Incorporating living tissue into robots can help the machines better interact with their environment.
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Tech
Robots are gaining new capabilities thanks to plants and fungi
Biohybrid robots made with plant and fungal tissue are more sensitive to their surroundings.
Materials Science
More Stories in Materials Science
- Chemistry
A new microbead proves effective as a plastic-free skin scrubber
The nonplastic polymer cleaned up eyeliner and permanent marker and broke down into molecules related to sugar and amino acids.
- Materials Science
Scotch tape is key to creating thin films of diamond
The sticky stuff helped peel sheets of diamond less than a micrometer thick off silicon wafers, creating membranes useful for electronic devices.
- Materials Science
Starchy nanofibers shatter the record for world’s thinnest pasta
The fibers, made from white flour and formic acid, average just 372 nanometers in diameter and might find use in biodegradable bandages.
- Health & Medicine
New electrical stitches use muscle movement to speed up healing
In rats, the sutures hastened recovery and reduced the risk of infection.
- Materials Science
A materials scientist seeks to extract lithium from untapped sources
Lithium is an essential ingredient for batteries in electric vehicles but getting enough will become a problem.
- Health & Medicine
50 years ago, some of plastic’s toxic hazards were exposed
Worker exposure to vinyl chloride became tightly regulated after the chemical was linked with liver cancer. Now, its use may be on the chopping block.
- Climate
Zigzag walls could help buildings beat the heat
A corrugated exterior wall reflects heat to space and absorbs less heat from the ground, keeping it several degrees cooler than a flat wall.
- Materials Science
Jurassic Park’s amber-preserved dino DNA is now inspiring a way to store data
DNA is capable of encoding all sorts of data. Storing it in an amberlike material may keep that information safe for nearly forever.
- Materials Science
Scientists developed a sheet of gold that’s just one atom thick
Ultrathin goldene sheets could reduce the amount of gold needed for electronics and certain chemical reactions.
Newly-developed microbeads that break down in water could replace plastic ones used as exfoliants in skin cleansers.
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Sticky tape can peel a diamond film off a silicon wafer. The edge of the wafer is first cut (illustrated on left), then the tape is applied and lifted (center), before fully separating the diamond (top right) from the silicon (bottom right).
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Ultrathin nanofibers (seen here in an image from a scanning electron microscope) made from flour and formic acid measure just about 370 nanometers thick — the thinnest noodles on record.
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In the future, doctors might stitch up wounds with a thread that generates electricity using the body’s own movement. A small amount of electricity can help cells speed up the healing process.
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A fundamental understanding of materials science pointed Chong Liu and her team to an excellent material for capturing lithium.
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Vinyl chloride is a key ingredient in a widely used plastic. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed a review of the chemical’s safety and environmental data that could result in stricter regulations or even a ban of its use.
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This zigzag wall design can cool off a building by reflecting both incoming solar radiation (yellow) and heat from the ground (red), while also emitting heat, as long-wave infrared radiation (blue), back to space.
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An amberlike material used to store DNA at room temperature is like polystyrene plastic, with an added molecular weakness that allows scientists to break down and reassemble it as needed.
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Each gold atom in goldene (illustrated) is bonded to six other gold atoms in a layer just one atom thick.
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