Will strong and fast-switching artificial muscle be feasible?

In the American action movie "Pacific Rim," giant robots called "Jaegers" fight against unknown monsters to save mankind. These robots are equipped with artificial muscles that mimic real living bodies and defeat monsters ...

New PET-like plastic made directly from waste biomass

It is becoming increasingly obvious that moving away from fossil fuels and avoiding the accumulation of plastics in the environment are key to addressing the challenge of climate change. In that vein, there are considerable ...

Shining light on two-dimensional magnets

Atomically thin van der Waals magnets are widely seen as the ultimate compact media for future magnetic data storage and fast data processing. Controlling the magnetic state of these materials in real-time, however, has proven ...

Superflimsy graphene turned ultrastiff by optical forging

Graphene is an ultrathin material characterized by its ultrasmall bending modulus, superflimsiness. Now the researchers at the Nanoscience Center of the University of Jyväskylä have demonstrated how an experimental technique ...

Turning wood into plastic

Efforts to shift from petrochemical plastics to renewable and biodegradable plastics have proven tricky—the production process can require toxic chemicals and is expensive, and the mechanical strength and water stability ...

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