Oscillating Gel Acts Like Artificial Skin, Giving Robots Potential Ability to “Feel” - Sooner than later, robots may have the ability to “feel.” A team of researchers from the University of Pittsburgh and MIT have demonstrated that a nonoscillating gel can be resuscitated in a fashion similar to a medical cardiopulmonary resuscitation. These findings pave the way for the development of a wide range of new applications that sense mechanical stimuli and respond chemically—a natural phenomenon few materials have been able to mimic. Ref.: I. C. Chen, et al., Mechanical Resuscitation of Chemical Oscillations in Belousov–Zhabotinsky Gels, Advanced Functional Materials, 2012; [DOI:10.1002/adfm.201103036]