One of the primary challenges with prosthetic hands is the ability to properly tune the appropriate grip based on the object being handled. In Nanotechnology and Precision Engineering, researchers in China have developed an object identification system for prosthetic hands to guide appropriate grip strength decisions in real time. Their system uses an electromyography sensor at the user’s forearm to determine what the user intends to do with the object at hand.

The presence of small plastic pellets on the beaches of Donostia and Orio has drawn attention to a little-studied source of pollution: leakage of industrial microplastics that reach the sea through stormwater drainage networks. Researchers in the Materials + Technologies Group at the EHU have identified two control parameters that would enable early detection of these losses to be made, and have proposed containment measures that can be easily incorporated into discharge regulations.  

The scale-up of rhamnolipid production using waste glycerol was successfully demonstrated under a constant impeller tip speed, increasing yield by ~22% without compromising cell viability or product quality.

Both 3D and 0D rare-earth perovskites with high crystal structural rigidity are demonstrated as high-temperature scintillators, showing the X-ray imaging technique used in extreme environments.

Atomically dispersed Zn and Fe dual sites are embedded into porous carbon nanofibers to construct high-performance zinc-ion hybrid supercapacitors, demonstrating an effective dual-metal strategy for advanced aqueous energy storage.

Controlling grain size to optimize mechanical properties has been a fundamental and long-sought goal for hard/superhard transition metal borides ceramics. Highly dense nano-polycrystalline tantalum diboride is synthesized due to high nucleation rate and low grain growth under high pressure and high temperature method. The hardness and fracture toughness are greatly enhanced by the nanopolycrystalline microstructure with Hall-Petch effect.

When everyday clothes can quietly support your back during a long work shift, help you rise from a chair or steady your balance on a crowded bus, assistive technology stops looking like a medical device and starts feeling like life. That’s the vision driving a new multimillion dollar grant supported by the Canadian government called the New Frontiers in Research Fund. Rice University professors of mechanical engineering Daniel J. Preston and Vanessa Sanchez are core partners in the project led by the University of Alberta, bringing breakthrough materials, soft-robotic actuation and human-centered design to the team.