University of Vermont

First Living Robots That can Reproduce

Scientists have discovered an entirely new form of biological reproduction—and applied their discovery to create the first-ever, self-replicating living robots.

Scientists Create the Next Generation of Living Robots

Last year, a team of biologists and computer scientists created novel, tiny self-healing biological machines from frog cells called "Xenobots" that could move around, push a payload, and even exhibit collective behavior in the presence of a swarm of other Xenobots. The same team has now created life forms that self-assemble a body from single cells, do not require muscle cells to move, and even demonstrate the capability of recordable memory.

Smart Wound Healing Patch: DARPA Awards $22 Million Grant

Neuroengineers and bioengineers are part of a national team that's developing "smart" technology that combines artificial intelligence, bioelectronics and regenerative medicine to regrow muscle tissue for wounded soldiers.

The First Living Robots

A book is made of wood. But it is not a tree. The dead cells have been repurposed to serve another need. Now a team of scientists has repurposed living cells—scraped from frog embryos—and assembled them into entirely new life-forms. These millimeter-wide "xenobots" can move toward a target, perhaps pick up a payload (like a medicine that needs to be carried to a specific place inside a patient)—and heal themselves after being cut.

Wearable to detect hidden anxiety, depression in young children

Anxiety and depression are surprisingly common among young children - as many as one in five kids suffer from one of them, starting as early as the preschool years. But it can be hard to detect these conditions, known as "internalizing disorders," because the symptoms are so inward-facing that parents, teachers and doctors often fail to notice them.

Making quantum puddles

A team of physicists have discovered a fundamentally new way surfaces can get wet. Their study may allow scientists to create the thinnest films of liquid ever made—and engineer a new class of surface coatings and lubricants just a few atoms thick.

Super strong stretchy silver

Try bending your iPhone in half. Or roll up your tablet like a scroll. Or wrap a touchscreen TV around a pole. Didn't work out so well, did it? That's because the ceramic material used to make many of today's touchscreens has only two of three needed qualities: it's conductive, it's transparent—but it's not flexible.

New approach for organic solar panels and flexible electronics

TV screens that roll up. Roofing tiles that double as solar panels. Sun-powered cell phone chargers woven into the fabric of backpacks. A new generation of organic semiconductors may allow these kinds of flexible electronics to be manufactured at low cost.

Tiny renewable wind turbine for developing world

A hybrid energy harvester that combines a small-scale wind turbine — built out of bamboo — with a solar panel.

Piezoelectric energy harvesting: Developments, challenges, future

The days when piezoelectric energy harvesting was considered unreliable and had low power output are long gone. Hand in hand with the development of ultra low power electronics, energy harvesters have been drastically improving also.

Development of self charging batteries from ambient vibration

MicroGen Systems is developing a global, scalable, green, renewable energy power source.