Technology

Since his postdoctoral days at MIT, Hang Yu, associate professor of materials science and engineering, has been wrestling with the challenge of creating a shape-memory ceramic that can be manufactured at scale without breaking. Now, in tandem with Ph.D. student Donnie Erb '15, M.S. '18 and postdoctoral researcher Nikhil Gotawala,... Read more

MIT researchers have developed a new method for designing 3D structures that can be transformed from a flat configuration into their curved, fully formed shape with only a single pull of a string.... Read more

A new battery technology has been developed that delivers significantly higher energy storage—enough to alleviate EV range concerns—while lowering the risk of thermal runaway and explosion.... Read more

Many of Waymo's self-driving cars blocked streets of San Francisco during a mass power outage Saturday and forced the company to temporarily suspend service, raising questions about the cars' ability to adapt to real-world driving conditions.... Read more

Ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft plan to bring robotaxi services to London next year in separate partnerships with Chinese tech giant Baidu, the companies said Monday.... Read more

Solar cells, devices that can generate electricity from sunlight, are already helping to reduce fossil fuel emissions in many countries worldwide. In recent years, energy engineers have been assessing the potential of materials other than silicon for the development of efficient, durable and more affordable solar cells.... Read more

In Nature Communications, a research team affiliated with UNIST present a fully biodegradable, robust, and energy-efficient artificial synapse that holds great promise for sustainable neuromorphic technologies. Made entirely from eco-friendly materials sourced from nature—such as shells, beans, and plant fibers—this innovation could help address the growing problems of electronic waste... Read more

AI video translation is not yet a perfect substitute for human translation, according to new research from the University of East Anglia.... Read more

Nuclear power is among the cleanest energy sources on Earth, but the materials that fuel it can degrade during operation. A new international study may unlock safer, longer-lasting fuel for the next generation of reactors.... Read more

The worldwide push for sustainability requires better, more durable batteries to support renewable energy systems and ubiquitous electronic devices.... Read more

Researchers at Boise State University have developed a breakthrough in wearable electronics: a multifunctional electronic tattoo (e‑tattoo) that integrates energy harvesting, energy storage, and real‑time biometric sensing into a single, skin‑conformal platform.... Read more

Evaporative cooling is far from new—it has been used to cool living spaces and drinking water for centuries—but the Matter of Tech Lab at Cornell Tech has come up with a new way to deploy an old idea.... Read more

When mushrooms make the news, it's often for grim reasons—a mysterious poisoning, toxic species in the bush, or high-profile court cases.... Read more

Helium leaks are hard to detect. Helium is odorless, colorless, tasteless, and does not react with other chemical substances. Not only can we not see or smell it, but traditional gas sensors have trouble detecting the element because they rely on chemical reactions. Despite this, identifying a helium leak is... Read more

Road accidents often stem from failing to notice vehicles. A study published in the journal IEEE Open Journal of Intelligent Transportation Systems introduces a method for detecting distant vehicles with over twice the accuracy of existing systems.... Read more

Observing a young man in a wheelchair with motor impairment struggle to communicate with his parents profoundly affected Chetan Jaiswal.... Read more

What do Harry Potter's invisibility cloak and stealth fighter jets that evade radar have in common? They both make objects invisible despite their physical presence. Building upon this concept, a research team has taken it one step further by developing a "smart invisibility cloak" technology that hides electromagnetic waves even... Read more

Perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells are considered a key technology for photovoltaics. Because of their design, they use sunlight more efficiently than conventional silicon cells. While the upper perovskite layer absorbs the high-energy blue part of the spectrum, the silicon layer underneath captures the red part. The interplay of the two... Read more

Perovskite solar cells can be made not only more robust but also more efficient, scalable and cheaper to manufacture by replacing the indium tin oxide (ITO) in the device, according to research led by the University of Surrey. The team suggests that replacing the ITO—one of the most fragile and... Read more

A new study published in Nature Communications details a hybrid robot that combines the wind-driven mobility of tumbleweeds with active quadcopter control, offering a new paradigm for energy-efficient terrestrial exploration.... Read more

Sustainability is often described in shades of green, but the future of clean energy may also carry a hint of deep blue. Electric vehicles and energy storage systems could soon draw power from a familiar pigment found in denim.... Read more

Researchers have successfully developed a high-resolution electronic skin (e-skin) device on a breathable (nanomesh) substrate using transfer technology employed in semiconductor manufacturing.... Read more

A joint research team has successfully developed a new dry-process manufacturing technology for secondary battery electrodes that overcomes the limitations of conventional electrode fabrication processes. The work is published in the journal Energy & Environmental Science.... Read more

Acoustic waves are best known as the invisible delivery agents bringing voices, car horns, or our favorite song to our ears. But the waves can also move physical objects, like an item vibrating atop a concert speaker—offering the power to turn sound into a tool.... Read more

Iron-on patches can repair clothing or add personal flair to backpacks and hats. And now they could power wearable tech, too. Researchers reporting in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces have combined liquid metal and a heat-activated adhesive to create an electrically conductive patch that bonds to fabric when heated with... Read more

The rise of artificial intelligence, cloud platforms, and data processing is driving a steady increase in global data center electricity consumption. While running computer servers accounts for the largest share of data center energy use, cooling systems come in second—but a new study by researchers at the National Laboratory of... Read more

Researchers at UC Santa Barbara have invented a display technology for on-screen graphics that are both visible and haptic, meaning that they can be felt via touch.... Read more

Vanderbilt researchers have developed a lightweight wearable device that shifts body armor weight off the shoulders and back of soldiers, helping reduce pain and injury risk.... Read more

Researchers at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) have extracted the building blocks of precise hand gestures used in the classical Indian dance form Bharatanatyam—and found a richer "alphabet" of movement compared to natural grasps. The work could improve how we teach hand movements to robots and offer humans... Read more

Watching 3D movies and TV shows is a fun and exciting experience, where images leap out of the screen. To get this effect, you usually have to wear a special pair of glasses. But that could soon be a thing of the past as scientists have developed a new display... Read more

As prominent artificial intelligence (AI) researchers eye limits to the current phase of the technology, a different approach is gaining attention: using living human brain cells as computational hardware.... Read more

In a new research project led by the Central Institute of Mental Health (CIMH) in Mannheim, scientists are investigating how insights into learning processes in animal brains can be used to make artificial intelligence (AI) systems more flexible and efficient. The project is titled NAILIt—Neuro-inspired AI for Learning and Inference... Read more

EPFL scientists have integrated discarded crustacean shells into robotic devices, leveraging the strength and flexibility of natural materials for robotic applications.... Read more

Google recently unveiled Project Suncatcher, a research "moonshot" aiming to build a data center in space. The tech giant plans to use a constellation of solar-powered satellites which would run on its own TPU chips and transmit data to one another via lasers.... Read more

Have you ever tried yelling underwater? Not only is it difficult to make the noise, but it is rarely audible to those outside of the water. Sound travels differently in mediums of different densities, and that causes a high acoustic impedance ratio between air and water, meaning that sound waves... Read more

A research team at the Korea Institute of Materials Science (KIMS) has successfully developed Korea's first full-cycle magnetic cooling technology, encompassing materials, components, and modules.... Read more

One of the many benefits of electric vehicles is that they are much quieter than traditional gasoline-powered vehicles. In some cases, though, they are too quiet. Automakers are required to design their vehicles so they emit sounds at low speeds to alert pedestrians to their presence.... Read more

Timothy Tran '27 has a new guitar for jamming out to his favorite Jimi Hendrix tunes, and he didn't pick it up at a music shop—he printed it.... Read more

An international team of researchers has unveiled a spacecraft attitude control system that can guarantee precise stabilization and maneuvering within a predefined time, even under extreme and unpredictable space disturbances.... Read more

Thermosets, such as epoxy and silicon rubbers, are a class of polymer (i.e., plastic) materials that harden permanently when they undergo a specific chemical reaction, known as "crosslinking." These materials are highly durable, heat-resistant with excellent electrical insulation in various applications such as in adhesives, coatings, and automotive parts.... Read more

A Dubai restaurant has opened that prides itself on having the world's "first AI chef," the latest ostentatious dive into new technology in a city obsessed with being on the cutting edge of the future.... Read more

A worker in white gloves inspects the propellers of a boxy two-seater aircraft fresh off the assembly line at a Chinese factory trialing the mass production of flying cars.... Read more

A research team has developed soft composite systems with highly programmable, asymmetric mechanical responses. By integrating "shear-jamming transitions" into compliant polymeric solids, this innovative work enhances key material functionalities essential for engineering mechano-intelligent systems—a major step toward the development of next-generation smart materials and devices.... Read more

Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) power the high-end screens of our digital world, from TVs and phones to laptops and game consoles.... Read more

U.S.-China collaboration in technology research has fallen steadily to the lowest in 20 years, a shift an Australian think tank warns could reshape global innovation vital to security and economic growth.... Read more

Scientists have developed a new material that converts motion into electricity (piezoelectricity) with greater efficiency and without using toxic lead—paving the way for a new generation of devices that we use in everyday life.... Read more

The Wave Engineering for eXtreme and Intelligent maTErials (We-Xite) lab, led by engineering assistant professor Osama R. Bilal, has developed a reconfigurable metamaterial that can control sound waves—bending them, dampening them, or focusing them—while encoding real-time tuning with almost infinite possible shapes.... Read more

Researchers with McGill's Trottier Institute for Sustainability in Engineering and Design have developed a stretchable, eco-friendly battery suitable for use in wearable and implantable devices. The battery, which uses citric or lactic acid and gelatin to achieve flexibility and performance without relying on toxic materials, stands to reduce electronic waste.... Read more

A warm hand is enough to drive motion in tiny Salmonella-inspired robots that harness molecular-level dynamic bonding.... Read more

Cumberland, B.C. was built on coal mining—both literally and practically. Thousands of workers were employed and millions of tons of coal were exported over 80 years before the mines were shuttered, leaving deep holes in the ground and a deeper void in the village's economy.... Read more