Knowing what causes dandelions to spread could help us understand how the plants respond to climate change, and could even help us design new "soft" robots.
Plants & Animals
Jun 01, 2022
0
128
Researchers from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University have used an Artificial Intelligence Materials Selection framework (AIMS) to discover a new shape memory alloy. The shape memory ...
Analytical Chemistry
May 05, 2022
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167
Superelasticity is an elastic response to an applied external force that occurs via phase transformation. The resulting actuation of the materials is an elastic response to external stimuli, including light and heat. While ...
Azobenzene functionalized liquid crystalline polymers are considered "smart" materials owing to their programmable shape transformations under various external stimuli (i.e., thermal, chemical, and photomechanical shape morphing). ...
Materials Science
May 28, 2021
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11
In a new study led by Institute Professor Maurizio Porfiri at NYU Tandon, researchers showed a novel principle of actuation—to transform electrical energy into motion. This actuation mechanism is based on solvation, the ...
Condensed Matter
Jan 29, 2021
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33
A research team in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Toyohashi University of Technology developed a method for reducing aerodynamic noise via plasma. Cavity flow, such as the flow around car gaps of high-speed trains, ...
Plasma Physics
Nov 05, 2020
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9
The absence of piezoelectricity in silicon can lead to direct electromechanical applications of the mainstream semiconductor material. The integrated electrical control of silicon mechanics can open new perspectives for on-chip ...
How do you turn on and off an ultra-small component in advanced technologies? You need an actuator, a device that transmits an input such as electricity into physical motion. However, actuators in small-scale technologies ...
Nanomaterials
Sep 15, 2020
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65
Actuators that can convert various environmental stimuli to mechanical work have revealed great potential for developing smart devices such as soft robots, micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS), and automatic lab-on-a-chip ...
Nanomaterials
Apr 01, 2020
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7
Materials scientists aim to use bioinspired soft robots to carry out advanced interactions between humans and robots, but the associated technology remains to be developed. For example, soft actuators must perform quickly ...
