What are hydrogels, and what are they used for? These water-absorbing polymer networks have applications in drug delivery, ...

Biologists have discovered a low-cost way to more easily study the detailed makeup of plant cells. The ultimate goal is to help grow better crops, improving food security.

First, they submerged the samples in a hydrogel solution containing small compounds that behave as liquid until they link up into polymer chains that absorb water and congeal into a gel. These ...

We actually find them in everyday products, such as in baby diapers, because they can absorb large amounts ... the researchers use a polymer that absorbs water during the cooler nighttime hours ...

Instead of relying on lenses to zoom in, ExM physically enlarges biological tissues by embedding them in a hydrogel, a water-absorbing polymer that can expand without losing its shape—the same ...

Hydrogels are built from 3D networks of long polymer molecules that absorb and hold water, making them useful for everything from soft robotics to nappies. But at temperatures at which water ...

The technology of Hiroshi Uyama, a polymer chemistry professor at Osaka University, can absorb water and artificial urine up to 20 times the original weight of the substance. “I previously ...