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• MIT Researchers 3D Print Microscopic Robots That Snap to Attention With a Magnet Swipe April 29
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MIT engineers have developed a method for 3D printing soft, microscopic structures infused with iron-oxide nanoparticles that can be remotely controlled by an ordinary magnet — including a lollipop-shaped gripper smaller than a grain of sand that snaps shut like a Venus flytrap on command. The research, published April 28 in the journal Matter, was conducted with collaborators at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland and the University of Cincinnati.
The key challenge the team had to solve is a longstanding problem in magnetic microprinting: magnetic particles scatter and absorb laser light, weakening or preventing the printing of any structure they’re mixed into. The MIT team’s solution is a two-step process. They first print a standard polymer gel microstruc