Engineering

Researchers develop high-performance, stretchable solar cells

With the market for wearable electric devices growing rapidly, stretchable solar cells that can function under strain have received considerable attention as an energy source. To build such solar cells, it is necessary that ...

Electronics & Semiconductors

Testing the use of kombucha to make circuit boards

A small international team of material and computer engineers has tested the possibility of using kombucha to make electronic circuit boards. Their paper, posted on the arXiv pre-print server, describes various methods of ...

Engineering

Shape-memory alloys might help airplanes land without a peep

Having a home near a busy airport certainly has its perks. It is close to many establishments and alleviates the problem of wading through endless traffic to catch flights. But it does come at a cost—tolerating the jarring ...

Robotics

Researchers make robots from self-folding kirigami materials

Researchers have demonstrated how kirigami-inspired techniques allow them to design thin sheets of material that automatically reconfigure into new two-dimensional (2-D) shapes and three-dimensional (3-D) structures in response ...