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Category: engineering

Artificial ‘leaf’ powers wireless biomedical device

Plants convert light into energy efficiently through photosynthesis—an ability that scientists and engineers still struggle to match with electronic devices. Recently, researchers have looked beyond traditional semiconductor materials to create devices using a promising class of materials called nanoplasmonics. These tiny metal structures can absorb and concentrate optical energy and generate energetic charge carriers.

In a new study, researchers from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (UChicago PME) and Department of Chemistry developed a nanoplasmonic “leaf,” a wireless bioelectronic device they used to stimulate nerves and pace heartbeats in an animal model.

The team also showed that their material could be used as a computer-like sensing platform, where users can interact with the screen using invisible light—a potentially secure way to transmit information.

VR combined with nerve stimulation improves arm and hand function following a stroke

Researchers at the Medical University of Vienna and ETH Zurich have developed a rehabilitation platform for people suffering from the long-term effects of a stroke that combines virtual reality with targeted sensory nerve stimulation. In a randomized feasibility clinical study with stroke patients, recently published in Nature Medicine, the new technology contributed to improvements in arm and hand function, as well as in tactile and body awareness. These results open up the prospect of personalized and more accessible rehabilitation that can support patients’ recovery beyond the limits of conventional therapy.

Stroke is one of the leading causes of long-term disability worldwide. Even after intensive early physiotherapy, many stroke survivors continue to live with reduced arm and hand function, impaired sensation, and altered body awareness long after the initial event. While conventional rehabilitation can improve motor functions, it often focuses primarily on movement training; sensory deficits and body awareness are frequently given insufficient attention. There is therefore a need for more comprehensive rehabilitation strategies.

To address this need, a research team led by Stanisa Raspopovic (Center for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, MedUni Vienna) has developed “MultiSensy,” a rehabilitation platform for patients with arm and hand impairments following a stroke that combines immersive virtual reality with transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation. The system turns rehabilitation exercises into interactive virtual tasks designed to train specific arm and hand functions, including reaching, grasping, pinching and forearm rotation.

Modular coatings customize hydrogel implants to boost adhesion and limit fibrosis

Researchers led by Jiawei Yang, Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, have designed a modular system that could potentially improve hydrogel implants in the body by customizing the materials for stiffness and functionality.

The system, described in the journal Science Advances, uses coatings to treat the surface of hydrogels, which are flexible, water-loaded polymers. The researchers reported that by customizing different types of hydrogels with unique coatings, they were able to create two distinct hydrogel implants that maintained adhesion in living tissue and resisted an immune system response.

“It is difficult for a material with a single chemical composition to play two distinct roles in an implant,” Yang said. “We addressed that by developing a way to customize hydrogel implants with two sets of chemical compositions that can be tailored to address specific needs and achieve better results.”

NASA just rolled a 3,100-ton machine 4 miles to the launch pad at less than 1 mph, the heaviest self-powered vehicle on Earth, carrying a Moon rocket that weighs less than the machine hauling it

When NASA sent four astronauts toward the Moon this spring, the cameras did what cameras always do at a launch. They pointed at the rocket. Artemis II was the first crew to fly around the Moon in more than 50 years, a 322-foot stack throwing fire over the Florida coast on April 1, and it earned every second of airtime it got.

But the rocket didn’t get itself to the launch pad. The machine that did is older than all four astronauts who flew the mission, weighs more than the rocket it carried, and moves so slowly you could lap it on foot without breaking a sweat. It is NASA’s Crawler-Transporter 2, and Guinness World Records lists it as the heaviest self-powered vehicle on the planet. While everyone watched the thing going up, the real engineering marvel spent the better part of a day going sideways at less than a mile an hour.

Start with the number that got it into the record books. Crawler-Transporter 2 weighs 6.65 million pounds, or about 3,106 metric tons. Guinness World Records made it official back in 2023 at a ceremony at Kennedy Space Center, handing NASA a certificate for the heaviest self-powered vehicle ever built. For scale, that is roughly the weight of 1,000 pickup trucks stacked on top of each other.

Copper thin films reveal ballistic electron transport that could reshape future chip wiring

A joint research team has experimentally observed ballistic transport in single-crystalline copper thin films, demonstrating that ballistic transport is achievable in an industry-standard metal at interconnect-relevant dimensions. The study, titled “Ballistic transport in nanodevices based on single-crystalline Cu thin films,” was published in Nature Communications.

Ballistic transport refers to a phenomenon in which electrons travel along straight trajectories without scattering. Until now, this behavior has mainly been observed in special quantum materials such as graphene or semiconductor nanostructures. In copper, where electron scattering is pronounced, realizing ballistic transport has been considered practically impossible.

In this study, the team led by Professor Gil-Ho Lee of the Department of Physics at POSTECH, Professor Emeritus Se-Young Jeong of the School of Transdisciplinary Engineering at Pusan National University and Professor Seong-Gon Kim of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Mississippi State University, experimentally demonstrated that ballistic transport can occur in structures with a thickness of 80 nm and a linewidth of 150 nm, dimensions comparable to those used in semiconductor interconnects.

Ink-based thermoelectric technology could be solution for replacing problematic refrigerants

Today’s refrigerants, which are specialized working fluids used in air conditioners, refrigerators and heat pumps, come with a host of issues, including leakage, emissions concerns, flammability and limited reclamation of used refrigerants. However, a recent study by University of Notre Dame researchers published in Materials Horizons describes a promising alternative for next-generation cooling using thermoelectric technology, which has no moving parts and no gaseous refrigerants, allowing for zero leaks.

“By making thermoelectric devices a competitive and commercially viable technology, it can transform the way we cool things,” said Yanliang Zhang, Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Collegiate Professor of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at Notre Dame. “We can make the cooling process become very environmentally friendly.”

In the past, widespread adoption of thermoelectrics has been challenging because of the high costs associated with traditional manufacturing processes. However, the research team led by Zhang has developed an innovative ink-based printing strategy that enables scalable manufacturing of low-cost, high-performance thermoelectric materials and devices.

3D photothermal design unlocks 8.5-fold higher solar evaporation for desalination and crop irrigation

The global shortage of freshwater has become a critical challenge. Conventional water treatment relies heavily on fossil fuels and associated infrastructure, which can make it unsuitable for remote and harsh regions. In contrast, solar thermal evaporation is a promising alternative, but its application is limited by material performance and production constraints.

Now, researchers from the Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Shenzhen University have developed a new three-dimensional (3D) photothermal structure that greatly improves solar evaporation efficiency.

The new structure tightly integrates polymer chains with hollow multishelled structures (HoMS), yielding a record evaporation rate of 38.14 kg m-2 h-1 —a figure 8.5 times higher than rates previously reported for two-dimensional membrane systems.

Jumping the clock: Engineering ageing in biomedicine

Engineering the age(ing) of tissues in vitro could lead to more representative and predictive models for the ageing population. This forum introduces methodological approaches for ‘age engineering’ (‘ageneering’) and further discusses future applications of age-matched cells, matrices, and microtissues in predictive disease modelling, biomarker discovery, and age-specific pharmacotoxicology.

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