University of Fribourg

Nobody likes buildings that are too hot in the summer or too cold in the winter. That's where the FlectoLine facade comes in, as it uses two bio-inspired mechanisms to regulate how much solar thermal energy gets through a building's windows.

Scientists have replicated the seed-delivery system used by wild oats, resulting in a seed-carrying bio-hybrid "robot." Scores of the tiny devices could one day be utilized for much easier, more effective aerial seeding of crops or even new forests.

When lightweight composite materials are used in fields such as aerospace, it's vitally important to know if they're experiencing mechanical stress – before they fail. A new composite is able to do so, simply by fluorescing under UV light.

Pesticides may indeed kill plant pathogens, but they're also harmful to the environment. Newly developed nanoparticles may provide a more eco-friendly alternative, as they boost the immune systems of crop plants, then harmlessly dissolve.

​It's always helpful if materials let you know when they're under stress, so that changes can be made before catastrophic failures occur. A new polymer is designed to provide such a warning, as it glows when stretched.

An organism that is pretty good at generating biocompatible power (for itself, at least) is the electric eel, and scientists have now used the high-voltage species as a blueprint for a promising new self-charging device that could one day power things like pacemakers and prosthetics.

Scientists are working on biological fuel cells, that could be used to power medical implants using the patient's own blood sugar.

Newly-created polymers liquefy and fill in scratches when exposed to UV light, then resolidify once the light source is removed.