Flexible circuits made with silk and graphene

Sep 18, 2024 (Nanowerk News) After thousands of years as a highly valuable commodity, silk continues to surprise. Now it may help usher in a whole new direction for microelectronics and computing. While silk protein has been deployed in designer electronics, its use is currently limited in part because silk...

Hexagonal electrohydraulic modules shape-shift into versatile robots

Sep 18, 2024 (Nanowerk News) Scientists at the Max-Planck-Institute for Intelligent Systems (MPI-IS) have developed hexagon-shaped robotic components, called modules, that can be snapped together LEGO-style into high-speed robots that can be rearranged for different capabilities. The team of researchers from the Robotic Materials Department at MPI-IS, led by Christoph...

Reconfigurable photonic bricks advance light-based technology

Sep 18, 2024 (Nanowerk Spotlight) The ability to precisely control the flow of light is critical for technologies like high-speed data transfer, advanced computing, and telecommunications. Yet, despite the promise of photonics, existing systems remain rigid and impractical for large-scale use. Current photonic designs are either fixed in their function...