Oliver Zielinski selected as Fellow of The Oceanography Society
Grant and Award Announcement
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 24-Jan-2026 08:11 ET (24-Jan-2026 13:11 GMT/UTC)
Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Koç University in Istanbul have created hydrogel-based artificial cilia that move almost exactly like real biological cilia – the closest imitation achieved so far. The researchers can program each micrometer-sized cilium to move freely in space – just like cilia in the human body. With their research, the scientists aim to investigate how natural cilia function, how they coordinate their movement, and what role they play in brain development, signal perception, and fluid movement, for example. Because the artificial cilia are soft and easy to control, they could one day be used in medical devices to help people whose natural cilia are damaged or not working properly. The fast, low-voltage motion demonstrated in their study could also inspire a new generation of tiny robots that were previously impossible at such small scales. This milestone work will be published in Nature on January 14, 2026.
A joint research team led by Tae‑Woo Lee, Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Seoul National University, and Yury Gogotsi, Professor at Drexel University, has overcome long-standing limitations of next-generation stretchable light-emitting devices by developing the record efficiency fully stretchable organic light-emitting diode (OLED). The study was published in Nature on January 15.
The organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology behind flexible cell phones, curved monitors, and televisions could one day be used to make on-skin sensors that show changes in temperature, blood flow, and pressure in real time. An international collaboration, led by researchers from Seoul National University in the Republic of Korea and Drexel University, has developed a flexible and stretchable OLED that could put the technology on track for this use and a range of new applications.