3D printed smart gel walks under water. Rutgers University-New Brunswick engineers have created a 3D-printed smart gel that walks underwater and grabs objects and moves them. The watery creation could lead to soft robots that mimic sea animals like the octopus, which can walk underwater and bump into things without damaging them.
World’s fastest heater - 100,000 degrees in 0.000 000 000 000 075 seconds. Scientists have used a powerful X-ray laser to heat water from room temperature to 100,000 degrees Celsius in less than a tenth of a picosecond (millionth of a millionth of a second). The experimental set-up, that can be seen as the world's fastest water heater, produced an exotic state of water, from which researchers hope to learn more about the peculiar characteristics of Earth's most important liquid. The observations also have practical use for the probing biological and many other samples with X-ray lasers.
Nanorobots assemble the world’s smallest house. Created by a French team, the microhouse demonstrates how researchers can advance optical sensing technologies when they manipulate ion guns, electron beams and finely controlled robotic piloting.
Moth’s silk fibers inspire “air-conditioned” fabric. In exploring the optical properties of the Madagascar comet moth's cocoon fibers, Columbia Engineering team discovers the fibers' exceptional capabilities to reflect sunlight and to transmit optical signals and images, and develops methods to spin artificial fibers mimicking the natural fibers' nanostructures and optical properties.
An electronic dog to the rescue. ETH Zurich scientists had previously developed small and extremely sensitive gas sensors for acetone, ammonia, and isoprene - all metabolic products that we emit in low concentrations via our breath or skin. The researchers have now combined these sensors in a tiny device with two commercial sensors for CO2 and moisture. It will complement the cameras and microphones already in use to help find entrapped people who can’t make themselves heard.
