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. Danqing Liu from Eindhoven University of Technology explores how interactions with digital systems can be improved through the sense of touch. To achieve this, she develops advanced liquid crystal polymers that respond to light. Her work has recently been published in two scientific journals, Science Advances and Matter & Light. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-artificial-human-gestures-memory-written.html Polymers Fri, 10 Jul 2026 12:40:03 EDT news702897186 A new study from an interdisciplinary German research collaboration, led by the Haptic Intelligence Department at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems (MPI-IS), reveals the secret to the gentle dexterity of the elephant trunk. The 1,000 whiskers that cover an elephant's trunk have unusual material properties that highlight where contact happens along each whisker, giving elephants an amazing sense of touch that compensates for their thick skin and poor eyesight. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-elephant-trunk-whiskers-material-intelligence.html Plants & Animals Thu, 12 Feb 2026 14:00:07 EST news690089135 Mechanoluminescent (ML) materials are attractive for haptic interface sensors for next-generation technologies, including bite-controlled user interface, health care motion monitoring, and piconewton sensing, because they emit light under mechanical stimulation without an external power source. However, their intrinsically broad emission spectra can degrade resolution and introduce noise in sensing applications, necessitating further technological development. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-mechanoluminescent-sensors-dual-function-polymer.html Polymers Fri, 07 Nov 2025 12:57:43 EST news681742659 Imagine if a doctor could remotely do a non-invasive, highly precise medical procedure on her patients using a tiny robot, or microrobot. With a device researchers from SMU and George Washington University created, that is one step closer to reality. https://phys.org/news/2025-03-magnetic-tweezers-robotic-surgery-safer.html Bio & Medicine Wed, 26 Mar 2025 12:37:04 EDT news662211422 The next step for fully integrated textile-based electronics to make their way from the lab to the wardrobe is figuring out how to power the garment gizmos without unfashionably toting around a solid battery. Researchers from Drexel University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Accenture Labs in California have taken a new approach to the challenge by building a full textile energy grid that can be wirelessly charged. In their recent study, the team reported that it can power textile devices, including a warming element and environmental sensors that transmit data in real-time. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-clothesline-grid-mxene-nanomaterials-enable.html Nanomaterials Thu, 31 Oct 2024 14:30:04 EDT news649603802 This week, researchers reported on the implications of a warp drive containment breach in case you're interested in theoretical space-borne disasters. Scientists in the U.K. report the cardiovascular benefits of COVID-19 vaccination in an extremely thorough analysis of basically the entire adult population of England. And the American Cancer Society is out with numbers related to rising cancer risk in younger generations in the U.S. So it's not all good news. https://phys.org/news/2024-08-saturday-citations-warp-disasters-cancer.html Other Sat, 03 Aug 2024 09:00:01 EDT news641831721 The lab of University of Virginia systems engineer Gregory J. Gerling recently made a discovery on a touchy subject: why women generally seem to have a more acute sense of touch than men. https://phys.org/news/2024-07-finger-men-women-differently.html Other Wed, 31 Jul 2024 16:25:57 EDT news641661946 A team of researchers led by the University of California San Diego has developed a soft, stretchy electronic device capable of simulating the feeling of pressure or vibration when worn on the skin. This device, reported in a paper published in Science Robotics, represents a step towards creating haptic technologies that can reproduce a more varied and realistic range of touch sensations. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-soft-stretchy-electrode-simulates-sensations.html Nanomaterials Fri, 28 Jun 2024 11:28:20 EDT news638792874 Knitting, the age-old craft of looping and stitching natural fibers into fabrics, has received renewed attention for its potential applications in advanced manufacturing. Far beyond their use for garments, knitted textiles are ideal for designing and fabricating emerging technologies like wearable electronics or soft robotics—structures that need to move and bend. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-physicists-decode-mechanics-materials-applications.html General Physics Tue, 04 Jun 2024 11:10:25 EDT news636718222 Space coiling acoustic metamaterials are static and require manual reconfiguration for sound-field modulation. In a new report published in Communications Materials, Christabel Choi, and a team of scientists in computer science and engineering in the U.K., and Italy, developed an approach for active reconfiguration with standalone dynamics to space-coil unit cells known as dynamic meta-bricks. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-magnetically-actuated-acoustic-metamaterial.html Materials Science Wed, 10 Jan 2024 10:00:01 EST news624103021 UCLA materials scientists and colleagues at the nonprofit scientific research institute SRI International have developed a new material and manufacturing process for creating artificial muscles that are stronger and more flexible than their biological counterparts. https://phys.org/news/2022-07-scientists-durable-material-flexible-artificial.html Materials Science Thu, 07 Jul 2022 14:00:08 EDT news576408401 A virtual reality simulation designed by a University of Oregon (UO) professor could help spur people to environmental action. https://phys.org/news/2022-06-virtual-reality-humans-turtle-eye-view.html Plants & Animals Wed, 22 Jun 2022 15:31:19 EDT news575130674 Although robotic devices are used in everything from assembly lines to medicine, engineers have a hard time accounting for the friction that occurs when those robots grip objects—particularly in wet environments. Researchers have now discovered a new law of physics that accounts for this type of friction, which should advance a wide range of robotic technologies. https://phys.org/news/2021-04-law-physics-humans-robots-grasp.html Materials Science Thu, 29 Apr 2021 11:00:08 EDT news538897780 Numeric anchoring is a long-established technique of marketing communication. Once a price is mentioned, that number serves as the basis for—or "anchors"—all future discussions and decisions. But new research shows that this phenomenon is not limited to decisions that involve numbers, the use and understanding of which require high-level cognitive thinking. Anchoring also biases judgments at relatively low levels of cognition when no numbers are involved. https://phys.org/news/2021-03-anchoring-biases-decisions-involving-sight.html Social Sciences Wed, 17 Mar 2021 11:18:54 EDT news535198729 Human fingerprints have a self-regulating moisture mechanism that not only helps us to avoid dropping our smartphone, but could help scientists to develop better prosthetic limbs, robotic equipment and virtual reality environments, a new study reveals. https://phys.org/news/2020-11-fingerprints-moisture-regulating-mechanism-human.html Plants & Animals Mon, 30 Nov 2020 15:00:04 EST news525955772 Scientists from Regensburg and Zurich have found a fascinating way to push an atom with controlled forces so quickly that they can choreograph the motion of a single molecule within less than a trillionth of a second. The extremely sharp needle of their unique ultrafast microscope serves as the technical basis: It carefully scans molecules, similar to a record player. Physicists at the University of Regensburg now showed that shining light pulses onto this needle can transform it into an ultrafast "atomic hand." This allows molecules to be steered—and new technologies can be inspired. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-physicists-nudge-atoms-trillionth.html Quantum Physics Wed, 02 Sep 2020 19:00:01 EDT news518173795 Scientists have pioneered a new technique to produce arrays of sound produced entirely by heat. https://phys.org/news/2020-07-thermophones-route-radically-array.html General Physics Thu, 02 Jul 2020 09:48:24 EDT news512902100 During photosynthesis, natural leaves with elaborate architectures and functional components can harvest and convert solar energy into chemical fuels that are converted into energy. The biological energy production has provided materials scientists a new bioinspired paradigm to produce many autonomous systems, including light-triggered motion. In a recent report, Guofo Cai and co-workers at the departments of Materials Science and Engineering, Astronautic Science and Mechanics, and Chemical Engineering, developed an unprecedented bilayered actuator base on MXene (Ti3C2Tx)-cellulose composites (MXCC) and polycarbonate (PC) membranes. https://phys.org/news/2019-07-bioinspired-mxene-based-actuators-programmable-smart.html Materials Science Thu, 18 Jul 2019 09:00:02 EDT news482654580 Communication could step beyond reading a cellular phone screen with a new technique by Purdue College of Engineering researchers to learn and read messages through a person's sense of touch. https://phys.org/news/2018-06-purdue-phoneme-haptic-future.html Engineering Mon, 18 Jun 2018 17:33:21 EDT news448561984 How sensitive is the human sense of touch? Sensitive enough to feel the difference between surfaces that differ by just a single layer of molecules, a team of researchers at the University of California San Diego has shown. https://phys.org/news/2017-12-humans-molecular-differences-identical-surfaces.html Engineering Wed, 13 Dec 2017 10:00:57 EST news432381646 Sit on Disney Research's Magic Bench and you may have an elephant hand you a glowing orb. Or you might get rained on. Or a tiny donkey might saunter by and kick the bench. https://phys.org/news/2017-07-augmented-reality-group.html Computer Sciences Wed, 26 Jul 2017 09:16:12 EDT news420279363 Engineers working to add "muscle sense" to prosthetic limbs found that tactile feedback on the skin allowed blindfolded test subjects to more than double their ability to discern the size of objects grasped with a prosthetic hand. The results will be presented next month in Germany by researchers from Rice University and the Research Center "E.Piaggio" of the University of Pisa and the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT). https://phys.org/news/2017-05-tactile-feedback-muscle-prosthetic.html Engineering Tue, 30 May 2017 07:29:47 EDT news415348175 Everyone experiences stiff muscles from time to time, whether after a rigorous workout, in cold weather, or after falling asleep in an unusual position. People with cerebral palsy, stroke and multiple sclerosis, however, live with stiff muscles every single day, making everyday tasks such as extending an arm extremely difficult and painful for them. And since there isn't a foolproof way to objectively rate muscle stiffness, these patients often receive doses of medication that are too low or too high. https://phys.org/news/2017-04-sensor-filled-glove-doctors-guesswork-physical.html Engineering Fri, 21 Apr 2017 07:25:36 EDT news411978325 When you're deep in a video game, the last thing you want to do is leave home. If only you could take the game with you for your commute to work or your bus ride to school, or to liven up your lunch hour. https://phys.org/news/2017-03-nintendo-games.html Consumer & Gadgets Wed, 01 Mar 2017 09:14:58 EST news407582087 A super-material that bends, shapes and focuses sound waves that pass through it has been invented by scientists. https://phys.org/news/2017-02-sound-shaping-metamaterial.html Condensed Matter Mon, 27 Feb 2017 06:06:10 EST news407397961 A multi-institutional research team has developed a new electroactive polymer material that can change shape and size when exposed to a relatively small electric field. The advance overcomes two longstanding challenges regarding the use of electroactive polymers to develop new devices, opening the door to a suite of applications ranging from microrobotics to designer haptic, optic, microfluidic and wearable technologies. The work was performed by researchers at North Carolina State University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Akron. https://phys.org/news/2016-11-bottlebrush-electroactive-polymers-dielectric-elastomers.html Polymers Wed, 09 Nov 2016 08:26:31 EST news397902385 It's not exactly beating something into someone's head. More like tapping it into the side. https://phys.org/news/2016-10-morse-code.html Engineering Thu, 27 Oct 2016 14:18:03 EDT news396796661 In the quest to restore movement to people with spinal cord injuries, researchers have focused on getting brain signals to disconnected nerves and muscles that no longer receive messages that would spur them to move. https://phys.org/news/2016-10-brain-surface-feedback-movement.html Engineering Wed, 26 Oct 2016 12:07:37 EDT news396702448 Video of astronauts tripping over moon rocks can make for entertaining Internet viewing, but falls in space can jeopardize astronauts' missions and even their lives. Getting to one's feet in a bulky, pressurized spacesuit can consume time and precious oxygen reserves, and falls increase the risk that the suit will be punctured. https://phys.org/news/2016-07-stumbles-spacewalks-sidewalks.html Engineering Fri, 22 Jul 2016 05:29:52 EDT news388384177 A new type of hydrostatic transmission that combines hydraulic and pneumatic lines can safely and precisely drive robot arms, giving them the delicacy necessary to pick up an egg without breaking it. https://phys.org/news/2016-05-hybrid-hydrostatic-transmission-enables-robots.html Robotics Thu, 12 May 2016 13:48:36 EDT news382279708