(Nanowerk News) Directed rotational motion is widespread in nature and technology. At small scales, however, it is difficult to generate. Researchers from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and partners in China are now presenting a mechanism in which flows at a water surface alone can cause a floating object to rotate controllably in a single direction.Using this mechanism, they assembled ultrathin fibers into structured bundles – for example to produce low-loss high-frequency transmission lines or surgical suture. The findings were published in Science Advances ("Capillary ratchets activated by interfacial flows for versatile torque generation and microassembly").

New Heat-Regulating Fabric Feels Fluffy Like Cotton — but Doesn't Get Wet

In the cold, the fabric kept a hand wrapped in it much warmer than when wrapped in cotton.

Newswise — Once cotton gets wet, it pulls heat from your body. This is helpful when you’re exercising or outside on a hot day but dangerous in the bitter cold. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Energy Lettershave created an ultralight synthetic fiber material with a cotton-like fluffiness that also repels water. The prototype fabric outperformed regular cotton in both retaining heat in the cold and releasing heat at room temperature.  "Inspired by the fluffy structure of cotton, we created a new material that is ultralight and flexible. It keeps you warm in the cold better than cotton or commercial synthetic insulations, while also prevents you from getting too hot at room temperature,” says Quan Shi, a corresponding author of the study. 

Firefighters face a higher risk of skin cancer, but nano fabrics with tiny, rough fibers can help keep them safer

Wildland firefighters are exposed to a mix of harmful chemicals in the smoke they breathe and the ash and soot that gets on their clothing. Over long assignments fighting fires that can last for days to weeks, those chemicals can be absorbed by their skin. Some of those chemicals are carcinogens. A 2025 study found that firefighters in general had a 58% higher risk of dying from skin cancer than non-firefighters and a 40% higher risk of dying from kidney cancer. Other research specifically on wildland firefighters also found elevated risks of dying from skin cancer. To help wildland firefighters reduce some of these long-term health risks, researchers—including me and my colleagues at the Textile and Apparel Science Laboratory in the Department of Design and Merchandising at Oklahoma State University—are working on new ways to create better protective clothing, starting with the tiniest of fibers in the fabric.

I dont post selfies much but you gotta see it moving

Date palm waste yields bio-oil, unlocking energy use for 150 million trees

Researchers have developed a method to extract bio-oil from the surface fiber waste of date palm trees, an abundant, low-cost, and sustainable biomass resource generated by an estimated 150 million date palm trees worldwide. The findings are presented in an article published in the journal ACS Omega. In the study, the researchers examine the conversion-dependent pyrolysis behavior, kinetic analysis, and qualitative composition of bio-oil derived from date palm surface fibers (DPSFs). These fibers are abundantly available as municipal and agricultural biomass wastes from date palm trees in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where the research was conducted. The authors report that DPSFs show strong potential as bioenergy feedstock. As a lignocellulosic biomass rich in cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin, the fibers are particularly suitable for thermochemical energy conversion processes. The material was analyzed "using thermogravimetric analysis at non-isothermal heating rates of 10–40 °C/min at a temperature range of 20–750 °C."