(a) Schematic demonstration of the system and the lifting process. The force and energy change involved are highlighted). (b) Hierarchical structure of silk fibers. The single silk fiber consists of tiny silk threads.

Spider silk offers new inspiration for artificial muscle technology. The silk of the Ornithoctonus Huwena spider demonstrates impressive weight-lifting abilities with efficient, water-driven actuation. The triggered stretching behavior of muscle is inherently based in geometry, characterized by a decrease in length and increase in volume (or vice versa) in response to a change in local environment, eg humidity or heat.

“Spider silk is a natural biological material with high sensitivity to water, which inspires us to study about the interaction between spider silk and water,” ...

This is the directional emission of light. Credit: TU Wien

Recently, surprising physical effects were observed using special microscopic waveguides for light. Such “photonic structures” currently are revolutionizing the fields of optics and photonics, and have opened up the new research area of “Chiral Quantum Optics.” What one learns at school is that light oscillates under a right angle (transversal) with respect to its direction of propagation. Among experts, however, it was already known that light behaves differently when it is confined strongly in the transversal plane using “photonic structures.” In particular, this is the case for special ultra-thin glass fibers which have a diameter of only a few hundred nanometers and which are thereby smaller than the wavelength of light...

Schematic of the internal structure of AGB stars at the interface between the H-burning region and the convective envelope.

Scientists have identified the origin of key stardust grains present in the dust cloud from which the planets in our Solar System formed, a study suggests. Researchers have solved a long-standing puzzle concerning the source of the grains, which formed long before our Solar System and can be recovered from meteorites that fall to Earth. The stars that produced the dust were identified by observing how key reactions shaped the make-up of the grains, scientists say.

During their lifetime, stars around six times larger than the Sun – called Asymptotic Giant Branch or AGB stars – blow off their outer layers, forming an interstellar cloud of gas and dust grains...