Category Technology/Electronics

You can’t Squash this Roach-Inspired Robot

Weight-bearing, slope-climbing, and load-carrying capabilities.(A to C) Soft robot can continue to function (one-half of the original speed) after being stepped on by an adult human (59.5 kg), a load about 1 million times its own body weight. Scale bars, 3 cm. A robot climbs a slope (D) of 7.5° with a relative speed of 7 BL/s and a slope (E) of 15.6° with a relative speed of 1 BL/s. Scale bars, 1 cm. (F and G) A robot (0.064 g) carries a peanut (0.406 g), which is six times its own body weight, to show the load-carrying capability. The speed with the peanut on top is about one-six of the original speed without the peanut. Scale bars, 1 cm.

Insect-sized device scurries at the speed of a cockroach and can withstand the weight of a human...

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3D Printing the Human Heart

3D bioprinting of collagen to rebuild components of the human heart. Science, 2019; 365 (6452): 482 DOI: 10.1126/science.aav9051

A team of researchers from Carnegie Mellon University has published a paper in Science that details a new technique allowing anyone to 3D bioprint tissue scaffolds out of collagen, the major structural protein in the human body. This first-of-its-kind method brings the field of tissue engineering one step closer to being able to 3D print a full-sized, adult human heart.

The technique, known as Freeform Reversible Embedding of Suspended Hydrogels (FRESH), has allowed the researchers to overcome many challenges associated with existing 3D bioprinting methods, and to achieve unprecedented resolution and fidelity using soft and living materials.

Each of t...

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A Wearable Device so Thin and Soft you Won’t Even Notice It

Yu wearable HMI
Cunjiang Yu, Bill D. Cook Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at UH, led a project to develop a multifunctional, ultra-thin wearable human-machine interface.

Device also can serve as robotic skin, relaying information back to the user. Wearable human-machine interfaces – devices that can collect and store important health information about the wearer, among other uses – have benefited from advances in electronics, materials and mechanical designs. But current models still can be bulky and uncomfortable, and they can’t always handle multiple functions at one time.

Researchers reported Friday, Aug. 2, the discovery of a multifunctional ultra-thin wearable electronic device that is imperceptible to the wearer.

The device allows the wearer to move naturally and is less no...

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Experiments Explore the Mysteries of ‘Magic’ Angle Superconductors

Depiction of graphene
A team led by Princeton physicist Ali Yazdani has shown that strong electron interactions play a key role in the superconductivity that has been discovered in graphene, a material made up of single-layer sheets of carbon atoms. Here, two graphene sheets stacked on each other with a twist make a long-wavelength moiré pattern.
Image designed by Kai Fu for the Yazdani Lab, Princeton University

Physicists conducted experiments to explore superconductivity in a groundbreaking new material known as magic-angle twisted graphene. The team imaged electrons on the material’s surface and found that electrons interact with each other in ways that could help explain how superconductivity arises in this material.

In spring 2018, the surprising discovery of superconductivity in a new material s...

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