Engineering

New process allows 3D printing of microscale metallic parts

Engineers at Caltech have developed a method for 3D printing pure and multicomponent metals, at a resolution that is, in some cases, an order of magnitude smaller than previously possible. The process, which uses water-based ...

Hardware

Hydrogels pave the way for the future of soft robotics

Researchers in Carnegie Mellon University's College of Engineering have created an open-source, commercially available fiber extruder to benefit future research with hydrogels and soft robotics.

Robotics

Developing a better ionic skin

In the quest to build smart skin that mimics the sensing capabilities of natural skin, ionic skins have shown significant advantages. They're made of flexible, biocompatible hydrogels that use ions to carry an electrical ...

Energy & Green Tech

These solar panels pull in water vapor to grow crops in the desert

Using a unique hydrogel, scientists in Saudi Arabia created a solar-driven system that successfully grows spinach by using water drawn from the air while producing electricity. The proof-of-concept design, described March ...

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Gel

A gel (from the lat. gelu—freezing, cold, ice or gelatus—frozen, immobile) is a solid, jelly-like material that can have properties ranging from soft and weak to hard and tough. Gels are defined as a substantially dilute cross-linked system, which exhibits no flow when in the steady-state. By weight, gels are mostly liquid, yet they behave like solids due to a three-dimensional cross-linked network within the liquid. It is the crosslinks within the fluid that give a gel its structure (hardness) and contribute to stickiness (tack). In this way gels are a dispersion of molecules of a liquid within a solid in which the solid is the continuous phase and the liquid is the discontinuous phase.

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