Important Innovations

Tiny, Elastic Microrobots to Deliver Targeted Drug Therapies Source:  EPFL Breakthrough Robotic Innovation from Switzerland Scientists at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) and ETH Zurich have developed very smart, highly flexible microrobots.  They can change shape depending on their surroundings . For Targeted Drug Therapy Delivery The tiny robots are modeled on microorganisms like bacteria that change shape as their surrounding conditions change.  They are fully biocompatible.  The bots optimize their movements in order to get to hard to reach places in the human body.  They're thought to have the potential to revolutionize targeted drug delivery. Nanocomposites and Nanoparticles The bots are made of hydrogel nanocomposites.  They contain magnetic nanoparticles allowing them to be controlled by an electromagnetic field.  They are so tiny and flexible they're able to swim through narrow blood vessels, arrive at the tar...

Solar Driven Photocatalytic System Source:  EPFL New Material, Metal Organic Framework Class Drives It Swiss scientists at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) have created a system that can destroy pollutants in water while simultaneously splitting out the hydrogen for later use.  This is a solar driven system that is considered an important scientific breakthrough. Solar Driven It's a photocatalytic system based on a material in the metal organic framework class (MOF's).  These MOF's are some of the most versatile and useful materials recently discovered.  This particular substance that cleans and splits water is activated by light. Big Applications The hydrogen produced in the process can be used for hydrogen fuel cells now used in many technologies including green hydrogen trains and space shuttles.  The process is also highly effective in removing pollutants from water.

Swiss Scientists Use Virtual Reality to Help Amputees Feel Prosthetics as Part of their Body Scientists at Switzerland's Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) combined virtual reality with artificial tactile sensation to help two amputees feel their prosthetic hand as part of their body.  They also demonstrated that the phantom limb actually grows into the prosthetic hand. Mind-Body-VR Connections The basis of this breakthrough approach is how the brain identifies what belongs to its own body.  Their breakthrough was combining two senses - sight and touch.  According to the lead scientist Giulio Rognini of EPFL:  "We showed exactly how vision and touch can be combined to trick the amputee's brain into feeling what it sees" thru VR. Portable Therapy This process is portable and could be turned into therapy to help patients embody their prosthetic limbs permanently.  It's a case of VR providing life enhancing feeling and experience.