Researchers enhanced a hydrogel by adding ultra-thin, large clay nanosheets. Hydrogels are usually soft and squishy, but this new material forms a highly organised structure with densely entangled ...

First, they 3D-printed a small, handheld stamp patterned with microscopic grooves, each as small as a single cell. Then they pressed the stamp into a soft hydrogel and seeded the resulting grooves ...

New options for making finely structured soft, flexible and expandable ... which patterns are cut into a thin film allowing it to later swell into complex hydrogel structures.

The hydrogel has a unique structure, making it the first to combine strength and flexibility with self-healing capabilities. We all encounter gels in daily life – from the soft, sticky ...

Then they pressed the stamp into a soft hydrogel and seeded the resulting grooves with real muscle cells. The cells grew along these grooves within the hydrogel, forming fibers. When the ...