Researchers have coated normal fabric with an electroactive material, and in this way given it the ability to actuate in the same way as muscle fibres. The technology opens new opportunities to design “textile muscles” that could, for example, be incorporated into clothes, making it easier for people with disabilities to move. The study, which has been carried out by researchers at Linköping University and the University of Borås in Sweden, has been published in Science Advances. Developm...

Researchers at the University of Tokyo used MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical Systems) technology to produce spherical vesicles (asymmetric giant lipid vesicles/liposomes) surrounded by a membrane that, like the membrane of our cells, has an inner and outer layer composed of different phospholipids. In contrast to conventional methods of creating vesicles, this new method leaves little trace of organic solvents inside the vesicle and is an important contribution as a fundamental technique for devel...

Ugandan engineers have created a “smart jacket” that can diagnose pneumonia faster than a doctor by measuring breathing patterns, temperature and breathing rate simultaneously, then sending the information to a mobile app. The Mama-Ope (Mother’s Hope) kit was born when Olivia Koburongo, 26, had the idea after her grandmother was transferred from hospital to hospital until she was finally diagnosed with pneumonia. By the time of diagnosis, it was too late to save her. Koburongo thought the dia...