Inspired by living things from trees to shellfish, researchers at The University of Texas at Austin set out to create a plastic much like many life forms that are hard and rigid in some places and soft and stretchy in others. ...
A new multi-functional material which can be used to purify water, as a recyclable construction material, and as a lightweight machine component for possible use in soft robotics, can also be moved remotely by a magnet.
The complexity of life on Earth was derived from simplicity: From the first protocells to the growth of any organism, individual cells aggregate into basic clumps and then form more complex structures. The earliest cells ...
People have been exploring the surface of Mars for over 50 years. According to the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, nations have sent 18 human-made objects to Mars over 14 separate missions. Many of these missions ...
Researchers at the University of California San Diego have developed soft devices containing algae that glow in the dark when experiencing mechanical stress, such as being squished, stretched, twisted or bent. The devices ...
Famous for their eight arms, octopuses leverage all of their appendages to move, jet through the water and capture prey. But their movements can look awkward and seemingly unplanned at times, more closely resembling aliens ...
"Soft matter" was first proposed by Pierre-Gilles de Gennes in his Nobel acceptance speech in 1991. The term describes materials between aqueous substances and ideal solids.
More than half of the thousands of satellites in orbit are now defunct, and this accumulation of floating space debris has been described as a "fatal problem" for current and future space missions and human space travel.
A new publication from Opto-Electronic Advances discusses how carnivorous plants inspire smart slippery surfaces and bionic robots.
Today NASA uses wheeled rovers to navigate the surface of Mars and conduct planetary science, but research involving Texas A&M University scientists will test the feasibility of new surface-exploration technology: walking ...
