After devising systems inspired by penguins, herring gulls and elephant trunk, engineers at Festo devised a new system suitable for their Bionic Learning Network project. Inspired by dragonflies, they developed BionicOpter – an ultra-light system packed with everything needed to mimic the way dragonflies maneuver in all directions, glide without having to beat their wings… »

Cooperation between researchers at Stuttgart University, the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems and the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, resulted with a material which is as hard as copper, yet flexible enough to be rolled up or folded. This material is actually made from a vanadium pentoxide ceramic, and it has another… »

A group of researchers at the Virginia Tech College of Engineering, who previously developed a small robotic jellyfish Robojelly, developed its larger version and named it Cyro – a name derived from “cyanea” and “robot”. The cyanea part of the name originates from cyanea capillata (Lion’s mane jellyfish) – the largest known species of jellyfish… »

A group of researchers at the University of Michigan (U-M) have developed a laser-powered source and detector system which employs low-energy terahertz radiation with record high power and sensitivity. The breakthrough could enable doctors to see deep into tissues without the damaging effects of X-rays, or allow security guards to identify chemicals in a package… »

Five researchers at the University of Bergen (UiB) and Uni Research have found that a certain type of tunicate – marine filter feeders that serve as bacteria eaters and as a food in cultures that consume larger number of seafood – can be used as a renewable source of biofuel and fish food. That means… »

Fungi, with the exception of mushrooms we find tasty at some point of their lifetime, tend to be something we associate with moldy bread and stench. Fungal colonies composed of mycelia are found in soil and on or within many other substrates. Researchers at Union College are cooperating with Ecovative Design to use mycelia to… »

Inspired by structural elements found in most sea sponges, researchers at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) and the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research (MPI-P) in Germany have recreated the sponge spicules using the natural mineral calcium carbonate and a protein of the sponge. The resulting material is a synthetic hybrid which has almost 90… »

Not so long ago, we published a story about orange pomace and its potential to be used as gluten-free flour, and researchers at the Oregon State University (OSU) have discovered how to turn the pulp from crushed wine grapes into a natural food preservative, biodegradable packaging materials, as well as a nutritional enhancement for baked… »