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A flexible lens controlled by light-activated artificial muscles promises to let soft machines see

Inspired by the human eye, our biomedical engineering lab at Georgia Tech has designed an adaptive lens made of soft, light-responsive, tissuelike materials. Our study is published in the journal Science Robotics.

Adjustable camera systems usually require a set of bulky, moving, solid lenses and a pupil in front of a camera chip to adjust focus and intensity. In contrast, human eyes perform these same functions using soft, flexible tissues in a highly compact form.

Our lens, called the photo-responsive hydrogel soft lens, or PHySL, replaces rigid components with soft polymers acting as artificial muscles. The polymers are composed of a hydrogel —a water-based polymer material. This hydrogel muscle changes the shape of a soft lens to alter the lens’s focal length, a mechanism analogous to the ciliary muscles in the human eye.

AI-guided drones use 3D printing to build structures in hard-to-reach places

Disaster has just struck, roads are inaccessible, and people need shelter now. Rather than wait days for a rescue team, a fleet of AI-guided drones takes flight carrying materials and the ability to build shelters, reinforce infrastructure, and construct bridges to reconnect people with safety.

It sounds like , but new research from Carnegie Mellon University’s College of Engineering combines drones, additive manufacturing, and to rethink the future of aerial construction.

Aerial (AM)—think flying 3D printers, has been fascinating researchers for years, but the natural instability of a drone in flight makes traditional layer-by-layer fabrication nearly impossible. To overcome this, Amir Barati Farimani, associate professor of mechanical engineering, has equipped drones with magnetic blocks to allow for precise pick-and-place assembly and a large language model (LLM) that can translate high-level design goals like “build a bridge” into executable plans.

A reusable, washable nanofiber membrane can filter water sustainably

The antimicrobial triclosan is widely used in personal hygiene products, textiles and plastics, but when it enters the environment via wastewater, it poses a significant threat to aquatic organisms.

A Cornell research group has developed a cyclodextrin-based fibrous membrane that in lab testing removed approximately 90% of triclosan from water. Their washable and reusable nanofiber material, fabricated via electrospinning—a process that uses an to draw ultra-thin fibers from a liquid—also effectively removed other micropollutants.

“The electrospinning produces a very thin fiber, less than 1 micron in diameter (a human hair is approximately 75 microns), which gives us and excellent adsorption,” said Mahmoud Aboelkheir, doctoral student in human centered design and lead author of the work.

Astronomers expose CO-dark molecular gas, previously invisible to telescopes

An international team of astronomers has created the first-ever large-scale maps of a mysterious form of matter, known as CO-dark molecular gas, in one of our Milky Way’s most active star-forming neighborhoods, Cygnus X. Their findings, using the Green Bank Telescope (GBT), are providing crucial new clues about how stars formed in the Milky Way.

‘Molecular dam’ stops energy leaks in nanocrystals to boost efficiency of light-driven reactions

A team of scientists has found a way to slow energy leaks that have impeded the use of tiny nanocrystals in light-driven chemical and energy applications.

As described in an article published in the journal Chem, the team has used a molecule that strongly binds to the nanocrystal’s surface, essentially acting like a dam to hold back the energy stored in the charge-separated state formed after light absorption. This technique extends the lifetime of the charge separation to the longest recorded for these materials, providing a pathway to improved efficiencies and more opportunities to put this energy to work in chemical reactions.

The researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder, the University of California Irvine, and Fort Lewis College were led by RASEI Fellow Gordana Dukovic.

Chemists create publicly available tool that provides unrivaled look at RNA inside cells

The interior of a cell is packed with proteins and nucleic acids, such as RNA, all of which need to perform specific functions at the exact right time. If they don’t, serious diseases—ALS, Huntington’s or many cancers—can result. But what exactly is happening inside the crowded cell when it malfunctions, and how can these miscues be prevented?

Thanks to a pair of chemists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, a new publicly available tool called iConRNA provides an unrivaled look at the mysterious world RNA, and could help solve the mystery of how devastating diseases develop.

The research is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

New molecular strategy achieves complete synthesis of anti-MRSA natural product

Spiroaspertrione A is a complex polycyclic compound naturally produced by the fungus Aspergillus sp. TJ23. First isolated in 2017, it quickly drew scientific attention for its promising ability to combat drug-resistant bacteria and restore their sensitivity to existing antibiotics.

Scientists have now found a way to carry out the total synthesis of the molecule in 16 steps, starting from a chiral pool building block called (+)-enoxolone that costs less than one euro per gram. The synthesis technique is presented in Science.

Staphylococcus aureus (staph) is a type of bacteria that quietly lives on our skin and in our noses. It usually does no harm, but when it turns invasive, it triggers dangerous infections like sepsis, pneumonia, and many hospital-acquired infections. What makes it truly alarming is its growing resistance to antibiotics, which can turn treatable infections into deadly threats.

Novel carbon nanotube-based transistors reach THz frequencies

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs), cylindrical nanostructures made of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice, have proved to be promising for the fabrication of various electronic devices. In fact, these structures exhibit outstanding electrical conductivity and mechanical strength, both of which are highly favorable for the development of transistors (i.e., the devices that control the flow of current in electronics).

In recent years, several have started using CNTs to develop various electronics, including metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs). MOSFETs are transistors that control the flow of current through a semiconducting channel utilizing an applied to a gate electrode.

Notably, when arrays of CNTs are used to develop MOSFETs, they can operate at (RF), the range of electromagnetic waves that support wireless communication. The resulting MOSFETs could thus be particularly advantageous for the advancement of wireless communication systems and technologies.

Scientists create a new form of light matter in a quasicrystal

Researchers have for the first time created a reconfigurable polariton 2D quasicrystal. The team from the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech), in collaboration with colleagues from the University of Iceland, the University of Warsaw, and the Institute of Spectroscopy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, demonstrated that this unique state of matter exhibits long-range order and a novel type of phase synchronization, opening new pathways for research into exotic phenomena such as supersolids and superfluidity in aperiodic settings.

The breakthrough, published in Science Advances, was achieved using exciton-polaritons—hybrid quasiparticles that are part light and part matter. By arranging these polaritons in a Penrose tiling, a famous aperiodic pattern with five-fold symmetry, the team observed the emergence of a macroscopic coherent state where the individual nodes synchronized in a nontrivial way, unlike anything seen in conventional periodic crystals.

Scientists Finally Hear Black Holes Ring, Confirming Hawking’s Famous Prediction

Ten years after the first detection of gravitational waves, scientists have captured the clearest signal yet — and it confirms one of Stephen Hawking’s most famous predictions.

Using the upgraded LIGO detectors, researchers observed two black holes colliding over a billion light-years away, producing space-time ripples so precise they could “hear” the black holes ring like cosmic bells.

A new window on the universe.

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