Lego-like smart material lets robots change stiffness like living tissue
Robots are usually built from materials with fixed properties.
Once a robot is assembled, its stiffness, flexibility and movement patterns are largely locked in.
Engineers at...
MIT engineers turn recycled plastic bottles into strong 3D-printed home frames
The plastic bottle you toss into the recycling bin today might one day help hold up the floor of a house.
Engineers at MIT are...
This 4D-printed smart skin can transform its shape and reveal hidden images
Most synthetic materials are made to do just one or two things. Once they are created, their properties rarely change.
A research team at Penn...
Your smartphones could become lifesaving radiation detectors in emergencies
After a nuclear or radiological accident, knowing who has been exposed to radiation—and how much—can save lives.
But traditional ways of measuring radiation dose usually...
These shape-shifting materials could bring soft robots to life
Engineers at McGill University have developed a new class of ultra-thin, shape-shifting materials that can move, fold, and reconfigure themselves—much like animated origami.
The breakthrough...
New sodium-based smart windows could block heat without darkening rooms
As cities around the world struggle with rising energy demand, controlling heat from sunlight has become a major challenge.
A large portion of the heat...
This new 3D printing system could change how cars, planes, and buildings are made
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have developed a powerful new 3D-printing system that could transform how large...
This new off-grid filter could capture nanoplastics smaller than 50 nanometers
Tiny plastic particles are turning up almost everywhere, including in drinking water.
Now, researchers in South Korea have developed a new filtration technology that can...
A one-atom-thick fix could finally unlock diamond electronics
Diamonds are famous for their beauty, but their real superpower may lie in electronics.
Beyond sparkle, diamond is one of the toughest and most efficient...
Scientists create world’s smallest capacitor to measure motion at quantum level
Scientists at TU Wien (Vienna University of Technology) have created the world’s smallest capacitor—and while it may sound like a niche engineering feat, it...