Actuators articles within Nature

Featured

  • Article |

    A study describes a wood-based, three-tailed, biodegradable seed carrier that self-drills into the ground in response to moisture fluctuations with a success rate higher than that of natural self-drilling seeds.

    • Danli Luo
    • , Aditi Maheshwari
    •  & Lining Yao
  • Article
    | Open Access

    A macroscopic and scalable pyroelectric energy harvester in the form of multilayer capacitors produces 11.2 J of electrical energy, with a pyroelectric material generating up to 4.43 J cm−3 per cycle.

    • Pierre Lheritier
    • , Alvar Torelló
    •  & Emmanuel Defay
  • 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
  • Article |

    A study demonstrates that a range of different behaviours—from reversible, through weeping, to explosive—can be exhibited by a chemically homogeneous ceramic system by manipulating conditions of compatibility in unusual ways.

    • Hanlin Gu
    • , Jascha Rohmer
    •  & Richard D. James
  • Letter |

    Typical ferromagnets elongate and contract anisotropically when placed in a magnetic field but conserve the overall volume, an effect known as Joule magnetostriction; here, a new effect is observed in Fe–Ga alloys—large non-volume-conserving or non-Joulian magnetostriction—which has not previously been observed in any magnet.

    • Harsh Deep Chopra
    •  & Manfred Wuttig