Engineering articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Some animals have multimodal locomotive capabilities to survive in different environments. Inspired by nature, Chen et al. build a centimeter-scaled robot that is capable of walking on water, underwater, on land, and transiting among all three, whose ‘feet’ break water by modifying surface tension.

    • Yufeng Chen
    • , Neel Doshi
    •  & Robert J. Wood

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Brain-computer interface (BCI) can improve motor skills on stroke patients. This study shows that BCI-controlled neuromuscular electrical stimulation therapy can cause cortical reorganization due to activation of efferent and afferent pathways, and this effect can be long lasting in a brain region specific manner.

    • A. Biasiucci
    • , R. Leeb
    •  & J. d. R. Millán

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The economic operation of a carbon dioxide capture technique of calcium looping necessitates highly effective CaO-based CO2 sorbents. Here, the authors report a facile one-pot synthesis approach to yield highly effective, MgO-stabilized, CaO-based CO2 sorbents featuring highly porous multishelled morphologies.

    • Muhammad Awais Naeem
    • , Andac Armutlulu
    •  & Christoph R. Müller

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Memristor-based neural networks hold promise for neuromorphic computing, yet large-scale experimental execution remains difficult. Here, Xia et al. create a multi-layer memristor neural network with in-situ machine learning and achieve competitive image classification accuracy on a standard dataset.

    • Can Li
    • , Daniel Belkin
    •  & Qiangfei Xia

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The current standard for breast cancer diagnostic is a mammogram; however, the sensitivity of mammography can be low in radiographically dense breasts. Here the authors develop a single-breath-hold photoacoustic computed tomography (SBH-PACT) system to reveal detailed angiographic structures in human breasts allowing the detection of higher blood vessel densities associated with tumors.

    • Li Lin
    • , Peng Hu
    •  & Lihong V. Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Coral reefs provide significant coastal protection from storms but they have experienced significant losses. Here the authors show that the annual damages from flooding would double globally without reefs and they quantify where reefs provide the most protection to people and property.

    • Michael W. Beck
    • , Iñigo J. Losada
    •  & Felipe Fernández

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Carbon capture and storage can help reduce CO2 emissions but the confidence in geologic CO2 storage security is uncertain. Here the authors present a numerical programme to estimate leakage from wells and find that under appropriate regulation 98% of injected CO2 will be retained over 10,000 years.

    • Juan Alcalde
    • , Stephanie Flude
    •  & R. Stuart Haszeldine

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Conventional analogue and digital circuits are mixed at signal level yet remain technologically separate, adding complexity and cost. This work introduces a new design paradigm where the analogue and digital worlds are seamlessly fused via memristors, enabling electronics with reconfigurability.

    • Alexantrou Serb
    • , Ali Khiat
    •  & Themistoklis Prodromakis

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A bottleneck in developing new anti-fibrosis therapies is the absence of suitable in vitro models that recapitulate key features of fibrogenesis. Here the authors develop a tissue-on-a-chip model of lung fibrosis and test the therapeutic efficacy of two recent FDA-approved drugs.

    • Mohammadnabi Asmani
    • , Sanjana Velumani
    •  & Ruogang Zhao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Optical imaging and manipulation technologies cannot be easily integrated with electrical recordings due to generation of light-induced artifacts. Here the authors report the optimization of transparent graphene microelectrode fabrication to achieve artifact-free electrical recordings along with deep 2-photon imaging in vivo.

    • Martin Thunemann
    • , Yichen Lu
    •  & Duygu Kuzum

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Silicon-vacancy centres in diamond are promising candidates as emitters in photonic quantum networks, but their coherence is degraded by large electron-phonon interactions. Sohn et al. demonstrate the use of strain to tune a silicon vacancy’s electronic structure and suppress phonon-mediated decoherence.

    • Young-Ik Sohn
    • , Srujan Meesala
    •  & Marko Lončar

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Nanofiltration membranes are important for water desalination technologies, but designing membranes that achieve both high permeance and high salt rejection remains challenging. Here, the authors use sacrificial nanoparticles in the membrane fabrication process, leading to crumpled structures with ultrahigh permeance.

    • Zhenyi Wang
    • , Zhangxin Wang
    •  & Jian Jin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Thermosetting polymers are widely used in 3D printing owing to their superior mechanical stability, but once they are printed, the highly crosslinked polmyers cannot be reprocessed or repaired. Here the authors demonstrate a two-step polymerization strategy toward 3D printing of reprocessable thermosets.

    • Biao Zhang
    • , Kavin Kowsari
    •  & Qi Ge

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Spiral and zigzag trajectories of rising bubbles and falling leaves represent some of the path instabilities commonly observed for objects moving through fluids. Here, Mathai et al. show that the moment-of-inertia plays a crucial role in triggering such path instabilities for rising spherical particles.

    • Varghese Mathai
    • , Xiaojue Zhu
    •  & Detlef Lohse

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Active particles that demonstrate life-like behavior may find use in bio-inspired technologies, but achieving on-demand reconfiguration remains challenging. Here, the authors demonstrate controllable, collective behavior in silicon microparticles, which are fabricated via conventional semiconductor methods.

    • Ugonna Ohiri
    • , C. Wyatt Shields IV
    •  & Nan Jokerst

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Non-invasive techniques to assess the progression of type 1 diabetes prior to clinical onset are needed. Here the authors apply a contrast-enhanced ultrasound measurement of mouse pancreatic blood flow to detect changes in the islet microvasculature that undergoes rearrangements during diabetes and predict disease progression.

    • Joshua R. St Clair
    • , David Ramirez
    •  & Richard K. P. Benninger

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Mechanical forces exerted on tendons during locomotion cannot be readily measured without invasive methods. Here, the authors develop a non-invasive wearable device to track tendon loads by measuring shear wave propagation speed, and demonstrate its use during dynamic human movements.

    • Jack A. Martin
    • , Scott C. E. Brandon
    •  & Darryl G. Thelen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Population coding, where populations of artificial neurons process information collectively can facilitate robust data processing, but require high circuit overheads. Here, the authors realize this approach with reduced circuit area and power consumption, by utilizing superparamagnetic tunnel junction based neurons.

    • Alice Mizrahi
    • , Tifenn Hirtzlin
    •  & Damien Querlioz

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Solvent recovery is an important process in the pharmaceutical industry, but organic solvent nanofiltration membranes operate under high pressures. Here the authors demonstrate organic solvent forward osmosis — an alternative process that does not require application of external pressure and may prove to be economically favorable.

    • Yue Cui
    •  & Tai-Shung Chung

  • Article
    | Open Access

    One major energy loss in electronics is heat dissipation due to induced polarization in dielectric materials in the presence of electric fields. Kim et al. utilize large polarization in liquids to harvest dielectric loss via an energy-loss return gate design, which converts energy back to electricity.

    • Taehun Kim
    • , Hyungseok Yong
    •  & Sangmin Lee

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Understanding host–guest interactions and structural changes within porous materials is crucial for enhancing gas storage properties. Here, the authors combine cryogenic loading of gases with high pressure crystallography and computational techniques to obtain atomistic detail of adsorption-induced structural and energetic changes in ZIF-8.

    • Claire L. Hobday
    • , Christopher H. Woodall
    •  & Stephen A. Moggach

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The organic electrochemical transistor is a type of transistor that modulates the channel current by the ion concentration and is thus explored for bio-applications. Here Ghittorelli et al. show a current-driven device configuration to increase the sensitivity by ten times than conventional approaches.

    • Matteo Ghittorelli
    • , Leona Lingstedt
    •  & Fabrizio Torricelli

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The oxidative dehydrogenation of propane by CO2 (CO2-ODHP) can potentially fill the gap of propylene production while consuming a greenhouse gas. Here, the authors identify non-precious FeNi and precious NiPt catalysts supported on CeO2 as promising catalysts for CO2-ODHP and dry reforming, respectively, in flow reactor studies.

    • Elaine Gomez
    • , Shyam Kattel
    •  & Jingguang G. Chen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Acoustic metasurfaces can be used to control acoustic waves, but generally they focus on phase control which limits potential functionality. Here, Ghaffarivardavagh et al. analytically develop a horn-like space coiling acoustic metasurface to control both the amplitude and phase of acoustic radiation patterns.

    • Reza Ghaffarivardavagh
    • , Jacob Nikolajczyk
    •  & Xin Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here the authors present an experimental observation of topological states in soft elastic metamaterials. They show reversibility in topological phases by changing filling ratio, tension and/or compression, while also demonstrating tunability of topological interface states by mechanical deformation.

    • Shuaifeng Li
    • , Degang Zhao
    •  & Jianfeng Zang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here the authors demonstrate the temporal control of ultrasonic wave propagation in a one-dimensional phononic crystal waveguide. Four-wave mixing experiments are implemented, providing a platform on which to realize novel nonlinear phenomena in the system.

    • M. Kurosu
    • , D. Hatanaka
    •  & H. Yamaguchi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The treatment of inflammatory arthritis by local delivery of therapeutics is limited by short half-lives of drugs. Here the authors demonstrate a hydrogel platform that titrates drug release to arthritis activity.

    • Nitin Joshi
    • , Jing Yan
    •  & Jeffrey M. Karp

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The detection and quantification of bioparticles is important to a range of applications including disease diagnostics. Here, the authors present a fluorescent label-free detection method using deterministic lateral displacement and demonstrate its use in detecting a range of proteins and vesicles.

    • Kerwin Kwek Zeming
    • , Thoriq Salafi
    •  & Yong Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Atomically thin monolayers with high photoluminescence quantum yield are promising for optoelectronic and lighting applications. Here, the authors fabricate a transient-mode electroluminescent device to bypass the requirement of ohmic contacts for electrons and holes, and observe millimetre-scale light emission from a transparent 2D display.

    • Der-Hsien Lien
    • , Matin Amani
    •  & Ali Javey

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Harvesting water from the atmosphere is an important solution to water scarcity, but doing so in arid climates is highly challenging. Here, the authors develop a metal-organic framework-based water harvesting device that can deliver over 0.25 L of water per kg of adsorbent over a single cycle at relative humidities of 10–40% and at subzero dew points.

    • Hyunho Kim
    • , Sameer R. Rao
    •  & Evelyn N. Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Integrating cell-laden hydrogels effectively into the 3D printing process is a challenge in the creation of tissue engineering scaffolds. Here, the authors describe an additive manufacturing technique to combine polymer and cell-containing networks with 3D-printed mechanical supports.

    • Héloïse Ragelle
    • , Mark W. Tibbitt
    •  & Robert Langer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The penetration dynamics of solid objects into granular media has been described by theories that are constrained to the use of phenomenological models or empirical parameters. Here, Kang et al. propose and test a parameter-free model for the dependence of the resistance force on penetration depth.

    • Wenting Kang
    • , Yajie Feng
    •  & Raphael Blumenfeld

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Retinal prostheses are being developed to fight severe retinal diseases where wider visual field and higher visual acuity are desired. Here Ferlauto et al. design a foldable and wide-field epiretinal prosthesis that can meet the performance and safety requirements and show a long lifetime of 2 years.

    • Laura Ferlauto
    • , Marta Jole Ildelfonsa Airaghi Leccardi
    •  & Diego Ghezzi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The restoration of light response using retinal prosthesis could be a way to restore vision following retinal degenerative disease. Here the authors develop gold-titania nanowire arrays that restore visual response in blind mice.

    • Jing Tang
    • , Nan Qin
    •  & Gengfeng Zheng

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The disordering of the vortex lattice in a type-II superconductor is widely perceived to underpin unusual peaks in the temperature and field dependence of critical current. By contrast, here Toft-Petersen et al. find an order-disorder transition in a superconducting vanadium sample that is unconnected with peaks observed in critical current.

    • Rasmus Toft-Petersen
    • , Asger B. Abrahamsen
    •  & Mark Laver

  • Article
    | Open Access

    3D-printed soft actuators have limited motion and are far from reaching the level of complexity found in biological systems. Here the authors present a multimaterial 3D printing platform for the fabrication of soft actuators displaying a wide range of motions that are programmable.

    • Manuel Schaffner
    • , Jakob A. Faber
    •  & André R. Studart

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