https://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. The integration of biological organisms into synthetic structures offers a radical new pathway for developing intelligent, self-powered materials. Researchers have pioneered an innovative approach to biomanufacturing by using light-based 3D printing to engineer living material systems capable of localized environmental processing. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-ocean-3d-gels-mechanical.html Cell & Microbiology Thu, 11 Jun 2026 12:40:04 EDT news700395422 The metamorphosis of butterflies from larvae to pupae to adulthood is a natural wonder. By investigating the developmental processes that occur within the pupa, transforming it into a butterfly, scientists have discovered a new twist in a process that forms an intricate nanostructure responsible for the vibrant green colors of their wings. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-braided-nanostructures-reveal-3d-tapestry.html Bio & Medicine Tue, 30 Sep 2025 09:53:03 EDT news678444781 Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have developed a new method to 3D print sturdy silicone structures that are bigger, taller, thinner and more porous than ever before. https://phys.org/news/2024-12-fast-silicone-ink-doors-3d.html Materials Science Mon, 02 Dec 2024 13:38:24 EST news652369098 Plumber's nightmare structure presents itself as an assemblage where all exits seem to converge inward—a plumber's nightmare but an anticipated uniqueness for researchers, suggesting distinctive traits divergent from traditional materials. Nonetheless, this intricate configuration was deemed unattainable, bordering on the realm of the impossible. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-scientists-block-copolymer-conundrum-polymer.html Polymers Mon, 22 Jan 2024 10:47:03 EST news625142821 Scientists have devised a way of fabricating a complex structure, previously found only in nature, to open up new ways for manipulating and controlling light. https://phys.org/news/2023-03-colloids-creative-pave-generation-photonics.html Nanophysics Thu, 09 Mar 2023 12:08:15 EST news597586089 Polymer scientists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst recently announced in the journal Nature Communications that they have solved a longstanding mystery surrounding a nanoscale structure, formed by collections of molecules, called a double-gyroid. This shape is one of the most desirable for materials scientists, and has a wide range of applications; but until now, a predictable understanding of how these shapes form has eluded researchers. https://phys.org/news/2022-05-theory-reshape-polymer-superstructures.html Polymers Mon, 16 May 2022 16:23:13 EDT news571936988 The microscopic components that make up computer chips must be made at staggering scales. With billions of transistors in a single processor, each made of multiple materials carefully arranged in patterns as thin as a strand of DNA, their manufacturing tools must also operate at a molecular level. https://phys.org/news/2022-03-class-materials-nanoscale-patterning.html Nanomaterials Thu, 24 Mar 2022 08:18:12 EDT news567328688 Nature keeps a few secrets. While plenty of structures with low symmetry are found in nature, scientists have been confined to high-symmetry designs when synthesizing colloidal crystals, a valuable type of nanomaterial used for chemical and biological sensing and optoelectronic devices. https://phys.org/news/2022-01-reveals-symmetry-colloidal-crystals.html Nanomaterials Thu, 13 Jan 2022 15:43:06 EST news561310982 A recent study by a team of researchers led by Dr. Vinod Kumar Saranathan from the Division of Science at Yale-NUS College has discovered a complex, three-dimensional crystal called the single gyroid within feathers of the blue-winged leafbird. Dr. Saranathan and his team's breakthrough came from their investigation of the feather colors of leafbirds, an enigmatic group of perching birds endemic to South and Southeast Asia (including Singapore), one species of which has evolved the unique crystals in its plumage. https://phys.org/news/2021-06-scientist-leafbirds-complex-color-producing-crystals.html Bio & Medicine Thu, 03 Jun 2021 12:50:15 EDT news541943410 In new research, Texas A&M University scientists have for the first time revealed a single microscopic defect called a "twin" in a soft-block copolymer using an advanced electron microscopy technique. This defect may be exploited in the future to create materials with novel acoustic and photonic properties. https://phys.org/news/2021-05-unexpected-black-swan-defect-soft.html Condensed Matter Wed, 19 May 2021 16:51:48 EDT news540661898 What appears to be an impossibly complicated maze is actually quite simple. Two complicated mazes, intertwined but not touching, tell a different story. https://phys.org/news/2019-10-soft-gyroids-unique-imperfect-crystals.html Materials Science Mon, 28 Oct 2019 13:27:58 EDT news491488070 Self-assembled materials are attractive for next-generation materials, but their potential to assemble at the nanoscale and form nanostructures (cylinders, lamellae etc.) remains challenging. In a recent report, Xundu Feng and colleagues at the interdisciplinary departments of chemical and environmental engineering, biomolecular engineering, chemistry and the center for advanced low-dimension materials in the U.S., France, Japan and China, proposed and demonstrated a new approach to prevent the existing challenges. In the study, they explored size-selective transport in the water-continuous medium of a nanostructured polymer template formed using a self-assembled lyotropic H1 (hexagonal cylindrical shaped) mesophase (a state of matter between liquid and solid). They optimized the mesophase composition to facilitate high-fidelity retention of the H1 structure on photoinduced crosslinking. https://phys.org/news/2019-08-self-assembled-membrane-water-continuous-pathways-precise.html Polymers Wed, 21 Aug 2019 09:30:05 EDT news485504419 The world is a big place, but it's gotten smaller with the advent of technologies that put people from across the globe in the palm of one's hand. And as the world has shrunk, it has also demanded that things happen ever faster—including the time it takes to charge an electronic device. https://phys.org/news/2018-05-self-assembling-d-battery-seconds.html Energy & Green Tech Thu, 17 May 2018 14:31:48 EDT news445786299 Rice University engineers are using 3-D printers to turn structures that have until now existed primarily in theory into strong, light and durable materials with complex, repeating patterns. https://phys.org/news/2017-11-d-printers-century-old-theory-complex.html Mathematics Thu, 16 Nov 2017 12:47:06 EST news430058808 (Phys.org)—An international team of researchers has taken another step toward understanding the process by which butterfly wing scales develop crystals that result in bright, vivid colors. In their paper published in the open-access site Science Advances, the group describes the methods they used to study the wing scale crystals of the hairstreak butterfly—a black and bright blue native of parts of Colorado and northern Mexico—and what they found. https://phys.org/news/2017-04-ultra-high-resolution-images-butterfly-wing.html Nanomaterials Thu, 27 Apr 2017 10:30:15 EDT news412507800 A team of researchers at MIT has designed one of the strongest lightweight materials known, by compressing and fusing flakes of graphene, a two-dimensional form of carbon. The new material, a sponge-like configuration with a density of just 5 percent, can have a strength 10 times that of steel. https://phys.org/news/2017-01-porous-d-graphene-mit-strong.html Nanomaterials Fri, 06 Jan 2017 14:00:03 EST news402925072 A team of physicists that visualized the internal nanostructure of an intact butterfly wing has discovered two physical attributes that make those structures so bright and colorful. https://phys.org/news/2016-06-x-ray-snapshot-butterfly-wings-reveals.html Optics & Photonics Fri, 10 Jun 2016 14:00:07 EDT news384764716 (Phys.org)—A team of researchers with Swinburne University of Technology in Australia has found a way to use two-beam super-resolution lithography to create 3D photonic "gyroid" nanostructures—similar to those found in butterfly wings. In their paper published in the journal Science Advances, the team describes their technique and some applications to which it might be applied. https://phys.org/news/2016-05-two-beam-super-resolution-lithography-3d-photonic.html Nanophysics Mon, 16 May 2016 08:51:16 EDT news382607460 Building on nearly two decades' worth of research, a multidisciplinary team at Cornell has blazed a new trail by creating a self-assembled, three-dimensional gyroidal superconductor. https://phys.org/news/2016-01-self-assembled-superconductor.html Superconductivity Fri, 29 Jan 2016 14:00:01 EST news373289342 Part of a 1929 prediction by physicist Hermann Weyl—of a kind of massless particle that features a singular point in its energy spectrum called the "Weyl point,"—has finally been confirmed by direct observation for the first time, says an international team of physicists led by researchers at MIT. The finding could lead to new kinds of high-power single-mode lasers and other optical devices, the team says. https://phys.org/news/2015-07-weyl-years.html Condensed Matter Thu, 16 Jul 2015 14:00:07 EDT news356263704 Using molds to shape things is as old as humanity. In the Bronze Age, the copper-tin alloy was melted and cast into weapons in ceramic molds. Today, injection and extrusion molding shape hot liquids into everything from car parts to toys. https://phys.org/news/2015-07-polymer-mold-silicon-nanostructures.html Nanomaterials Fri, 03 Jul 2015 06:35:40 EDT news355124075 (PhysOrg.com) -- Nanomanufacturing technology has enabled scientists to create metamaterials -- stuff that never existed in nature -- with unusual optical properties. They could lead to "superlenses" able to image proteins, viruses and DNA, and perhaps even make a "Star Trek" cloaking device. https://phys.org/news/2011-11-chemically-metamaterials-superlenses.html Materials Science Wed, 02 Nov 2011 07:14:25 EDT news239436830 (PhysOrg.com) -- A new study by mathematicians in Australia has explained how skin remains stable in water and does not dissolve, and why it wrinkles and remains a strong barrier even after absorbing large quantities of water. https://phys.org/news/2011-03-soggy-skin-wrinkly-dissolve.html Mathematics Thu, 10 Mar 2011 06:50:01 EST news218953485 (PhysOrg.com) -- Cornell researchers have developed a new method to create a patterned single-crystal thin film of semiconductor material that could lead to more efficient photovoltaic cells and batteries. https://phys.org/news/2010-10-single-crystal-advance-solar-cells-video.html Nanomaterials Fri, 08 Oct 2010 06:41:03 EDT news205738843 (PhysOrg.com) -- At the very heart of some of the most brilliant colors on the wings of butterflies lie bizarre structures, a multidisciplinary team of Yale researchers has found. These structures are intriguing the team's scientists and engineers, who want to use them to harness the power of light. https://phys.org/news/2010-06-butterfly-wing-yield-clues-light-altering.html Nanophysics Mon, 14 Jun 2010 16:38:24 EDT news195752252 (PhysOrg.com) -- You never know where basic research may lead. For decades materials scientists have been experimenting with a corkscrew-like polymer structure called a gyroid. Now an international team of researchers has shown that the gyroid structure can be used to "self-assemble" a low-cost photovoltaic cell. https://phys.org/news/2008-11-nanomanufactured-polymer-lower-cost-solar-cells.html Nanomaterials Tue, 25 Nov 2008 15:27:39 EST news146849259