Engineers at Caltech and ETH Zurich have created a swimming robot that’s powered by material deformation. That means that it’s made using materials that change shape in response to temperature swings, and that deformation pushes the device through water.
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The transparent sections of the glasswing butterfly's wings barely reflect any light, which is why we've previously heard about them inspiring glare-free device screens. Now, their antireflective quality has led to an improvement in a glaucoma-monitoring eye implant.
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In the more advanced stages of diabetes, the patient has a real risk of going blind. While there are treatments to help keep this from happening, they're invasive and often painful. There may be new hope, though, in the form of glowing contact lenses.
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Researchers at Caltech have induced a range of sensations in the arm of a paralyzed man. Electrodes implanted in the brain stimulated the neurons to produce different feelings. The research could eventually lead to prosthetic limbs that allow users to feel realistic sensations through them.
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To find out where a submarine is, you send out a sonar signal which that sub reflects back. It may some day be similarly possible to locate therapeutic bacteria within a patient's body, as scientists have created the first bacterial cells that are capable of reflecting sound waves.
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A Caltech team has bred bacteria that can make boron-carbon bonds, which were previously only possible in the lab. That ability opens up the range of chemical compounds that bacteria could create, paving the way for easier and more environmentally-friendly production of drugs and other chemicals.
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A team of engineers from Caltech have created a stable ring of plasma in open air, using just a high-pressure jet of water and a crystal plate. The technique could, in the long run, unlock the potential for plasma to be used for storing energy.
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Bacteria are evolving resistance to antibiotics at an alarming rate. One of the main issues is overprescription of antibiotics, and now a new test developed by scientists at Caltech could help doctors quickly prescribe the best type of antibiotic to fight a particular infection.
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The mystery of why we sleep has perplexed scientists for decades, and evidence of sleep-like behavior has been seen in virtually every animal on the planet. A team recently discovered signs of sleep in jellyfish, the first ever identified in an animal without a central nervous system.
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In the future, tiny medical devices could swim through our bodies to diagnose diseases, but keeping track of them all can be tricky. A new invention out of Caltech might make that easier: a chip loaded with sensors that can ping its location in the body, thanks to MRI-inspired technology.
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