A conventional robotic hand is equipped with multiple motors or peripheral devices for grasping a wide variety of objects. This study presents a robotic hand equipped with multiple grippers that are driven by a single motor with the transmission of motor power switched via a mechanism using gravity (Magnetic and Gravity-based Driving mechanism). Thus, it provides design guidelines for a new robotic hand capable of accommodating diverse grasping actions while maintaining a relatively simple structure.

A new study led by the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics of Chinese Academy of Sciences has visualized the spatiotemporal evolution of photogenerated holes in a facet-engineered bismuth vanadate photocatalyst using a home-builtin-situ transient reflection microscope.

The US National Science Foundation (NSF) announced it will award $15 million over the next two years to launch the NSF STELLAR Engine in the Rochester/Finger Lakes Region of New York, led by the University of Rochester. The award, matched by $16 million in New York State support over the next six years will establish an internationally competitive technology and innovation cluster in the region focused on laser technologies, education, business expansion and attraction, manufacturing, and workforce development.

The Resilient Energy Technology and Infrastructure Consortium, led by West Virginia University in collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University and more than 60 regional partners, will use $321 million in public and private funding to develop the nation’s next leading industrial energy innovation hub in the heart of Appalachia.

A team co-led by researchers at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering and Ewha Womans University in South Korea has demonstrated a new chemical approach that converts a mixture of the three most common plastics directly into high-purity hydrogen fuel at temperatures far below conventional gasification. The process locks carbon dioxide away as a solid mineral without releasing the greenhouse gas into the atmosphere. 

Scientists have developed a cleaner and cheaper method for fabricating 2D heterostructures which enables them to precisely layer materials just a few atoms thick. They say it could lead to faster microchips and the development of next-generation quantum computing technologies.

The sea worm Perinereis cultrifera have jaws made from structural proteins and ions, and this unique makeup has led some researchers to coin a new term: bio-metals. These materials can be categorized by three qualities — hardness, strain mechanics, and ion-protein structure — and in Biophysics Reviews, researchers examine the metallic qualities of the sea worm to further define the new classification, using nanoindentation, chemical analysis, and imaging.

Researchers at Paul Scherrer Institute PSI have developed the world’s first achromatic lens for neutron imaging. The lens overcomes a longstanding obstacle in the field: focusing neutrons of different wavelengths well enough to form a sharp, magnified image. With the lens, researchers can now image thick samples and follow processes inside bulky equipment such as furnaces, cryostats or pressure cells.