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. From schools of fish and flocks of birds to microscopic synthetic particles, many systems in nature and the laboratory consist of individual units or agents that move by consuming energy. These systems are known as active matter because their components continuously use energy to generate motion, either individually or through interactions with their environment. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-tiny-particles-defy-action-reaction.html General Physics Sun, 09 Aug 2026 12:40:01 EDT news705316928 Microplastics, which are plastic particles under 5 millimeters, are a major and growing threat in both soil and water. They damage soil fertility, disrupt nutrient cycling, harm aquatic and terrestrial life, and can move through the food chain. That makes cleaning them up an urgent priority. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-swarms-tiny-robots-microplastics-soil.html Environment Sat, 08 Aug 2026 08:40:01 EDT news705161846 A Florida State University computational scientist is paving the way for future medical breakthroughs by developing mathematical models and simulations to predict the behavior of a unique drug-delivery method, which aims to deploy treatments directly to targeted sites in the body. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-mathematical-advance-magnetic-particles-drug.html Bio & Medicine Wed, 24 Jun 2026 19:30:01 EDT news701539141 Tiny algae-based robots guided by magnets could improve bladder cancer treatment by boosting delivery of chemotherapy drugs into tumors, researchers say. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-algae-microbots-aim-bladder-cancer.html Bio & Medicine Mon, 22 Jun 2026 05:00:04 EDT news701090521 Moon missions come in all shapes and sizes, from car-sized rovers packed with scientific equipment to towering rocket payloads—and now, a small, shape-shifting machine that is about the size of the average palm. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-shifting-tiny-rover-japanese-toys.html Space Exploration Thu, 11 Jun 2026 12:00:08 EDT news700393361 Imagine a future where cancer treatment affects only the tumor, where eye injections are no longer required and brain surgeries don't result in large incisions or long recovery times. That's the future researchers at Michigan State University are working toward. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-hair-size-microrobots-combine-cancer.html Bio & Medicine Sat, 06 Jun 2026 11:00:03 EDT news699627985 Spinal cord injuries can have devastating consequences for those affected. Nerve cells in the spinal cord rarely regenerate naturally, while scarring often prevents the regrowth of nerve fibers. Modern therapies attempt to influence implanted stem cells using electrical stimulation to promote the growth of new nerve cells. This approach has several drawbacks: it requires implanted electrodes, and the transplanted cells do not always survive or integrate properly into the existing tissue. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-biohybrid-microrobots-spinal-cord-combining.html Bio & Medicine Tue, 02 Jun 2026 09:40:01 EDT news699610321 An interdisciplinary student research team at the University of Waterloo has achieved an advance in materials science with the creation of a tissue-like hydrogel for artificial muscles to make soft robots move. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-student-talent-simpler-method-artificial.html Polymers Fri, 22 May 2026 15:20:03 EDT news698670241 In tissue engineering, the tiniest bit of improper force can harm a living culture. Spheroids—3D clumps of cells—can be used to model complex human tissues, because they can re-create specific cell-to-cell and cell-to-matrix interactions. But these spheroids are also fragile, and common techniques of moving them manually via suction can easily damage them. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-mobile-microgrippers-cells.html Cell & Microbiology Tue, 28 Apr 2026 11:00:08 EDT news696493741 Researchers in China have developed magnetically controlled microrobots made from diatoms for the treatment of glioblastoma using photodynamic therapy. These microrobots exhibit excellent magnetic responsiveness and programmable motion capabilities, enabling them to precisely target and navigate to glioblastoma lesion areas. Once positioned at the tumor site, the diatom-based microrobots can be activated by laser irradiation, triggering a photodynamic therapeutic effect. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-diatom-based-microrobots-photodynamic-therapy.html Bio & Medicine Thu, 12 Mar 2026 11:40:01 EDT news692527607 Leiden physicists Daniela Kraft and Julio Melio have created soft structures that can take on different shapes without any external drive in their lab. They present their research on microscale metamaterials in Nature—a breakthrough that opens the door to smart, reconfigurable materials and microscopic robots. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-world-microscopic-scale-metamaterials.html General Physics Wed, 25 Feb 2026 17:40:01 EST news691247370 Some bacterial species possess an astonishing ability: They use Earth's magnetic field to orient themselves. To better understand this mechanism, the team led by Argovia-Professor Martino Poggio from the Swiss Nanoscience Institute and the Department of Physics at the University of Basel took a closer look at the "magnetotactic" bacterium Magnetospirillum gryphiswaldense. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-bacterium-built-compass-cell-magnetometry.html Bio & Medicine Tue, 17 Feb 2026 18:20:01 EST news690560231 Controlled manipulation of fibers that are as thin as or even thinner than human hair is a real challenge. Despite technological development, the precise and reversible change of the microfibers' orientation is not easy. The interdisciplinary team of researchers from the Institute of Physical Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences, has recently developed a way to control the shape of microfibers with electricity. This brings us closer to a novel technical solution in micromechanics and soft robotics. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-carbon-fiber-electricity-wireless-voltage.html Nanomaterials Fri, 13 Feb 2026 13:40:29 EST news690212401 The potential of microrobots is enormous. These miniature objects can be designed to carry out actions within the body, such as sensing biomarkers, manipulating objects like blood clots, or delivering drug therapies to tumor sites. But working out how to make the tiny bots effective, biocompatible, and cost effective is challenging. Now a Caltech-led team has taken a huge step toward making the next generation of microrobots for drug delivery. They have simplified both the structure of the microrobots and their production method, while making the bots highly effective and "smart" enough to direct themselves to a tumor. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-bots-simple-biocompatible-microrobots-autonomously.html Bio & Medicine Mon, 02 Feb 2026 18:40:04 EST news689257892 The precise control of tiny droplets on surfaces is essential for advanced manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, and next‐generation lab‐on‐a‐chip diagnostics. However, once droplet volume reaches pico- and nanoliter scales, the droplets become extremely sensitive to microscopic surface irregularities, and friction at the solid‐liquid interface becomes a major obstacle to smooth transport. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-liquid-repellent-particle-coating-enables.html Nanophysics Fri, 30 Jan 2026 13:24:31 EST news689001842 In a breakthrough that could power next-generation electronics, sensors, and energy storage devices, CMU engineers have developed a fabrication technique that arranges MXene nanosheets, each a million times thinner than a sheet of paper, into complex 3D structures in just a single printing step. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-freestanding-3d-mxene-limits-microscale.html Nanomaterials Thu, 29 Jan 2026 17:08:34 EST news688928881 Researchers have discovered how bacteria break through spaces barely larger than themselves, by wrapping their flagella around their bodies and moving forward. Using a microfluidic device that mimics insect gut channels, the team revealed a remarkable "flagellar wrapping" motion that lets symbiotic bacteria pass through 1-micrometer-wide tunnels. Genetic manipulation and mathematical calculation showed that the flexibility of a tiny joint in the flagellum, called the hook, is crucial for this screw-like movement and even determines whether the bacteria can successfully infect their insect hosts. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-bacteria-flagella-tunnel-microscopic-passages.html Cell & Microbiology Sun, 25 Jan 2026 12:30:01 EST news688303630 Cilia are micrometer-sized biological structures that occur frequently in nature. Their characteristic high-frequency, three-dimensional beating motions (5–40 Hz) play indispensable roles inside the body. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-hydrogel-cilia-standard-microrobotics.html Cell & Microbiology Wed, 14 Jan 2026 10:00:05 EST news687602761 "The UN estimates that by 2050, common bacterial infections could kill more people than cancer," says Arnold Mathijssen, a biophysicist at the University of Pennsylvania who studies how active particles like bacteria move in fluidic systems. "Bacteria are remarkably fast, adaptive swimmers, capable of moving hundreds of body lengths per second while being subjected to strong fluid flows." https://phys.org/news/2026-01-coli-exploit-fluid-channel-upstream.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 12 Jan 2026 16:32:51 EST news687457917 An international team of researchers led by Hokkaido University has characterized the unique mechanics that enable Arcella, a shelled, single-celled amoeba, to move skillfully across different surfaces. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-shelled-amoeba-octopus-shifting-tactics.html Cell & Microbiology Tue, 06 Jan 2026 14:50:15 EST news686933401 Researchers at CU Boulder have created tiny, microorganism-inspired particles that can change their shape and self-propel, much like living things, in response to electrical fields. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-programmable-microparticles-morph-propel-electrical.html Bio & Medicine Tue, 06 Jan 2026 14:16:26 EST news686931361 Every year, 12 million people worldwide suffer a stroke; many die or are permanently impaired. Currently, drugs are administered to dissolve the thrombus that blocks the blood vessel. These drugs spread throughout the entire body, meaning a high dose must be administered to ensure that the necessary amount reaches the thrombus. This can cause serious side effects, such as internal bleeding. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-magnetic-nanoparticles-successfully-complex-blood.html Bio & Medicine Thu, 13 Nov 2025 14:00:01 EST news682191121 For the first time, researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have succeeded in using nanorobots to stimulate stem cells with such precision that they are reliably transformed into bone cells. To achieve this, the robots exert external pressure on specific points in the cell wall. The new method offers opportunities for faster treatments in the future. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-nanorobots-stem-cells-bone-precise.html Bio & Medicine Tue, 11 Nov 2025 15:35:03 EST news682097701 It looks like a magic trick: Cells at the bottom of a liquid medium begin levitating, then hovering at a particular height. With no physical contact, an invisible force directs certain cells to float up or down in unison, like mini-submarines. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-electromagnetic-device-cells-high-levitate.html Cell & Microbiology Fri, 24 Oct 2025 11:53:04 EDT news680525581 A team of researchers at the TechMed Center of the University of Twente has transformed real sperm cells into tiny, magnetically controlled microrobots. These sperm bots can now be tracked in real time using X-ray imaging, a breakthrough in medical microrobotics. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-sperm-bots-cells-coated-magnetic.html Bio & Medicine Wed, 03 Sep 2025 13:39:20 EDT news676125555 Hydrogels are soft, water-rich polymeric materials that can swell or shrink in response to environmental stimuli. This ability to change shape makes them valuable in miniaturized devices for flexible electronics, microrobotics, intelligent surfaces, and biomedical applications such as drug delivery. For example, hydrogel pores can be engineered to trap and release tiny drug particles on demand. https://phys.org/news/2025-08-origami-strategy-hydrogel-pores-enables.html Polymers Wed, 27 Aug 2025 13:00:01 EDT news675517920 Micro/nanorobots have progressed from science fiction to real-world applications in biomedicine, environmental remediation, and sensing. UA faculty member, Dr. Amir Nourhani is among 103 researchers worldwide contributing to an extensive mega-review titled "Technology Roadmap of Micro/Nanorobots," published in ACS Nano. https://phys.org/news/2025-08-technology-roadmap-micronanorobots.html Nanophysics Fri, 22 Aug 2025 07:42:21 EDT news675067339 Microrobots formed in droplets could enable precision-targeted drug delivery, improving on I.V. drug delivery that sends only 0.7% of the drug to the target tissue, according to a recent study in Science Advances, conducted through simulations at the University of Michigan and experiments at the University of Oxford. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-microrobots-drugs-drug-delivery.html Bio & Medicine Thu, 31 Jul 2025 15:57:13 EDT news673196227 Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder have created a new way to build and control tiny particles that can move and work like microscopic robots, offering a powerful tool with applications in biomedical and environmental research. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-microrobots-metal-patches-aid-drug.html Nanomaterials Tue, 08 Jul 2025 15:40:04 EDT news671207794 Tiny magnetic bots that are activated by light can clear bacterial infections deep in the sinus cavities, then be expelled by blowing out the nose. https://phys.org/news/2025-06-tiny-sensitive-magnetic-robots-bacterial.html Bio & Medicine Mon, 30 Jun 2025 10:50:01 EDT news670498441