Cornell engineers have developed a robotic collective that behaves... less like a machine and more like a material that flows, reshapes, and adapts to its environment without centralized control. The system, called the Cross-Link Collective, consists of dozens of small robots that have limited mobility individually, but together exhibit coordinated and sustained motion. The research, published May 20 in Science Robotics, demonstrates a robotic system that resembles soft matter, continuously deforming and reorganizing as it moves, driven by what researchers call mechanical intelligence. Cornell Duffield College of Engineering Cornell Research & Innovation Read more:show more

E pluribus unum – “out of many, one” –... is not only a motto for the United States. It’s a good credo for microrobots. A research collaboration between Cornell and the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems has shown how a swarm of microrobots spinning on a water surface can together generate the fluidic torque needed to manipulate passive structures without any physical contact. This collective behavior was demonstrated to operate gears and move objects, with the aim of eventually performing microscale tasks and biomedical procedures. “At small scales, contact-based manipulation can be limiting, and flow-based manipulation offers a great alternative,” said Kirstin Petersen, associate professor and an Aref and Manon Lahham Faculty Fellow in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in Cornell Duffield College of Engineering and the paper’s co-senior author. “We’re showing that in spite of their size, adding more microrobots creates stronger flows and greater torque transfer.” The research published Feb. 25 in Science Advances. The lead author is Steven Ceron, Ph.D. ’22, now an assistant professor at the University of Michigan. More:show more

Scientists at Cornell University have developed a “biohybrid” robot... that moves in response to signals from the nervous system of fungi. These robots incorporate mycelium, the root system of fungi, which senses and communicates through electrical signals. Researchers grew mycelium directly into the robot's electronics, allowing it to drive the machine by processing these natural signals. The team built two versions: one with wheels and another spider-shaped with soft legs. Both versions respond to light and other stimuli, with the mycelium sending signals to the robot's actuators to initiate movement. Experiments demonstrated the robots' ability to move based on natural mycelium signals, react to ultraviolet light, and even allow manual override. Future developments may include multiple inputs like chemical signatures, enhancing the robot's ability to autonomously interact with its environment. Credit: Cornell University #engineeringshow more

Each weaver ant can pull on a leaf much... harder when in a group than when it works alone. The ants’ sticky feet and coordinated legwork, researchers believe, improve the ants’ collective efficiency—a finding that may provide insights into how to build and coordinate swarms of robots that work together. Learn more: News from Scienceshow more

Making way for the future of health care! With... Texas Longhorns having a home at Moody Center, we’re saying goodbye to the Drum. The demolition sets up the expansion of Dell Medical School and the establishment of the University of Texas at Austin Medical Center with MD Anderson News. But we aren’t simply building a traditional academic medical center. We have an opportunity that is unique in Texas and only possible at a few places in the world to build an academic medical center that is linked to a top research university and that is driven by innovations in technology, digital health, data science, artificial intelligence, robotics, material science and moreshow more

🚨 SCIENTISTS JUST CREATED A “LIVING” METAMATERIAL THAT CAN... SELF-HEAL AND CHANGE ITS PROPERTIES IN REAL TIME. Researchers have developed a metamaterial made from living cells that can adapt its structure, heal itself when damaged, and even change its physical properties on demand. This is the first true bio-hybrid material with dynamic, life-like behavior. Why this matters: • Traditional metamaterials are static once made, they don’t change • This new material can respond to its environment and repair itself • It opens the door to self-healing buildings, adaptive medical implants, and living machines • It blurs the line between biology and engineering The deeper implication is enormous: We are entering the age of living materials objects that are not just built, but grown and evolved. The future of technology may not be made of metal and plastic… but of living, breathing, self-repairing matter. What would you build first with a material that can heal itself and adapt? Follow for more frontier physics and future technology.show more

Engineers: “This is a breakthrough in soft robotics.” Twitter:... “Bro built an AI vibrator.” 🤦‍♂️ Researchers at the University of Southern Denmark created a soft robot that moves by inflating and contracting its body like a worm. Jokes aside… robots like this could actually be useful for rescue missions and environments where traditional robots fail. But let’s be honest: you already know what most comment sections are going to talk about 💀 🎥 Media: SDU Soft Robotics ⚠️ This content is shared for informational purposes only. CTO Robotics Media is a media platform and does not own or develop the technology shown. Credit belongs to the original creators.show more

Had an amazing time at the Stanford Robotics Center... Launch event this Saturday! The Packard building’s underground floor has been transformed into a bright new robotics lab, complete with a mocap room, specialized spaces for domestic, field, and surgical robots, and even an aquarium in progress for the Ocean One bot! Check out the videos below—there’s one of me operating a Da Vinci surgical robot 🤖 Robotics truly embodies interdisciplinary collaboration, pulling together expertise from electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, computer science, materials science, HCI, and design. It’s the kind of field where no single department could drive research forward alone. This new center is an incredible resource to unite researchers, and I have to admit, I’m a bit envious of the PhD students who get to work in such an inspiring environment! Look forward to more great research work from Stanford!show more

Researchers from Tel Aviv University and Sheba Medical Center... have developed an AI system that detects anemia using a 10-second scan of blood vessels in the eye, without a blood test. The technology could make health screening faster, simpler and more accessible worldwide. 👁️🇮🇱show more

Mesmerizing 45-degree infinity module of the GA3D project in... action. The GA3D Project is a “side-project” driven by a passion for the RepRap 3D printer theme, aiming to extend the RepRap/DIY (Do-It-Yourself) spirit to other processes and fields. The basic machine consists of a frame with a fixed table, and a 3-axis Cartesian robotic arm with CoreXY kinematics crossed in the XY plane. A very simple tool changer is located at both ends of the robotic arm. This makes it a modular machine that can be easily converted into any machine. Video Credit: Alain D. Geiser #3dprinting #3dprinter #additivetechnology #additivemanufacturing #engineering #technologyshow more

Looking at the new UFO footage from Jeremy Kenyon... Lockyer Corbell's Sleeping Dog, I find myself asking: What the hell are these all made out of? It is possible that the word “craft” is already imposing too familiar a category on something far less conventional. What if these objects are not always composed of a material in any sense we would normally recognize? What if the hull is not an assembled exterior, but something closer to a materialized field condition: a stable interface between energy, geometry, and matter? A human aircraft is built from parts. Wings, alloys, rivets, electronics, engines. Its structure is mechanical, sectional, and industrial. But a sufficiently advanced non-human vehicle may not be “built” in that sense at all. What if it is "cohered"? Its surface might function less like armor and more like a programmable boundary layer: a physical skin capable of altering its optical, thermal, electromagnetic, and inertial behavior in real time. In that case, we may be looking at something that only resembles a machine because the human mind has no better category available. Perhaps the craft is not simply an object moving through an environment, but an engineered exception to the environment. #ufox #ufotwittershow more

🚨 Scientists just created a soft robot with a... holographic “nervous system.” No electronics. No silicon processor. The MATERIAL stores encrypted instructions in light… then decodes and executes them physically. The robot: • reads holographic commands • uses optical encryption • responds to light + humidity • walks mazes • sorts objects • behaves like programmable living matter Its “brain” is a liquid-crystal hologram. Its “muscles” are responsive soft polymers and silk. This is one of the clearest signs yet that computation is escaping the computer itself. The boundary between MATERIAL and MACHINE is collapsing. Future versions could become: • microscopic surgical robots • MRI-safe medical bots • programmable implants • adaptive camouflage systems • autonomous soft swarms We may be watching the birth of optical biological-style robotics. Follow me if you want to see where physics becomes structure.show more

🚨 SCIENTISTS DISCOVERED HUMAN CELLS CAN RESPOND TO SOUND... BY SWITCHING GENES ON AND OFF. Researchers found certain human cells especially fat cells react to mechanical sound vibrations by changing genetic activity. That means sound may influence biology far deeper than we realized. Why this matters: Your cells are not passive. They constantly sense: • pressure • vibration • movement • mechanical stress And now scientists are discovering those signals can directly affect gene behavior itself. In simple terms: Sound may act almost like a biological instruction signal. The implications are enormous: • regenerative medicine • targeted therapies • metabolic control • tissue engineering • non-invasive treatments • future bioelectric technologies The deeper science goes… …the more the human body starts looking less like a machine… …and more like a responsive living frequency system. What happens if biology is listening more than we ever imagined?show more

Researchers at Columbia University have developed modular robots that... can adapt, repair, and even rebuild themselves using a concept called robot metabolism. 🤖 Instead of remaining fixed, these robots can detach, reconnect, and reorganize their own structure based on the task or environment. If one part is damaged, the system can replace or rearrange itself rather than stopping completely. This could reshape the future of disaster response, industrial automation, and even space exploration. The idea of robots that evolve instead of wear out is becoming more than science fiction. What real-world application do you think will benefit most from this technology? 🎥 Media: Columbia University ⚠️ This content is shared for informational purposes only. CTO Robotics Media is a media platform and does not own or develop the technology shown. Credit belongs to the original creators.show more

#Somalia is a country full of exceptionally talented people... who are denied the chance to shine on the global stage, all because of the incompetence and corruption of its so-called leaders. Three weeks ago, I met five Somali civil engineers and architects at an airport in Asia—heading to Saudi Arabia to help build the Line megacity, a project that should have been possible in their own country. A year before that, I spoke with a Somali professor of civil engineering who contributed to the Denmark bridge linking Copenhagen and Malmö. In Qatar’s Ministry of Health, a Swiss-trained Somali neurosurgeon named Leila was recruited to reform and modernize their healthcare system. Meanwhile, in Somalia, the so-called leaders do nothing but exploit, steal, and sabotage any progress. Our people have the talent, but our country is crippled by a leadership that is nothing short of disgraceful.show more

🚨 SCIENTISTS ARE USING AI TO MAP A HIDDEN... “CLEANING SYSTEM” INSIDE THE HUMAN BRAIN AND IT COULD CHANGE HOW WE UNDERSTAND SLEEP, AGING, AND NEURODEGENERATIVE DISEASE. It’s called the glymphatic system a vast network of fluid channels that flushes toxic waste from the brain while you sleep. For years it was almost impossible to observe in detail. Now AI-powered imaging is revealing it like a living galaxy of microscopic rivers and pathways inside neural tissue. Why this matters: Your brain produces toxic proteins constantly. The glymphatic system is one of its primary waste-clearance mechanisms clearing the very proteins linked to Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and other neurodegenerative diseases. But here’s the unsettling part: This cleaning system becomes dramatically less efficient with age, poor sleep, stress, and brain injury. Sleep may not just “rest” your mind it may literally wash your brain. The deeper implication is staggering: The brain isn’t just a computer. It’s a dynamic, living network that constantly rebuilds and cleanses itself in real time. The more we map it, the more it looks like an entire universe of connected energy flows inside our skulls. What if some neurological diseases begin when the brain can no longer properly “wash” itself at night? Follow for more frontier neuroscience and future technology.show more

🚨 SCIENTISTS JUST SHOWED THAT LIGHT CAN TWIST MATTER... USING ITS MAGNETIC FIELD. For a long time, physicists assumed the magnetic component of light was far too weak to have any meaningful effect on matter compared to its electric field. New experiments are challenging that view. Researchers have demonstrated that intense, properly structured light can induce magnetization and even mechanical twisting in materials through its magnetic field alone. This is an extension of the inverse Faraday effect, but observed with greater strength and control than many expected. Why this matters: • It opens new ways to control magnetism and material properties using only light • Could lead to faster, more energy-efficient magnetic memory and spintronic devices • Offers a new tool for manipulating matter at the nanoscale without physical contact • Bridges optics and magnetism in ways that were previously difficult to achieve The deeper implication: Light is not just an information carrier under the right conditions, its magnetic field can directly reshape the magnetic and mechanical state of matter. This blurs the line between electromagnetic waves and material control. If these effects can be scaled and made practical, we may eventually use light itself as a precise tool to write magnetic information or mechanically actuate tiny structures, rather than relying solely on electric currents or physical forces. We’re discovering that light still has hidden capabilities we haven’t fully exploited. How do you think being able to control matter with light’s magnetic field could change technology in the next decade? Follow for more frontier optics, quantum materials, and light-matter physics.show more

Inside every cell, there is a transport system that... determines how materials move, signals propagate, and structure is maintained. This video captures that system in motion. The glowing streaks mark the growing ends of microtubules (protein polymers that constantly assemble and disassemble through a process called dynamic instability). Rather than forming permanent tracks, microtubules are rebuilt continuously, allowing cells to reorganize their internal layout in real time. This behavior is essential for life. Cells rely on microtubule dynamics to divide accurately, migrate during development and repair, and maintain long-distance transport in neurons that may span over a meter in length. When this system is altered, the consequences are significant. Certain cancer therapies work by locking microtubules in place, preventing cell division. In contrast, failures in microtubule transport are linked to neurodegenerative conditions (like Alzheimer's) where intracellular delivery breaks down. What appears as abstract motion under a microscope is actually one of the core systems that keeps cells functional, adaptable, and alive. Video Credit: Andy Mooreshow more

Memo is a robot that uses AI to perform... household tasks effectively. Today Sunday announced its Series B, and we’re proud to be investors. Training robots for the home is hard — the environment is messy, dynamic, and full of edge cases. So Sunday is training robots directly on real households. Founders Tony Zhao and Cheng Chi built a glove-based system that lets hundreds of contributors record everyday tasks in their own homes, creating high-fidelity demonstrations that feed directly into robot learning. Home robotics will be defined by the companies that learn fastest from real homes. Sunday is building that loop. More here: Aaref Hilaly Amanda Huangshow more