A new type of synthetic “skin” is the first material that can both sense subtle pressure and heal itself when torn or cut. The advance, described in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, could lead to smarter prosthetics or resilient personal electronics that repair themselves. In the last decade, there have been major advances in synthetic skin, says Zhenan Bao, the study’s principal investigator and a chemical engineering professor at Stanford University, but even the most effective self-healing materials had major drawbacks.
