For decades mathematicians have searched for a specific pair of surfaces that can’t be transformed into each other in four-dimensional space. Now they’ve found them. In geometry and the closely ...

Surface-induced mobility enhancement propagates into polymer glasses over distances from nanometers to micrometers. The discovery of a mobile surface “bilayer” structure—comprising a nanoscale outer ...

Using wet-chemical self-assembly, we demonstrate that standard surface reactions can be markedly altered. Although HF etching of Si surfaces is known to produce H-terminated surfaces, we show that up ...

One of the most stubborn obstacles in robotics is not intelligence, locomotion, or control, but something far more mundane: the battery. For microrobots in particular, the mathematics of onboard ...

What is the difference between permeable and impermeable surfaces? Permeable surfaces (also known as porous or pervious surfaces) allow water to percolate into the ...