Natural silk, fibers made by spiders and silkworms, is a material that is tougher than kevlar or steel, yet remarkably flexible. In recent years, researchers have worked to gain a better understanding of what silk is and how it’s made, with the goal of being able to consistently replicate and enhance its production synthetically. Aside… »
People with diabetes must keep a careful eye on their blood glucose levels, because too much sugar can damage organs, while too little deprives the body of necessary fuel. Most patients must prick their fingers several times a day to draw blood for testing. In one of our previous articles we wrote about hydrogel lenses… »
The capabilities and behavior of bees have inspired scientists in various fields as swarm movement and cooperation. Neurobiologists from Bielefeld University, Germany, have been researching the computational mechanisms that allow the nervous system to extract behaviorally relevant information from the retinal input and to use this information in behavioral control. In their previous research, the… »
By combining origami and electrical engineering, researchers at MIT and Harvard are developing a transformable robot. The researchers have developed algorithms that, given a three-dimensional shape, can determine how to reproduce it by folding a sheet of semi-rigid material with a distinctive pattern of flexible creases. To test out their theories, they built a prototype… »
Earth houses are based on the interpretation of an environmentally conscious, ecological and progressive architecture. They stand out due to their closeness to nature and allow an experience beyond the usual four walls and their right angles. The earth house concept uses its surroundings as an advantage – the surroundings are not adapted to the… »
Stanford engineers have found out how to simultaneously use the light and heat of the sun to generate electricity in a way that could make solar power production more than twice as efficient as existing methods and potentially cheap enough to compete with oil. Unlike photovoltaic technology currently used in solar panels (which become less… »
Weird movements in the abdomens of freely crawling caterpillars are making headlines in the fields of biology and engineering. The findings from a multidisciplinary team of researchers, including Jake Socha, Virginia Tech assistant professor of engineering science and mechanics, Michael Simon of Tufts University’s Department of Biology, and Barry Trimmer, professor of biology at Tufts,… »
Within the sludge of wastewater treatment plants is an invisible world teeming with microbes. Here, diverse species of bacteria convert solid and liquid wastes into gases, some of which contribute to global warming. Two Stanford University engineers are developing a new sewage treatment process that would actually increase the production of nitrous oxide (“laughing gas”)… »
