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Bursting of electrified drops is a fundamental physical process and important for diverse technical applications. Wanget al. find that bursting of electrified drops in polymers is sensitive to the shape of the drops, which in turn is determined by the polymer's elasticity

A soft and lightweight neuroprosthetic hand that offers simultaneous myoelectric control and tactile feedback outperformed a conventional rigid neuroprosthetic hand in speed and dexterity.

Water scarcity is a global issue that demands urgent resolution, but current approaches are inadequate. Now a metre-scale atmospheric water harvester, featuring a hygroscopic origami hydrogel panel and a window-like glass chamber, demonstrates exceptional efficiency in extracting water from air, even in extremely arid conditions.

Flexible and fatigue-resistant optical fibers made from hydrogel allow optogenetic manipulations in the periphery in freely behaving mice.

Full-body, continuous wearable ultrasound will benefit health care and biomedical research. Seven key obstacles must first be overcome.

The authors obtain the TiCoSb-based single-crystals with a dimension exceeding 1 cm, leading to an extraordinary enhancement in electron mobility and consequently, an average power factor of 37 W cm⁻¹ K⁻² in the Nb-doped TiCoSb single-crystal.

A polymer patch that rapidly and robustly adheres to diabetic wounds and contracts in a pre-programmed manner promotes wound closure and re-epithelialization, as shown in mouse and human skin, in mini-pigs and in humanized mice.

Fatigue-resistant adhesion is of interest for a range of applications, but has been limited in synthetic hydrogels. Here, the authors report on a synthetic hydrogel with ordered nanocrystalline domains resulting in high fatigue-resistant adhesion and demonstrate the coating of different surfaces.

Arrays of nanoscale magnets have been constructed to form the magnetized panels of microscopic robots — thus allowing magnetic fields to be used to control the robots’ shape and movement.

Soft hybrids that integrate hydrogels and elastomers can be used in applications, such as stretchable electronics and soft robotics, but usually have shortcomings. Here, Zhao and co-workers show a simple method of assembling hydrogel/elastomer hybrids with robust interfaces and functional microstructures.

The need for reversible yet sizable thermal conductivity tuning in bulk materials impedes practical thermal switch design. Here, the authors report a scalable polymer which achieves a reversible 14 × tuning ratio via strain and temperature modulation.

Neural probes for experimental studies can cause tissue damage. Here the authors describe a probe incorporated with a hydrogel structure for adaptive bending stiffness to enable insertion to the rodent brain while minimising tissue damage.

A study shows that implants with an adhesive implant–tissue interface mitigate the formation of a fibrous capsule when attached to various organs in mice, rats and pigs.

It is useful to be able to equip marine animals with sensors, but it can be challenging to attach these to soft marine organisms. Here, the authors use an adhesive hydrogel to achieve rapid attachment of sensors to marine life including jellyfish, squid and lobster.

Tissue adhesives have received significant interest for their clinical utility but are typically incompatible with advanced manufacturing methods. Here, the authors introduce a 3D printable tissue adhesive for the fabrication of patches and devices for diverse biomedical applications.

Hydrogels with improved mechanical properties, made by combining polymer networks with ionic and covalent crosslinks, should expand the scope of applications, and may serve as model systems to explore mechanisms of deformation and energy dissipation.

It is shown that by controlling the relaxation of graphene adhered on a biaxially pre-stretched polymer substrate, graphene films can be reversibly crumpled and unfolded to form tailored hierarchical structures with tunable wettability and transmittance, and that the crumpled graphene–polymer laminates can be used as actuators.

A bi-continuous hydrogel prepared from phase-separated PEDOT:PSS and polyurethane is 3D printed into soft biolelectronic devices with high electrical conductivity, stretchability and toughness for long-term in vivo electrophysiological monitoring and stimulation.

A dual-layer encapsulation approach provides physical containment of genetically modified bacteria (especially when combined with chemical containment) while also protecting them from environmental stressors and maintaining their sensing functions.

An adhesive paste designed to mimic some properties of barnacle glue haemostatically seals tissues robustly in less than 15 s, independently of the rate of blood coagulation.

A graphene nanocomposite hydrogel showing anisotropic swelling is used to realize an electrically conducting and removable bioadhesive that improves the mechanical and electrical integration of bioelectronics devices with wet dynamic tissues.

A new strong, biocompatible and biodegradable double-sided tape can adhere to wet tissues and devices through a mechanism involving rapid water removal from the surface, swift hydrogen and electrostatic interactions, and covalent bonding.

Conducting polymers are promising materials for diverse applications but the fabrication of conducting polymers mostly relies on conventional fabrication techniques. Here the authors introduce a high performance 3D printable conducting polymer ink to take full advantage of advanced 3D printing.

Cephalopods change colour by mechanically activating chromatophores via muscle contraction. Here, the authors use a similar concept for flexible displays, where electric field control over elastomer strain allows activation of mechanophores and provides on-demand and variable fluorescent patterns.

Soft actuators composed of a tough bioadhesive/elastomer shell encapsulating a stimuli-responsive metallic spring provide in situ mechanical stimulation of skeletal muscles to promote muscle tissue rehabilitation and prevent atrophy.

Artificial-muscle fibres mimic the ordered nanostructures in natural-muscle fibres to achieve promising mechanical and actuation properties.

Hydrogels of conducting polymers provide an electrical interface with biological tissues for sensing and stimulation, but currently have compromised mechanical and electrical properties. Here, the authors show a simple method to achieve pure PEDOT:PSS hydrogels that exhibit superior mechanical and electrical properties, stability, and tunable swelling.

High swelling ratio, speed and long term robustness tend not coexist in hydrogels which limits their use in devices. Here, the authors introduce a pufferfish-inspired hydrogel device ingested as a standard-sized pill, swells rapidly and maintains robustness under repeated mechanical loads in the stomach.

Though flexible pressure sensors are attractive for next-generation applications, limitations in its performance hinder widespread adoption. Here, the authors report an iontronic flexible pressure sensor with graded intrafillable architecture that shows high sensitivity over a broad pressure range.

Matrix elasticity, which has been shown to regulate the fate of mesenchymal stem cells in vitro, can also be harnessed to therapeutically control bone formation.

Hydrogel actuators have been widely developed to be osmotic-driven but many are in fact only capable of producing low forces. Here, the authors developed high speed and high force hydrogel actuators capable of camouflage optically and sonically with low fatigue over multiple cycles.

An unprecedented number of potentially disruptive therapeutic technologies are under development. Forward-looking policies, incentives and infrastructure are needed to harness these advances to provide effective and globally equitable healthcare.

Programmed ferromagnetic domains are 3D-printed into soft materials capable of fast transformations between complex three-dimensional shapes via magnetic actuation.

New classes of functional soft materials show promise to revolutionize robotics. Now materials scientists must focus on realizing the predicted performance of these materials and developing effective and robust interfaces to integrate them into highly functional robotic systems that have a positive impact on human life.

A hydrogel-design strategy achieves transparent and conductive bonding of synthetic hydrogels to a variety of non-porous surfaces, with interfacial toughness values over 1,000 J m⁻².

Hydrogels are one of the most promising materials to bridge the stark disparities between traditional machines and biological tissues for successful interfacing between humans and machines. This Review discusses the functional modes, design principles, and current and future applications of hydrogel interfaces for the merging of humans and machines.

Pine sporopollenin harbors unique monomeric units and inter-unit linkages forming mechanically robust and chemically inert biopolymers. Here, the authors design and synthesize several sporopollenin analogues, and characterize their chemical, thermal and mechanical properties as robust polymers.