Scientists create edible electronics using Graphene to improve food safety
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Being able to quickly and easily tag foods and other products with sensors and other electronics that can be safely eaten could improve food safety and security. James Tour believes anything can be turned into the wonder material, Graphene, a material so versatile it...
New eye drops use nanotech to fix faulty vision and eliminate eye glasses
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Millions of people around the world have eye problems, whether they’re severe, or slight, but now a new nanoparticle solution looks like it could help users bin eye glasses for good. Today there are a number of ways, from using bionic eyes, gene editing...
Under Armour’s new clothes help heal your body while sleeping
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As we develop new materials, and find new ways to use them for our benefit, one day in the future we’ll suddenly discover that clothes can do much more than clothe us. Could the right clothes, in this case pyjamas, help athletes, and the...
MIT invents a 3D printed dye that lets objects change colour on demand
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF There is nothing to say that tomorrow’s products can’t change their colour, or even their functionality, on demand, and this is one of the first steps in helping achieve that goal. Do you remember the colour changing dress that took the internet by storm and went...
Molecular programming breakthrough could create better molecular assemblers
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As we learn how to create and build new, smaller molecular sized machines and robots being able to manipulate matter at the molecular scale will become increasingly important. Over the past couple of months there have been world firsts in the creation of DNA...
New theory let’s scientists bring light to a standstill
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The manipulation of light is becoming an increasingly important factor in the development of new communications, computing, energy and entertainment systems, and our mastery of it is getting better all the time. Light is famously fast, normally travels at nearly 300,000 kilometres per second through...
Chinese scientists unveil a new material that heals itself like human skin
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Up until now most self-healing materials have either been hard, or soft, and that narrows their number of applications, this new material is the first to have the best of both worlds. Imagine a smartphone, or window, that can heal from cuts and scratches...
Harvard’s Metalense breakthrough could pave the way for real invisibility cloaks
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Our ability to manipulate light is improving with every passing month, now a new Metalense breakthrough could help scientists create the first generation of genuine cloaking devices. For as long as human beings have been writing science fiction the dream of being able to...
China spends $300million to buy lab produced meats from Israel
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Food production is undergoing a revolution, and technology is helping us move away from what many experts and governments are increasingly seeing as outdated farming techniques to help us feed Earth’s growing population. Following on from a recent announcement that US start up Plenty...
Scientists have smashed the record for the world’s most powerful magnet
WHY THIS MATTES IN BRIEF Magnets are the unsung heroes of the modern era, they help produce our energy and make engines work, make MRI machines possible and make futuristic transportation technologies like the Hyperloop feasible, and developments in the field drive innovation across a variety of sectors. If...
World first as scientists manage to make carbon fiber using plants, not oil
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The knock on impact of being able to produce cheap carbon fiber at scale could help us create stronger, lighter drones, prosthetics and robots, as well as improve the fuel economy of all manner of vehicles, from aircraft to cars. Carbon fiber is the...
Scientists use sound tornadoes to create the world’s biggest tractor beam
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Being able to levitate, move and manipulate objects without touching them will be especially useful in the fields of healthcare and manufacturing, and it’s also awesome. In the past researchers thought that acoustic tractor beams were limited to levitating only small objects because all...
The world’s first molecular robots go to work on the production line
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Our ability to assemble increasingly tiny things using increasingly tiny machinery is advancing all the time, and soon the breakthrough’s we are seeing will make even nanoscale products seem giant by comparison. Not only is the creation of the world’s first molecular robot by...
LG unveils their giant rollable 65 inch and 88 inch Crystal Sound OLED TV’s
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Display and sound technology are starting to progress, and the fixed formats we’re used to are going to one day be replaced by more flexible, integrated systems. Last year Samsung showed off their new 11k display with naked eye 3D effect, and Panasonic showed...
Harvard revolutionises camera technology, invents Metalense
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Centuries after they were first invented most lenses are still made of plastic or glass and Harvard’s new metalense will revolutionise the industry and let us make cameras and lenses that, eventually, will be just atoms thick. Metalenses, flat surfaces that use nanostructures to...
MIT’s new Smart Tattoo is like having a doctor on your arm
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Wearables might not have taken off as much as anyone hoped but companies are still experimenting with new technologies that help us monitor and track our health better than before. Apparently there’s a common problem with health-tracking devices like smart watches and the other things that...
MIT’s Rapid Liquid Printing technology could be the future of furniture
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF 3D printing will undoubtedly change how the world makes goods, but it’s still expensive and slow, now we’re seeing a slew of new technologies that are trying to speed up manufacturing and change the game. Coming hot on the heels of another new 3D...
3D printed living inks breakthrough could revolutionise manufacturing
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Bacteria have some amazing capabilities and soon we’ll be able to harness them to help us 3D print and create new exotic materials and products like never before. This week researchers unveiled a new kind of 3D Printing platform that, rather than using the...
New holographic printing technique is thousands times faster than regular 3D printing
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF 3D printing is revolutionising the world of manufacturing, but it’s still slow. This new technique, which prints objects using light, is thousands of times faster. 3D printing, also known as Additive manufacturing, is an amazing technology that’s helping revolutionise a range of industries, from...
MIT’s new AI is helping scientists design new, futuristic materials
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Materials are a fundamental building block of everything in existence today, whether it’s cells, our power plants or our smartphones and devices, now researchers have built an AI to help them automate the discovery of new materials and it could revolutionise everything. Over the...
