/ 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 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 Advancing new hazard detection and precision landing technologies to help future space missions successfully achieve safe and soft landings is a critical area of space research and development, particularly for future crewed missions. /news/2025-05-nasa-ways-terrain.html Space Exploration Fri, 30 May 2025 09:39:04 EDT news667816741 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 April 2025 was a busy month for space. /news/2025-05-space-law-doesnt-historical-sites.html Space Exploration Mon, 12 May 2025 10:58:05 EDT news666266281 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 joint team from National Taiwan University and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology has developed a novel hydrogel actuator whose movement can be programmed using UV light, enabling precise spatial control of thermoresponsive deformation for presenting a potential application in soft robotics and in vitro muscle models. /news/2025-04-uv-programmable-hydrogel-actuator-bioinspired.html Polymers Materials Science Thu, 24 Apr 2025 07:28:03 EDT news664698481 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 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 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 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 A world-first soft robotic hand, developed by researchers at CSIRO, Australia's national science agency, could revolutionize the delicate, labor-intensive process of cultivating baby corals in laboratories, offering a groundbreaking approach to coral restoration efforts. /news/2024-11-world-robotic-cultivate-baby-corals.html Ecology Biotechnology Thu, 14 Nov 2024 09:50:01 EST news650799636 Researchers said on Monday they had designed the first robotic leg with "artificial muscles"—oil-filled bags allowing machines to move more like humans—that can jump nimbly across a range of surfaces. /news/2024-09-robot-leg-artificial-muscles-nimbly.html General �鶹��Ժics Mon, 09 Sep 2024 19:00:02 EDT news645101569 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 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