Tiny robots no bigger than a cell could be mass-produced using a new method developed by researchers at MIT. The microscopic devices, which the team calls "syncells" (short for synthetic cells), might eventually be used to ...
A manufacturing technique that could help the semiconductor industry make more powerful computer chips began in the humblest of places—at a lunch table at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory.
Reversible shape change is a highly desirable property for many biomedical applications, including mechanical actuators, soft robotics and artificial muscles. Some materials can change size or shape when irradiated with light, ...
An ever-growing number of coatings, including varnishes and printing inks, as well as tooth fillings, are cured with light. Yet, homogenous, tailored, polymer networks cannot be produced, and the materials tend to be brittle, ...
Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a new technique that takes advantage of gold nanoparticles to trigger the sequential unfolding of three-dimensional structures using different wavelengths of ...
A team of chemists at the University of California San Diego conducted breakthrough research for materials science—a field for which chemistry frequently provides information about the structure and composition of materials, ...
Three-dimensional printing offers unique advantages, but still faces many challenges, for fabricating small, flexible robots that can navigate through the human body and other confined spaces, according to a review in the ...
Whether for separation processes, photovoltaics, catalysis, or electronics, porous polymer membranes are needed in many fields. Membranes with micropores that switch between different shapes and/or sizes would expand the ...
A team of scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory and the University of Connecticut have developed a customizable nanomaterial that combines metallic strength with a foam-like ability ...
A new study describes 3D printing of Shape Memory Polymers to produce active meta-materials that can be programmed to form versatile shapes and are then able to recover their original state when heated to above their activation ...
