Polymers

Soft Robot Biodegrades Inside Body

Medgadget: Researchers at the City University of Hong Kong have developed a magnetic soft millirobot that can grab and release objects, and move around by rolling. The device can be controlled using magnetic fields, and consists of a biodegradable gelatin and iron oxide microparticles. The technology has significant potential…

Granular Hydrogels for Improved Bioinks

Medgadget: Researchers at Penn State have developed a granular hydrogel that contains both hydrogel microparticles and self-assembling nanoparticles, and which could be highly suited for bioprinting purposes. The concept involves the nanoparticles becoming adsorbed onto the hydrogel microparticles and reversibly…

Simple method creates stretchy color-changing films

C&EN: Engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have demonstrated a fast, scalable, and cost-effective method to produce films that change color when stretched (Nat. Mater. 2022, DOI: 10.1038/s41563-022-01318-x). Using a digital projector and commercially available light-sensitive polymers, they were…

3D Printed Space Habitat Now Open to Swiss Students to Live in

3DPrint.com: Our solar system has an incredible variety of worlds, and recent research has identified several off-Earth locations as potentially habitable for humans, like Mars, Europa, Enceladus, and the Moon. With NASA aiming to send astronauts to the Moon around…