Structures can contract, reshape and grab objects while floating on water. Researchers at North Carolina State University have created 3D-printed flexible mesh structures that can be controlled with applied magnetic fields while floating on water. The structures can grab small objects and carry water droplets, giving them the potential to be useful as soft robots that mimic creatures living on water surfaces or that can serve as tissue scaffolds for cell cultures.

“This research shows capabilities in the emerging field of combining 3D printing and soft robotics,” said Orlin Velev, S...

Planetary delivery explains enigmatic features of Earth’s carbon and nitrogen. Most of Earth’s essential elements for life – including most of the carbon and nitrogen in you – probably came from another planet.

Earth most likely received the b...

Technology offers powerful new genetic tools for human disease research in rodents. Using active genetics technology, biologists have developed the world’s first CRISPR/Cas9-based approach to control genetic inheritance in a mammal. The achievement in mice lays the groundwork for further advances based on this technology, including biomedical research on human disease. Future animal models may be possible of complex human genetic diseases, like arthritis and cancer, which are not currently possible.

Scientists around the world have been using CRISPR/Cas9 in a variety of plant and animal species to edit genetic information...