Soft robot actuators heal themselves

Repeated activity wears on soft robotic actuators, but these machine's moving parts need to be reliable and easily fixed. Now a team of researchers has a biosynthetic polymer, patterned after squid ring teeth, that is self-healing ...

Study reveals unique physical, chemical properties of cicada wings

Biological structures sometimes have unique features that engineers would like to copy. For example, many types of insect wings shed water, kill microbes, reflect light in unusual ways and are self-cleaning. While researchers ...

Study tracks evolutionary history of metabolic networks

By analyzing how metabolic enzymes are built and organized, researchers have reconstructed the evolutionary history of metabolism. Their study shows how metabolic networks—which drive every cellular process from protein ...

3-D printing, bioinks create implantable blood vessels

A biomimetic blood vessel was fabricated using a modified 3-D cell printing technique and bioinks, which were formulated from smooth muscle cells from a human aorta and endothelial cells from an umbilical vein. The result ...

New science on cracking leads to self-healing materials

Cracks in the desert floor appear random to the untrained eye, even beautifully so, but the mathematics governing patterns of dried clay turn out to be predictable—and useful in designing advanced materials.

DNA-PAINT super-resolution microscopy at speed

Recent advances in fluorescence microscopy allow researchers to study biological processes below the classical diffraction limit of light. Ralf Jungmann, Professor for Experimental Physics at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität ...

Ancient soil provides a window to the past

Noelle Purcell, a senior in the Columbian College of Arts and Science, spent the first half of her summer in northern Kenya trying to better understand the environmental context of human evolution by studying the morphology ...

56 new species of arachnids found in Western Australia

Researchers at The University of Western Australia and the Western Australian Museum have discovered 56 new species of arachnids, known as schizomids, in Western Australia's Pilbara region.

Attitudes to gender and sexual diversity: Changing global trends

Changes in geopolitical forces are sweeping rapidly across the world, affecting the lives of many, for better and for worse. In much the same way, attitudes towards gender and sexual diversity are dynamic. They are moving ...

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