Dec 05, 2025 Nanoscale kirigami inspired silicon metamaterial uses a cut and fold mesh to tune structural colour, smoothly shifting reflected light from green to yellow to red. (Nanowerk News) Similar to its perhaps better-known cousin origami – the Japanese art of folding paper – kirigami is an art form...
First observation of ultra-thin two-dimensional materials in a state between solid and liquid
Dec 05, 2025 Researchers directly filmed an atomically thin crystal melting, revealing an exotic hexatic phase that defies standard melting rules and contradicts theory. (Nanowerk News) When ice melts into water, it happens quickly, with the transition from solid to liquid being immediate. However, very thin materials do not adhere...
No robot can match a squirrel’s ability to leap from limb to limb
Dec 05, 2025 Based on studies of leaping squirrels, students design a robot that can stick a landing on a branch. (Nanowerk News) Engineers have designed robots that crawl, swim, fly and even slither like a snake, but no robot can hold a candle to a squirrel, which can parkour...
AI-enhanced, wireless skin-patch lets people send and receive text through touch
Dec 05, 2025 A soft skin-like patch uses iontronic sensing, vibration feedback and synthetic-data learning to send and read all ASCII characters through touch, enabling a complete two-way tactile communication method. (Nanowerk Spotlight) Human touch can express subtle patterns of pressure, timing and movement. Digital devices capture only simple taps...
Long-standing puzzle in electron scattering deepens with new measurement
Dec 04, 2025 Physicists probed why lead's nucleus reacts unlike others when hit by electrons and found that instead of clarity, the puzzle is more complex than expected. (Nanowerk News) New result with the A1 spectrometers at the MAMI accelerator reveals unexpected behaviour in heavy nuclei and opens a path...
Quantum computers get a boost from a tiny material tweak
Dec 04, 2025 A small, counterintuitive tweak to advanced materials can improve how quantum computers hand off information inside their systems, making them more efficient, reliable and scalable. (Nanowerk News) In a paper recently published in Advanced Electronic Materials ("High Mobility and Electrostatics in GeSn Quantum Wells With SiGeSn Barriers"),...