Engineering articles within Nature

Featured

  • Research Briefing |

    A soft sheet has been constructed that can be driven by electromagnetic forces to continuously change its shape, mimicking the behaviour of soft tissues in living organisms. The control system uses imaging data and an optimization algorithm to enhance the material’s morphing ability.

  • Article |

    An additive manufacturing method using a team of autonomous aerial robots allows for scalable and adaptable three-dimensional printing, and is used to deposit building materials during flight.

    • Ketao Zhang
    • , Pisak Chermprayong
    •  & Mirko Kovac

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Selectively functionalized macrocycles were synthesized with reactivities that preferentially aligned to create well-defined pores across an ultrathin nanofilm offering a strategy to create subnanometre channels in polymer membranes, and demonstrating potential for accurate molecular separations.

    • Zhiwei Jiang
    • , Ruijiao Dong
    •  & Andrew G. Livingston

  • Article |

    A mechanical integrated circuit material based on Boolean mathematics and reconfigurable electrical circuits is created to demonstrate scalable information processing in synthetic, engineered soft matter.

    • Charles El Helou
    • , Benjamin Grossmann
    •  & Ryan L. Harne

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A compute-in-memory neural-network inference accelerator based on resistive random-access memory simultaneously improves energy efficiency, flexibility and accuracy compared with existing hardware by co-optimizing across all hierarchies of the design.

    • Weier Wan
    • , Rajkumar Kubendran
    •  & Gert Cauwenberghs

  • Article |

    The PiezoMem membrane responsive to hydraulic pressure is introduced, showing the ability to convert pressure pulses into electroactive responses for in situ self-cleaning and enabling broad-spectrum antifouling action towards a range of membrane foulants.

    • Yang Zhao
    • , Yuna Gu
    •  & Guandao Gao

  • Article |

    Clean van der Waals contacts of high-work-function metals have been demonstrated on few- and single-layered MoS2 and WSe2, leading to p-type characteristics on single-layer MoS2 and purely p-type characteristics on WSe2.

    • Yan Wang
    • , Jong Chan Kim
    •  & Manish Chhowalla

  • Article
    | Open Access

    To perch safely, large birds minimize the distance flown after stalling when swooping up from a dive to a perch, but not the time or energy required.

    • Marco KleinHeerenbrink
    • , Lydia A. France
    •  & Graham K. Taylor

  • Perspective |

    Developments, challenges and opportunities in using two-dimensional materials for the next generation of non-volatile spin-based memory technologies are reviewed, and possible disruptive improvements are discussed.

    • Hyunsoo Yang
    • , Sergio O. Valenzuela
    •  & Stephan Roche

  • Article
    | Open Access

    An organic bipolar junction transistor composed of highly crystalline rubrene thin films has a device architecture that could be used in organic electronics with greatly improved high-frequency performance

    • Shu-Jen Wang
    • , Michael Sawatzki
    •  & Karl Leo

  • Article |

    Lab experiments show that spontaneously propagating ruptures navigate fault regions through intermittent slip with dramatic friction evolution, providing support that weakening mechanisms may allow ruptures to break through stable faults.

    • V. Rubino
    • , N. Lapusta
    •  & A. J. Rosakis

  • Article |

    Using a three-layer opto-electronic neural network, direct, clock-less sub-nanosecond image classification on a silicon photonics chip is demonstrated, achieving a classification time comparable with a single clock cycle of state-of-the-art digital implementations.

    • Farshid Ashtiani
    • , Alexander J. Geers
    •  & Firooz Aflatouni

  • Outlook |

    Robots have become increasingly adept at interacting with the world around them. But to fulfil their potential, they also need a sense of touch.

    • Marcus Woo

  • News & Views |

    Next-generation wireless services will demand massive increases in data traffic, requiring access to signals at higher frequencies than are presently used. This would disrupt scientific research, but a savvy sharing protocol offers a fix.

    • Janise McNair

  • News & Views |

    A microfluidic system achieves miniaturization without the need for extra equipment, bringing chip-based devices closer to mainstream commercial reality, with a framework that could be widely applied to diagnostics.

    • Mazher Iqbal Mohammed

  • News & Views |

    A robotic jumper combines inspiration from biology with clever engineering to reach new heights. Crucial to the design is the combination of a rotary motor with a hybrid spring that maximizes stored energy density.

    • Sarah Bergbreiter

  • Article |

    A comparison of the energetics of jumping between biological and engineered systems shows that engineered systems can greatly increase energy limits using the process of work multiplication, and this analysis leads to the demonstration of a 30-centimetre device jumping over 30 metres.

    • Elliot W. Hawkes
    • , Charles Xiao
    •  & Günter Niemeyer

  • Perspective |

    The benefits and future prospects of neuromorphic, or bio-inspired, computing technologies are discussed, as is the need for a global, coordinated approach to funding, research and collaboration.

    • A. Mehonic
    •  & A. J. Kenyon

  • Article |

    In the standard Si transistor gate stack, replacing conventional dielectric HfO2 with an ultrathin ferroelectric–antiferroelectric HfO2–ZrO2 heterostructure exhibiting the negative capacitance effect demonstrates ultrahigh capacitance without degradation in leakage and mobility, promising for ferroelectric integration into advanced logic technology.

    • Suraj S. Cheema
    • , Nirmaan Shanker
    •  & Sayeef Salahuddin

  • Career Column |

    A chance meeting at a scientific retreat took Zoltán Kócsi from the electronics industry to the entomology lab.

    • Zoltán Kócsi

  • Article |

    A material design strategy and fabrication process is described to produce all-polymer light-emitting diodes with high brightness, current efficiency and good mechanical stability, with applications in skin electronics and human–machine interfaces.

    • Zhitao Zhang
    • , Weichen Wang
    •  & Zhenan Bao

  • Article |

    A piezoelectric fibre woven into a machine-washable fabric converts tenuous sound pressure into electric signals and is used to listen to cardiac sound, determine the source direction of a sound, and record and play back audio.

    • Wei Yan
    • , Grace Noel
    •  & Yoel Fink

  • Article |

    A dandelion-inspired wireless solar-powered sensing device weighing 30 milligrams that transmits data through radio backscatter achieves dispersal over a wide area by travelling on the breeze, and successfully lands upright.

    • Vikram Iyer
    • , Hans Gaensbauer
    •  & Shyamnath Gollakota

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A study reports a quantum gravity gradient sensor with a design that eliminates the need for long measurement times, and demonstrates the detection of an underground tunnel in an urban environment.

    • Ben Stray
    • , Andrew Lamb
    •  & Michael Holynski

  • Perspective |

    The concept of 'Embodied Energy'—in which the components of a robot or device both store energy and provide a mechanical or structural function—is put forward, along with specific robot-design principles.

    • Cameron A. Aubin
    • , Benjamin Gorissen
    •  & Robert F. Shepherd

  • Perspective |

    The economic, technical, environmental and safety requirements of battery-powered aircraft are considered, and promising technologies and future prospects for battery innovation are discussed.

    • Venkatasubramanian Viswanathan
    • , Alan H. Epstein
    •  & Michael Winter

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Three-dimensional reconstructions of morphology and flight mechanics of the beetle Paratuposa placentis reveal adaptations that enable extremely small insects to fly at speeds similar to those of much larger insects.

    • Sergey E. Farisenkov
    • , Dmitry Kolomenskiy
    •  & Alexey A. Polilov

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