Using a piece of magnet, researchers have designed a simple system that can control the movement of a small puddle of water, even when it s upside down. The new liquid manipulation strategy, described in the journal Cell Reports Physical Science on June 3, can have a wide range of applications including cleaning hard-to-reach environments or delivering small objects.
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IMAGE: This image shows the color change of the chameleon skin hydrogel-based chemosensor in response to biogenic volatile amine vapors, which are a well known indicator of fish and shrimp spoilage.. view more
Credit: Lu et al./Cell Reports Physical Science
Scientists in China and Germany have designed an artificial color-changing material that mimics chameleon skin, with luminogens (molecules that make crystals glow) organized into different core and shell hydrogel layers instead of one uniform matrix. The findings, published May 6 in the journal
Cell Reports Physical Science, demonstrate that a two-luminogen hydrogel chemosensor developed with this design can detect seafood freshness by changing color in response to amine vapors released by microbes as fish spoils. The material may also be used to advance the development of stretchable electronics, dynamic camouflaging robots, and anticounterfeiting technologies.
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VIDEO: This video shows the flexible TEG wristband converts heat emitted by skin into electric power and light up an LED. view more
Credit: Yijie Liu
Scientists in China have developed a small, flexible device that can convert heat emitted from human skin to electrical power. In their research, presented April 29 in the journal
Cell Reports Physical Science, the team showed that the device could power an LED light in real time when worn on a wristband. The findings suggest that body temperature could someday power wearable electronics such as fitness trackers.
The device is a thermoelectric generator (TEG) that uses temperature gradients to generate power. In this design, researchers use the difference between the warmer body temperature and the relatively cooler ambient environment to generate power.
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IMAGE: This image shows a quote from Jane Austen s Mansfield Park written in oligourethanes. view more
Credit: Sarah Moor
Using a novel molecular-data-storage technique, researchers at the University of Texas at Austin have encoded a quote from Jane Austen s classic novel Mansfield Park in a series of oligomers, which a third party could read back without prior knowledge of the structures that encoded the passage. The findings, published April 21st in the journal
Cell Reports Physical Science, illustrate a method to encode data that allows for greater information density than DNA-based approaches and that relies on urethane-like plastics highly accessible and structurally modifiable chemical feedstocks instead of nucleic acids.