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For decades, engineers have been searching for better ways to power medical implants and wearable electronics. Devices such as pacemakers, cochlear implants, deep-brain stimulators and health-monitoring sensors all need a reliable source of electricity. Today, batteries are the most common solution, but they have a major limitation: they eventually run out of energy and can be difficult to make smaller without sacrificing their capacity. Now, a team of engineers led by the University of Massachusetts Amherst has developed a radically different approach. Instead of relying on a conventional battery, researchers have created an ultrathin and flexible mesh that can harvest energy directly from living human heart cells . The research, published in Science Advances , introduces a biohybrid system designed to work alongside living tissue and continuously convert the mechanical activity of cells into electrical energy. The Problem With Batteries in Medical Implants Modern medical electronics...

Medical implants are becoming smaller, smarter and more flexible. From cardiac pacemakers to sensors that monitor the body, these devices could play an increasingly important role in future healthcare. But one major challenge remains: how to reliably power an electronic device that is constantly moving inside the human body? Researchers from the Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Seoul National University and other institutions in South Korea have developed a new wireless power-transfer system designed to address this problem. The technology can deliver energy to soft, stretchable implants even when the implant changes shape or moves out of alignment with the external power source. The researchers describe their work in a study published in Nature Electronics . As an initial demonstration, they used the system to develop a wireless cardiac pacemaker and successfully tested it in pigs. Why powering flexible implants is difficult Traditional electronic implants often use rigid components...

Wearable technology is becoming increasingly advanced, but one major problem has remained: how to make fluid-powered systems truly wearable . Many wearable devices use fluids to provide cooling, heating, movement or tactile sensations. However, these systems usually depend on conventional pumps. Such pumps can be bulky, noisy and difficult to integrate into clothing. As a result, a device may be wearable, while the pump powering it is not. Researchers at the Soft Transducers Laboratory (LMTS) at EPFL’s School of Engineering have developed a remarkably different solution: a pump that is itself a fiber . Instead of connecting clothing to a separate mechanical pump, the researchers created a tiny tube that can generate its own fluid pressure and flow. Because the pump is only about 2 millimeters in diameter , it can be incorporated directly into fabrics using ordinary sewing and weaving techniques. The research was published in the journal Science . A Pump Hidden Inside a Fiber “Now, we ...

For decades, scientists have had a relatively simple picture of how asteroids are built. Small asteroids were thought to be loose collections of rocks and dust, often called “rubble piles,” while larger asteroids were expected to be more solid, fractured bodies that had survived billions of years of collisions. Now, a new analysis of 433 Eros , one of the most extensively studied near-Earth asteroids, is challenging that picture. Researchers led by Ballouz have studied how impact craters on Eros have been damaged and erased over time. Their results suggest that the asteroid's deep interior behaves much more like a rubble pile than a single, solid but fractured rock. The finding could change our understanding of how medium-sized asteroids form, evolve and respond to impacts — and may even influence how humanity plans to defend Earth from a potentially hazardous asteroid. Why Eros Is So Important Asteroid 433 Eros is unusual because it is relatively large but still small enough to ...

For decades, scientists have struggled to observe some of the ocean’s most important currents. Large ocean currents such as the Gulf Stream can be tracked from space, but much smaller currents—often only a few kilometres wide and changing within hours—have remained difficult to measure. Now, researchers led by Luc Lenain have introduced a new artificial intelligence system called Geostationary Ocean Flow (GOFLOW) that could dramatically change how we observe these hidden movements. Using frequent thermal images from geostationary satellites and deep learning, GOFLOW can reconstruct ocean-surface currents at kilometre-scale resolution and roughly hourly intervals . The technology could provide scientists with an unprecedented view of rapidly changing ocean circulation and help improve our understanding of climate, marine ecosystems and ocean pollution. The Ocean Is Far More Dynamic Than It Looks The ocean may appear relatively calm when viewed from the shore or from space, but beneath...

Imagine storing poems, photographs, videos or other digital information inside molecules of DNA—and then retrieving that information without needing thousands of copies of each DNA fragment. Scientists led by Weigang Chen have developed a new DNA data-storage method designed to make this possible. The approach combines medium-length DNA molecules, low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes and pseudo-noise sequences to overcome one of the biggest problems in DNA storage: errors during nanopore sequencing. The researchers demonstrated that digital data could be recovered reliably from DNA using sequencing coverage as low as 1.24–3.15× , with typical nanopore error rates around 1.83% . In particularly favorable cases, recovery was possible at approximately 1× coverage , approaching a remarkable single-molecule readout scenario. Why Store Data in DNA? As the amount of digital information produced worldwide continues to grow, conventional storage technologies face challenges involving physica...

In a breakthrough that could transform secure information storage and anti-counterfeiting technology, researchers led by Di Zhao have developed a new family of smart polymers that can change color, alter their fluorescence, and even repair themselves after being damaged . The material responds to different types of light and can produce several visible optical states. This combination of light sensitivity, strong mechanical properties, rapid self-healing and programmable luminescence could open new possibilities for dynamic encryption, optical data storage, UV sensing and light-written information . The Challenge of Making Smarter Optical Materials As digital information continues to grow, scientists are looking for new ways to store and protect information. Conventional systems often rely on electronic devices, while optical technologies can potentially provide high-density storage and multiple layers of security. One promising approach is the use of photoluminescent materials —mater...