Inspired by a traditional Balkan bedbug remedy, researchers at UC Irvine and the University of Kentucky have documented how microscopic hairs on kidney bean leaves effectively stab and trap these biting insects. The researchers are going to use these findings to develop materials that mimic the geometry of the leaves in order to aid in… »

University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) researchers have found that self-moving gels can be used to enable the synthetic materials to “act alive” and mimic primitive biological communication. They managed to demonstrate that a synthetic system that can both emit and sense a chemical signal, and when the ability of chemical communication is combined with interaction with… »