Researchers at Harvard University have built soft robots inspired by nature that can crawl, swim, grasp delicate objects and even assist a beating heart, but none of these devices has been able to sense and respond to the world around them. That’s about to change. Inspired by our bodies’ sensory capabilities, researchers at the Harvard […]
Snake-Inspired Robot Uses Kirigami To Move
Who needs legs? With their sleek bodies, snakes can slither up to 14 miles-per-hour, squeeze into tight space, scale trees and swim. How do they do it? It’s all in the scales. As a snake moves, its scales grip the ground and propel the body forward – similar to how crampons help hikers establish footholds […]
Single Metalens Focuses All Colors Of The Rainbow In One Point; Opens New Possibilities In Virtual, Augmented Reality
Metalenses—flat surfaces that use nanostructures to focus light—promise to revolutionize optics by replacing the bulky, curved lenses currently used in optical devices with a simple, flat surface. But, these metalenses have remained limited in the spectrum of light they can focus well. Now a team of researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of […]
Using Optical Chaos to Control the Momentum of Light
Integrated photonic circuits, which rely on light rather than electrons to move information, promise to revolutionize communications, sensing and data processing. But controlling and moving light poses serious challenges. One major hurdle is that light travels at different speeds and in different phases in different components of an integrated circuit. For light to couple between […]
Bridging The Terahertz Gap
Optical frequency combs are widely-used, high-precision tools for measuring and detecting different frequencies — a.k.a. colors — of light. Unlike conventional lasers, which emit a single frequency, these lasers emit multiple frequencies simultaneously. The equally spaced frequencies resemble the teeth of a comb. Optical frequency combs are used for everything from measuring the fingerprints of […]
A Zero-Index Waveguide
In 2015, researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) developed the first on-chip metamaterial with a refractive index of zero, meaning that the phase of light could be stretched infinitely long. The metamaterial represented a new method to manipulate light and was an important step forward for integrated […]
Smaller, Smarter, Softer Robotic Arm For Endoscopic Surgery
Flexible endoscopes can snake through narrow passages to treat difficult to reach areas of the body. However, once they arrive at their target, these devices rely on rigid surgical tools to manipulate or remove tissue. These tools offer surgeons reduced dexterity and sensing, limiting the current therapeutic capabilities of the endoscope. Now, researchers from the […]
First Flat Lens for Immersion Microscope Provides Alternative to Centuries-Old Technique
A team of researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) has developed the first flat lens for immersion microscopy. This lens, which can be designed for any liquid, may provide a cost-effective and easy-to-manufacture alternative to the expensive, centuries-old technique of hand polishing lenses for immersion objectives. The […]
Technique Makes More Efficient, Independent Holograms
Not far from where Edwin Land — the inventor of the Polaroid camera — made his pioneering discoveries about polarized light, researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) are continuing to unlock the power of polarization. Recently, a team of researchers led by Federico Capasso, the Robert L. […]
New, Long-Lasting Flow Battery Could Run For More Than a Decade with Minimum Upkeep
Researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have developed a new flow battery that stores energy in organic molecules dissolved in neutral pH water. This new chemistry allows for a non-toxic, non-corrosive battery with an exceptionally long lifetime and offers the potential to significantly decrease the costs of […]