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 Centre for Research in Robotics and Underwater Technologies (CIRTESU) at the Universitat Jaume I in Castelló has developed an experimental modular, bio-inspired robotic fish prototype (UJIFISH) for inspection, hybrid teleoperation and sensor deployment in aquaculture. Its innovation lies in a functional design that eliminates stress factors such as propellers and high-intensity lighting, while maintaining high standards of modularity and interoperability. The study is published in the journal Ocean Engineering. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-robotic-fish-prototype-aquaculture-stress.html Biotechnology Thu, 23 Apr 2026 17:20:04 EDT news696177842 In a breakthrough that blends biology and robotics, researchers at the University of Osaka have created a new type of insect cyborg that can navigate autonomously—without wires, surgery, or stress-inducing electrical shocks. The system uses a small ultraviolet (UV) light helmet to steer cockroaches by taking advantage of their natural tendency to avoid bright light, especially in the UV range. This method not only preserves the insect's sensory organs but also maintains consistent control over time. https://phys.org/news/2025-05-driven-cockroach-cyborgs-wires-surgery.html Plants & Animals Tue, 13 May 2025 09:28:16 EDT news666347293 Miriam Filippi, a researcher in the field of soft robotics working on developing bioinspired artificial muscle tissues, believes we can make human activities more ecologically sound by harnessing the power of living cells for bio-hybrid materials. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-biofabrication-sustainable-rethink-current.html Biotechnology Thu, 17 Oct 2024 10:56:52 EDT news648381409 The robotic bee replicants home in on the unsuspecting queen of a hive. But unlike the rebellious replicants in the 1982 sci-fi thriller Blade Runner, these ones are here to work. https://phys.org/news/2023-02-robotic-bees-roots-healthier-environment.html Ecology Fri, 24 Feb 2023 13:40:02 EST news596468127 Researchers at Hokkaido University in Japan have combined natural squid tissues with synthetic polymers to develop a strong and versatile hydrogel that mimics many of the unique properties of biological tissues. Hydrogels are polymer networks containing large quantities of water, and are being explored for many uses, including medical prosthetics, soft robotic components and novel sensor systems. https://phys.org/news/2023-01-squid-tissues-chemistry-combine-versatile.html Biochemistry Thu, 19 Jan 2023 19:00:01 EST news593365247 A new publication from Opto-Electronic Advances discusses how carnivorous plants inspire smart slippery surfaces and bionic robots. https://phys.org/news/2022-09-carnivorous-smart-slippery-surfaces-bionic.html Biotechnology Mon, 12 Sep 2022 09:28:12 EDT news582193688 Developing a lightweight material that is both strong and highly ductile has been regarded as a long-desired goal in the field of structural materials, but these properties are generally mutually exclusive. However, researchers at City University of Hong Kong (CityU) have recently discovered a low-cost, direct method to turn commonly used 3D printable polymers into lightweight, ultra-tough, biocompatible hybrid carbon microlattices, which can be in any shape or size, and are 100 times stronger than the original polymers. The research team believes that this innovative approach can be used to create sophisticated 3D parts with tailored mechanical properties for a wide range of applications, including coronary stents and bio-implants. https://phys.org/news/2022-09-team-3d-printed-polymer-stronger-ductile.html Polymers Wed, 07 Sep 2022 15:56:33 EDT news581784952 Researchers have developed a highly accurate way to assemble multiple micron-scale optical devices extremely close together on a single chip. The new approach could one day allow high-volume manufacturing of chip-based optical systems that would enable more compact optical communications devices and advanced imagers. https://phys.org/news/2021-09-optical-devices-multiple-materials-chip.html Optics & Photonics Wed, 29 Sep 2021 16:01:37 EDT news552150094 Northwestern University researchers have developed a family of soft materials that imitates living creatures. https://phys.org/news/2020-06-robotic-soft-rotates.html Materials Science Mon, 22 Jun 2020 11:00:08 EDT news512025121 Venus is Earth's neighbor, yet scientists' understanding of the planet is relatively limited, especially on the so-called "dark side." https://phys.org/news/2019-11-stingray-inspired-spacecraft-aims-explore-dark.html Space Exploration Mon, 11 Nov 2019 10:39:14 EST news492691147 Tools for manipulating small suspended particles such as cells, micro-particles and nanoparticles play an essential role in the advancement of fundamental science and discovery of new technologies. Especially, manipulation of materials with light has led to significant breakthroughs in diverse field from atomic physics to microbiology and molecular medicine. More than 30 years ago, Arthur Ashkin from Bell labs first proposed a device that used focused laser light to trap objects which shared the Noble Prize in Physics in 2018. These devices are known as Optical tweezers and now a key instrument in biology, soft matter physics and quantum optics research. https://phys.org/news/2019-09-colloidal-nanotweezers-tool-advanced-particle.html Nanophysics Tue, 17 Sep 2019 09:20:24 EDT news487930819 From flocks of birds to fish schools in the sea, or towering termite mounds, many social groups in nature exist together to survive and thrive. This cooperative behaviour can be used by engineers as "bio-inspiration" to solve practical human problems, and by computer scientists studying swarm intelligence. https://phys.org/news/2019-03-social-animals-behaviours-robot-swarms.html Robotics Wed, 27 Mar 2019 10:10:45 EDT news472900207 In their latest feat of engineering, researchers at Stevens Institute of Technology have taken an ordinary white button mushroom from a grocery store and made it bionic, supercharging it with 3-D-printed clusters of cyanobacteria that generate electricity and swirls of graphene nanoribbons that can collect the current. https://phys.org/news/2018-11-bionic-mushrooms-fuse-nanotech-bacteria.html Nanomaterials Wed, 07 Nov 2018 08:00:01 EST news460791198 Diatoms are tiny, unicellular creatures, inhabiting oceans, lakes, rivers, and soils. Through their respiration, they produce close to a quarter of the oxygen on earth, nearly as much as the world's tropical forests. In addition to their ecological success across the planet, they have a number of remarkable properties. Diatoms live in glasslike homes of their own design, visible under magnification in an astonishing and aesthetically beautiful range of forms. https://phys.org/news/2018-07-single-celled-architects-nanotechnology.html Nanophysics Mon, 16 Jul 2018 11:28:51 EDT news450959315 Researchers in China have made a new hybrid conductive material—part elastic polymer, part liquid metal—that can be bent and stretched at will. Circuits made with this material can take most two-dimensional shapes and are also non-toxic. The work appears June 14 in the new interdisciplinary journal iScience. https://phys.org/news/2018-06-stretchy-circuit.html Polymers Thu, 14 Jun 2018 11:00:09 EDT news448184827 A new smart and responsive material can stiffen up like a worked-out muscle, say the Iowa State University engineers who developed it. https://phys.org/news/2018-02-smart-material-stiffness-bent.html Materials Science Wed, 14 Feb 2018 12:52:06 EST news437835116 Lobachevsky University scientists under the supervision of Alexey Mikhailov, head of the UNN PTRI Laboratory of Thin Film Physics and Technology, are working to develop an adaptive neural interface that combines a living culture and a neural network based on memristors. This project is one if the first attempts to combine a living biological culture with a bio-like neural network based on memristors. A multi-electrode system will record and stimulate the bioelectrical activity of a neuron culture that performs the function of analyzing and classifying the network dynamics of living cells. https://phys.org/news/2017-11-scientists-prototype-neural-network-based.html Engineering Tue, 14 Nov 2017 05:40:27 EST news429860417 UZH researchers have taught drones how to fly using an eye-inspired camera, opening the door to them performing fast, agile maneuvers and flying in low-light environments. Possible applications could include supporting rescue teams with search missions at dusk or dawn. https://phys.org/news/2017-09-drones-dark.html Engineering Wed, 20 Sep 2017 07:28:00 EDT news425111270 In a project funded by the Austrian Science Fund FWF, a research group from Graz is investigating the behaviour of young honeybees immediately after hatching and successfully transfers this to robots. The bees' brood-care strategies turn out to be surprisingly efficient. https://phys.org/news/2017-09-robotics-bees.html Plants & Animals Mon, 11 Sep 2017 09:14:12 EDT news424340043 The rapid development of so-called NBIC technologies – nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology and cognitive science – are giving rise to possibilities that have long been the domain of science fiction. Disease, ageing and even death are all human realities that these technologies seek to end. https://phys.org/news/2017-07-opinion-super-intelligence-eternal-lifetranshumanism-faithful.html Robotics Mon, 31 Jul 2017 08:10:02 EDT news420705696 Stroke and spinal cord injury patients often require gait rehabilitation to regain the ability to walk or to help strengthen their muscles. Wearable "robot-assisted training" is quickly emerging as a method that helps improve this rehab process. https://phys.org/news/2016-10-bio-inspired-lower-limb-robotic-exoskeleton-human.html Engineering Tue, 25 Oct 2016 11:00:01 EDT news396598738 The idea of taking apart a rat's heart and transforming it into a tissue-engineered stingray first came to Kevin Kit Parker during a trip to the New England Aquarium with his daughter. https://phys.org/news/2016-08-cyborg-stingray-ground.html Robotics Mon, 08 Aug 2016 03:37:26 EDT news389846229 Scientists at Japan's Hokkaido University have developed light-powered molecular motors that repetitively bend and unbend, bringing us closer to molecular robots. https://phys.org/news/2016-07-light-powered-molecular-motors-repetitively-unbend.html Materials Science Wed, 06 Jul 2016 07:06:52 EDT news387007603 The problem with having a microscopic robot propelled by a horde of tail-flailing bacteria is you never know where it's going to end up. The tiny, bio-robots, which amount to a chip coated with a "carpet" of flagellated bacteria, emerged from the primordial ooze of microrobotics research a few years ago as a concept for building microscopic devices and delivering medication at the cellular level. But as with any robot, the challenge for making them useful is bridging the gap from movement to automation. A team of engineers at Drexel University might have done just that, according to research recently published in IEEE Transactions on Robotics about using electric fields to direct the robots in a fluid environment. https://phys.org/news/2016-03-bacteria-powered-microrobots-plot.html Robotics Mon, 14 Mar 2016 18:17:25 EDT news377198220 Nature has developed innovative ways to solve a sticky challenge: Mussels and barnacles stubbornly glue themselves to cliff faces, ship hulls, and even the skin of whales. Likewise, tendons and cartilage stick to bone with incredible robustness, giving animals flexibility and agility. https://phys.org/news/2015-11-adhesive-tougher-natural-adhesives-mussels.html Materials Science Mon, 09 Nov 2015 11:00:13 EST news366269111 Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) is pioneering a research using plant materials to produce a bio-sourced hybrid composite for aerospace and automotive application. https://phys.org/news/2015-08-materials-aerospace-automotive-application.html Engineering Thu, 20 Aug 2015 08:00:02 EDT news359273914 Today the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced two five-year, center-scale awards totaling $8.75 million to advance the state-of-the-art in medical and cyber-physical systems (CPS). https://phys.org/news/2015-05-human-body-frontier-cyber-physical.html Engineering Fri, 15 May 2015 08:20:01 EDT news350893853 Professor Seon Jeong Kim of Hanyang University has created a high capacity yarn muscle that does not require electrolytes or special packaging. It will have a big impact in the motor, biological and robot industry. https://phys.org/news/2013-05-hybrid-carbon-nanotube-yarn-muscle.html Nanomaterials Thu, 30 May 2013 06:36:26 EDT news289114510 (Phys.org) —The unmatched ability of the human brain to process and make sense of large amounts of complex data has caught the attention of engineers working in the field of control systems. https://phys.org/news/2013-04-brain-cells-power-smart-grid.html Engineering Wed, 17 Apr 2013 07:00:01 EDT news285399975 (Phys.org)—While some advanced humanoid robots already look eerily lifelike, robots in the future may actually become partly alive. Currently, researchers are working on integrating living cells and other biological components with electronic components in an attempt to create bio-hybrid robots. These robots could act autonomously, imitate some animal behaviors, and have the ability to self-replicate some of their parts. https://phys.org/news/2012-11-channel-cells-machines-paves-bio-hybrid.html Biotechnology Thu, 29 Nov 2012 09:30:01 EST news273399925