This is a timelapse image of the walking device. Credit: Bart van Overbeeke

Scientists at Eindhoven University of Technology and Kent State University have developed a new material that can undulate and therefore propel itself forward under the influence of light. To this end, they clamp a strip of this polymer material in a rectangular frame. When illuminated it goes for a walk all on its own. This small device, the size of a paperclip, is the world’s first machine to convert light directly into walking, simply using one fixed light source.

The maximum speed is equivalent to that of a caterpillar, about 0.5cm/s. They think it can be used to transport small items in hard-to-reach places or to keep the surface of solar cells clean...

This is an artist’s representation of a conceptual design for the color detector, which uses thermoelectric structures with arrays of nanoscale wires that absorb different wavelengths of light based on their width. Credit: Harry Atwater and Kelly Mauser/Caltech

Engineers at Caltech have for the first time developed a light detector that combines 2 disparate technologies – nanophotonics, which manipulates light at the nanoscale, and thermoelectrics, which translates temperature differences directly into electron voltage – to distinguish different wavelengths (colors) of light, including both visible and infrared wavelengths, at high resolution...

Merging black holes generate gravitational waves. These ripples in space-time might be used to unveil hidden dimensions. Credit: © Simulating eXtreme Spacetimes (SXS)

Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute/AEI) in Potsdam found that hidden dimensions– as predicted by string theory could influence gravitational waves. In a recently published paper they study the consequences of extra dimensions on these ripples in space-time, and predict whether their effects could be detected.

LIGO’s first detection of gravitational waves from a black-hole binary in September 2015 has opened a new window onto the universe...