Search results for soft robotics

General Physics 7 hours ago

Storing memory on a chip with flowing water

Like the folds in crumpled sheets or the footprints on recently trodden sand, certain materials mark their histories. Now, Yale researchers show that networks of flowing water and other fluids can store their own memories—similar ...

Cell & Microbiology Oct 6, 2026

Bacteria use collisions to navigate crowded environments, micro-maze experiments reveal

Some bacteria can sense when they bump into each other and use these interactions to shape how the group organizes and moves. This discovery reveals a new way microbes explore their environments using physical feedback rather ...

Plants & Animals Sep 17, 2026

Cuttlefish suckers reveal how they grip rough prey—and could inspire better technology

Cephalopods are a group of soft-bodied marine mollusks that include cuttlefish, octopuses, squid and nautiluses. Many of these mollusks have muscular suckers on their arms that allow them to seize prey or grip other surfaces ...

Nanophysics Aug 25, 2026

Reusable stencils create clean carbon nanotube patterns in single-stage process

Researchers from Skoltech and their colleagues from Harbin Institute of Technology in China and ITMO University in Russia have devised a way to deposit elaborate geometric patterns of carbon nanotubes without wasting material. ...

Evolution Aug 25, 2026

The hidden physics behind the shape of rose thorns

Roses are known for their thorns, the sharp structures that can sting and prickle the skin. Thorns, botanically known as prickles, are thought to discourage animals from feeding on plants and may also help climbing roses ...

Polymers Aug 19, 2026

Metastable 3D printing 'ink' enables a closed-loop material cycle

Polymers used for light-based 3D printing are very stable because of their chemical structure, but they are typically hard to recycle. A research team led by Professor Dr. Eva Blasco, a researcher at the Institute for Molecular ...

Plants & Animals Aug 13, 2026

Soft-bodied sea slug reconfigures anatomy to simplify feeding control

Made entirely of muscle, with no rigid skeleton, muscular hydrostats like octopus arms, elephant trunks and human tongues can move in ways traditional mechanical systems cannot. Between crawling across the seafloor, picking ...

Biotechnology Aug 11, 2026

Fungal chitin offers new route to tougher hydrogels for medical devices and soft robots

Researchers at the Department of Energy's (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and the University of Tennessee (UT), Knoxville, have made an advance by using a natural substance from fungi called chitin to create hydrogels ...

Astronomy Aug 4, 2026

Mapping monsters: Data release unveils all-sky views of supermassive black holes

Data released by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) marks a landmark expansion in the study of accreting supermassive black holes (SMBHs). As part of the fifth generation of the survey (SDSS-V), the Black Hole Mapper (BHM) ...

Biotechnology Jul 29, 2026

A step closer to artificial organs: UV light shapes arteriole-scale hydrogel vessels

The creation of fully artificial organs is a sci-fi dream, and researchers in Japan may have brought it one step closer to reality by developing a new photofabrication technique (i.e., a light-controlled synthetic method) ...

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