Energy & Green Tech

Metal organic frameworks could turn greenhouse gas into 'gold'

Fluorine can be a beneficial ingredient in medicines because of its excellent pharmacological properties, according to Phillip Milner, assistant professor of chemistry and chemical biology in the College of Arts and Sciences ...

Robotics

Self-organization: What robotics can learn from amoebae

Amoebae are single-cell organisms. By means of self-organization, they can form complex structures—and do this purely through local interactions: If they have a lot of food, they disperse evenly through a culture medium. ...

Engineering

Marangoni surfer robots look and move like water bugs

From birds in the sky to fish in the sea, nature's creatures possess characteristics naturally perfected over millennia. Studying them leads engineers to create new technologies that are essential to our way of life today. ...

Machine learning & AI

Optimizing neural networks on a brain-inspired computer

Many computational properties are maximized when the dynamics of a network are at a 'critical point," a state where systems can quickly change their overall characteristics in fundamental ways, transitioning e.g. between ...

Engineering

Next generation of greenhouses may be fully solar powered

Many greenhouses could become energy neutral by using see-through solar panels to harvest energy—primarily from the wavelengths of light that plants don't use for photosynthesis. Those are the findings of a new modeling ...

Engineering

New device paves the way to 3-D-printed organs, food

More than 113,000 people are currently on the national transplant list. And with a shortage of donors, this means that about 20 people will die every day while waiting for an organ, according to the U.S. Department of Health.