Content by Jennifer Chu
Artificial Muscle Flexes in Multiple Directions, Offering a Path to Soft, Wiggly RobotsProducing artificial tissues that look and act like their natural counterparts
Wed, 04/02/2025 - 12:02
(MIT: Cambridge, MA) -- We move thanks to coordination among many skeletal muscle fibers, all twitching and pulling in sync. While some muscles align in one direction, others form intricate patterns, helping parts of the body move in multiple ways…
MIT Engineers Grow ‘High-Rise’ 3D ChipsAn electronic stacking technique could exponentially increase the number of transistors on chips
Thu, 01/16/2025 - 12:02
The electronics industry is approaching a limit to the number of transistors that can be packed onto the surface of a computer chip. So chip manufacturers are looking to build up, rather than out. Instead of squeezing ever-smaller transistors onto…
Helping Robots Zero In on the Objects That MatterClio method enables robots to quickly map a scene and identify items needed to complete tasks
Thu, 10/10/2024 - 12:02
Imagine having to straighten up a messy kitchen, starting with a counter littered with sauce packets. If your goal is to wipe the counter clean, you might sweep up the packets as a group. If, however, you wanted to first pick out the mustard packets…
Engineers 3D Print Sturdy Glass Bricks for Building StructuresThe interlocking blocks can withstand similar pressures as concrete
Tue, 10/01/2024 - 12:00
(MIT: Cambridge, MA) -- What if construction materials could be put together and taken apart as easily as LEGO bricks? Such reconfigurable masonry would be disassembled at the end of a building’s lifetime and reassembled into a new structure in a…
Scientists Observe Record-Setting Electron Mobility in New Crystal FilmCould apply to wearable thermoelectric and spintronic devices
Wed, 07/17/2024 - 23:58
(MIT: Cambridge, MA) -- A material with a high electron mobility is like a highway without traffic. Any electrons that flow into the material experience a commuter’s dream, breezing through without any obstacles or congestion to slow or scatter them…
New Computer Vision Method Helps Speed Electronic Materials ScreeningTechnique characterizes a material’s electronic properties 85 times faster than conventional methods
Wed, 06/26/2024 - 12:03
Boosting the performance of solar cells, transistors, LEDs, and batteries will require better electronic materials made from novel compositions that have yet to be discovered. To speed up the search for advanced functional materials, scientists are…
Benchtop Test Identifies Extremely Impact-Resistant MaterialsHigh-speed experiments help identify lightweight, protective ‘metamaterials’
Wed, 02/21/2024 - 12:03
An intricate, honeycomb-like structure of struts and beams could withstand a supersonic impact better than a solid slab of the same material. What’s more, the specific structure matters, with some being more resilient to impacts than others. That’s…
Tiny Magnetic Beads Could Help to Quickly Detect PathogensFindings point to faster way to find bacteria in food, water, and clinical samples
Tue, 09/05/2023 - 12:03
Getting blood test results can take anywhere from a day to a week, depending on what a test is targeting. The same goes for tests of water pollution and food contamination. And in most cases, the wait time has to do with time-consuming steps in…
Coloring Outside the LinesMathias Kolle’s color-changing materials take inspiration from butterflies and mollusks
Wed, 08/16/2023 - 12:01
For Mathias Kolle, the wings of a butterfly are a window into a better material world. The insect’s iridescence is a result of “structural color” rather than pigments or dyes: A single wing is layered with hundreds of thousands of microscopic scales…
Engineers Invent Vertical, Full-Color Microscopic LEDsStacking LEDs could enable fully immersive VR displays and higher-resolution screens
Thu, 02/23/2023 - 12:00
(MIT: Cambridge, MA) -- Take apart your laptop screen and at its heart you’ll find a plate patterned with pixels of red, green, and blue LEDs, arranged end to end like a meticulous Lite-Brite display. When electrically powered, the LEDs together can…