/ 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. Hydrogels are soft, water-rich polymeric materials that can swell or shrink in response to environmental stimuli. This ability to change shape makes them valuable in miniaturized devices for flexible electronics, microrobotics, intelligent surfaces, and biomedical applications such as drug delivery. For example, hydrogel pores can be engineered to trap and release tiny drug particles on demand. /news/2025-08-origami-strategy-hydrogel-pores-enables.html Polymers Analytical Chemistry Wed, 27 Aug 2025 13:00:01 EDT news675517920 The way someone walks, talks, smiles, or gestures gives a clue to who they are. Whether through the flick of an eyebrow, the rhythm of our walk, or the tilt of a head, movement speaks volumes. /news/2025-08-movement-signatures-gesture-facial-unique.html Social Sciences Mon, 25 Aug 2025 11:05:04 EDT news675338701 Farmers might be able to get help tending and harvesting crops using a new sensing technology from Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute (RI). Researchers have invented a tool called SonicBoom that can find crops like apples based on the sound they make. The novel technology, still in the early stages of development, may someday be used by farm robots for tasks like pruning vines or locating ripe apples hidden among the leaves. /news/2025-08-agricultural-sensor-crops-vibrations-alternative.html Biotechnology Agriculture Thu, 14 Aug 2025 16:23:04 EDT news674407382 Scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and their collaborators have created a new class of programmable soft materials that can absorb impacts like never before, while also changing shape when heated. /news/2025-08-programmable-soft-material-absorbs-energy.html Polymers Analytical Chemistry Thu, 07 Aug 2025 12:30:22 EDT news673788615 Transparent-faced fish drift through dusky waters. Snowlike flecks of dead plants sift down from the world above. Soft sponges peek through the soot of the seafloor. Only occasional mutters among marine biologists break the thick silence. /news/2025-08-livestream-deep-sea-creatures-transfixes.html Ecology Tue, 05 Aug 2025 15:39:48 EDT news673627175 While NASA maintains the lead in human space exploration, other nations have already begun their own projects. Take the China National Space Agency, for example, with their CLEP, or Chinese Lunar Exploration Program. If you have any doubts about the objectives of the program, just check out their logo: a stylized crescent moon with two footprints in the middle. /news/2025-08-china-meteoric-space.html Space Exploration Mon, 04 Aug 2025 10:40:02 EDT news673519136 Microrobots formed in droplets could enable precision-targeted drug delivery, improving on I.V. drug delivery that sends only 0.7% of the drug to the target tissue, according to a recent study in Science Advances, conducted through simulations at the University of Michigan and experiments at the University of Oxford. /news/2025-07-microrobots-drugs-drug-delivery.html Bio & Medicine Nanomaterials Thu, 31 Jul 2025 15:57:13 EDT news673196227 School of �鶹��Ժics Associate Professor Elisabetta Matsumoto is unearthing the secrets of the centuries-old practice of knitting through experiments, models, and simulations. Her goal? Leveraging knitting for breakthroughs in advanced manufacturing—including more sustainable textiles, wearable electronics, and soft robotics. /news/2025-07-strength-physics-stiff-fabrics.html General �鶹��Ժics Soft Matter Wed, 30 Jul 2025 11:46:04 EDT news673094761 Like humans, octopuses can fall for the rubber hand illusion and believe that a fake arm is theirs. This suggests they have a sense of their own body, just as we do. /news/2025-07-rubber-illusion-octopuses.html Plants & Animals Tue, 22 Jul 2025 10:40:13 EDT news672399596 S. Somanath, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization, announced in August 2023 that "India is on the moon." The announcement meant India had joined the short list of countries to have visited the moon, and the applause and shouts of joy that followed signified that this achievement wasn't just a scientific one, but a cultural one. /news/2025-07-democratizing-space-adding-players.html Space Exploration Mon, 21 Jul 2025 13:10:03 EDT news672320542 Fresh, frozen and processed berries are a multi-billion-dollar business in America. In Arkansas alone, fresh-market blackberries contribute $24.3 million each year to the state's economy. But these delicate blackberries sold in clamshells at supermarkets must be picked by hand, and farm labor has been limited in recent years. A new berry-picking robot gripper developed at the U of A could give growers a high-tech replacement for limited labor availability. /news/2025-07-robot-harvest-blackberries-humans.html Biotechnology Agriculture Mon, 21 Jul 2025 10:01:51 EDT news672310904 In a step forward for soft robotics and biomedical devices, Rice University engineers have uncovered a powerful new way to boost the strength and durability of silicone-based soft devices without changing the materials themselves. Their study, published in a special issue of Science Advances, focuses on printed and musculoskeletal robotics and offers a predictive framework that connects silicone curing conditions with adhesion strength, enabling dramatic improvements in performance for both molded and 3D-printed elastomer components. /news/2025-07-smarter-silicone-bonding-enables-stronger.html Materials Science Wed, 16 Jul 2025 16:18:31 EDT news671901507 Haozhe "Harry" Wang, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering (ECE) at Duke University and an expert in developing new methods for manufacturing materials, continues to push the boundaries in MXene research. /news/2025-07-mxenes-gain-flexibility-precise-plasma.html Nanomaterials Wed, 09 Jul 2025 04:29:14 EDT news671254146 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 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 NASA's car-sized Perseverance rover has been roaming the surface of Mars for four years, drilling into the alien soil to collect dirt it places in tubes and leaves on the ground. /news/2025-06-trump-dozens-nasa-missions-threatens.html Space Exploration Wed, 18 Jun 2025 08:00:03 EDT news669452014 Every year, I tell my students in my business analytics class the same thing: "Don't just apply for a job. Audition for it." /news/2025-06-companies-havent-hiring-theyre-cautious.html Economics & Business Tue, 17 Jun 2025 14:20:01 EDT news669387367 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 When astronauts finally reach Mars, they'll face a unique challenge: walking and working in gravity that's only 37% as strong as Earth's. After spending months in the weightlessness of space, their weakened muscles and bones will struggle to cope with even this reduced gravity. Now, researchers at the University of Bristol have developed a promising solution; a soft, wearable exosuit powered by inflatable "bubble muscles." /news/2025-06-muscles-astronauts-space-legs.html Space Exploration Mon, 16 Jun 2025 16:38:03 EDT news669310681 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 Coordinated behaviors like swarming—from ant colonies to schools of fish—are found everywhere in nature. Researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have given a nod to nature with a next-generation robot system that's capable of movement, exploration, transport and cooperation. /news/2025-06-link-bots-explore-cooperate.html General �鶹��Ժics Tue, 10 Jun 2025 12:40:01 EDT news668774523 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 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 From soft robots crawling through crops to bio-based fertilizers that protect waterways, the future of farming lies at the intersection of scientific disciplines, according to a new study describing how agriculture's toughest challenges require coordinated breakthroughs in biology, chemistry, engineering and data science. /news/2025-04-growth-fields-scientific-collaboration-tackles.html Biotechnology Agriculture Thu, 17 Apr 2025 16:50:03 EDT news664127401 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 Living cells are bustling with molecular machines that constantly process energy, matter, and information. Among these machines, proteins stand out, with enzymes being the most notable. These catalytic entities dramatically accelerate essential metabolic reactions by many orders of magnitude, facilitating the very processes that sustain life. While it has long been acknowledged that enzymes undergo movements during their catalytic cycles, measuring and predicting these internal motions and forces has proven extremely challenging. /news/2025-03-mechanics-life-enzymes-soft-programmable.html Biotechnology Molecular & Computational biology Mon, 31 Mar 2025 13:21:55 EDT news662646112 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