These boots are made for walking—on the moon

December 8, 2025  |  What's New?

As NASA’s Artemis mission to the Moon approaches, the Emerging Technologies Conference at ATA’s Expo 2025 offered an update on the preparations. In a session titled, “Creating the Artemis Lunar Boots,” Morgan Campbell revisited the challenges human space travel has always faced, focusing on …
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Freudenberg offers binder-free PLA/wood pulp nonwovens

November 10, 2025  |  What's New?

With its new PLA/wood pulp materials that use no chemical binder, Freudenberg Performance Materials says that it has achieved a technological breakthrough with sustainability benefits. The company’s innovative materials combine the advantages of both components, addressing the needs of specific se…
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Infrared-responsive textile is launched

November 10, 2025  |  What's New?

Akira Kumada, SOLAMENT™ product manager, Takisada-Nagoya Co. Ltd., spoke on the company’s infrared-responsive textile at ATA’s Emerging Technology Conference Nov. 4 in Indianapolis, Ind.
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Cephalopods inspire soft robotics’ skin

October 27, 2025  |  What's New?

Inspired by the color-changing ability of cephalopods such as octopi and squid, University of Nebraska–Lincoln researchers are developing a material that could one day be used in sensors and soft robotics applications.
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Lamp changes brightness by pressing its stretchable textile

September 22, 2025  |  What's New?

WINT Design Lab, which focuses on sustainable product innovations, and electronics firm Fraunhofer IZM have partnered to produce a lamp that can change its brightness when the user presses the surface’s stretchable textile. “Soft Interfaces” uses a liquid metal dispensing technology placed ins…
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AI helps chemists develop tougher plastics

August 22, 2025  |  What's New?

A new strategy for strengthening polymer materials could lead to more durable plastics and cut down on plastic waste, according to researchers at MIT and Duke University. Using machine learning, the researchers identified crosslinker molecules that can be added to polymer materials, allowing them to…
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Seatbelt sensor system adjusts to each wearer

July 28, 2025  |  What's New?

In 1959, Volvo engineer Nils Bohlin created the three-point seatbelt and offered the design plans for free to automakers around the world. Since its introduction, the relatively simple, but game-changing, design has been credited with saving more than a million lives worldwide. Now the car brand is …
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MIT engineers print strong and stretchy “metamaterials”

July 14, 2025  |  What's New?

In metamaterials design, the name of the game has long been “stronger is better.” Metamaterials are synthetic materials with microscopic structures that give the overall material exceptional properties. A huge focus has been in designing metamaterials that are stronger and stiffer than their con…
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Smart bandage could speed up warfighter recovery

June 23, 2025  |  What's New?

Leonard Tender, Ph.D., a researcher in the Biological Technologies Office (BTO) at DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), is working on groundbreaking advancements in wound care technology. Building on the success of the Bioelectronics for Tissue Regeneration (BETR) program, which …
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DNA-inspired fiber enhances sensors for wearables

June 23, 2025  |  What's New?

Researchers at Shinshu University, Nagano Prefecture, Japan, have developed a new design for a fiber sensor inspired by the shape of DNA, which the researchers have found to be more durable and flexible. 
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