Engineers at Northwestern University have given microchips a new ability – the power of flight. Inspired by wind-dispersed seeds, these “microfliers” are shaped like tiny propellers to catch the wind, ...

Sometimes, in the pursuit of efficiency, we can make big gains by taking cues from nature. Wing design is one place where nature excels, and we've been cribbing its notes for everything from wind ...

A team of engineers boasts of beating nature by creating the smallest human-made flying structure, a winged microchip that behaves just like the seeds from trees and plants but has better flying ...

Freelance writer Amanda C. Kooser covers gadgets and tech news with a twist for CNET. When not wallowing in weird gear and iPad apps for cats, she can be found tinkering with her 1956 DeSoto. It's ...

Tiny enough to look like fruit flies to most observers, winged microchips developed by engineers at Northwestern University could soon be used for population surveillance and the tracking of airborne ...

It’s neither a bird nor a plane, but a winged microchip as small as a grain of sand that can be carried by the wind as it monitors such things as pollution levels or the spread of airborne diseases.

High above the clouds, but far below the satellites, there exists a slice of Earth’s atmosphere that has remained frustratingly hard to explore. Known as the mesosphere, this region sits between 30 to ...

Sometimes, in the pursuit of efficiency, we can make big gains by taking cues from nature. Wing design is one place where nature excels, and we've been cribbing its notes for everything from wind ...

Northwestern University says these are the world's smallest human-made flying structures, and they could be used for monitoring the environment,... It's neither a bird nor a plane, but a winged ...