Content for Harvard.Edu

Resilient robots

“Resilient robot teams juggle competing priorities without deadlock A robot, or a group of robots, on a mission often have conflicting priorities. The primary mission of a team of search and rescue robots, for example, is to find survivors. But …

News  Programming pH

Programming pH

“pH — the concentration of protons in a watery solution — indicates how acidic the solution is. It regulates a broad range of natural and engineered chemical processes, including the synthesis of designed DNA sequences for applications in biotechnology. Changing the pH …

Complex motions for simple actuators

“Inflatable actuators use origami principles to deform in intricate ways. Inflatable soft actuators that can change shape with a simple increase in pressure can be powerful, lightweight, and flexible components for soft robotic systems. But there’s a problem: These …

Tuning sound waves on chip

“Researchers control and modulate acoustic waves on chip for the first time. Acoustic waves are slower than electromagnetic waves of the same frequency but, even in the high-speed world of computing and communications, that’s not a bad thing. Short …

Research extends the lifetime of molecules in organic flow batteries to practical values

“Researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Cambridge, have developed a new method to dramatically extend the lifetime of organic aqueous flow batteries, improving the …

High-speed, efficient and compact electro-optic modulators for free space

“New photonic devices may have applications in lidar, optical computing and more Electro-optic modulators, which control aspects of light in response to electrical signals, are essential for everything from sensing to metrology and telecommunications. Today, most research into these modulators …

Diamond mirrors for high-powered lasers

“Just about every car, train and plane that’s been built since 1970 has been manufactured using high-power lasers that shoot a continuous beam of light. These lasers are strong enough to cut steel, precise enough to perform surgery, and …

Self-propelled, endlessly programmable artificial cilia

“For years, scientists have been attempting to engineer tiny, artificial cilia for miniature robotic systems that can perform complex motions, including bending, twisting, and reversing. Building these smaller-than-a-human-hair microstructures typically requires multi-step fabrication processes and varying stimuli to create the …

In Einstein’s footsteps and beyond

“Zero-index metamaterials offers new insights into the foundations of quantum mechanics In physics, as in life, it’s always good to look at things from different perspectives. Since the beginning of quantum physics, how light moves and interacts with matter …

Making 3D printing truly 3D

“Researchers from Rowland Institute eliminate need for 2D layering Don’t be fooled by the name. While 3D printers do print tangible objects (and quite well), how they do the job doesn’t actually happen in 3D, but rather in …