a pioneering method of 3D printing cholesteric liquid crystal elastomers (CLCEs), enabling complex, color-changing responsive materials and paving the way for novel applications like smart textiles and advanced robotics. /news/2025-03-3d-method-materials-smart-textiles.html Materials Science Mon, 31 Mar 2025 14:53:04 EDT news662651581 Researchers at The University of Texas at Dallas have invented a new, inexpensive method for fabricating artificial muscles for potential use in robots, in comfort-adjusting jackets that become more thermally insulating as the surrounding air becomes colder, and as mechanical energy harvesters. /news/2025-03-artificial-muscles-action-mandrel-free.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Mon, 31 Mar 2025 14:15:03 EDT news662649301