Technology

Environmentally friendly buildings are highly attractive for sustainable development and efficient energy consumption. Recently, scientists have made significant strides toward the development of energy-efficient smart windows—with features such as optical modulation, high transparency, low thermal conductivity, and ultraviolet (UV) blocking and heat shielding capabilities—to replace traditional glass windows. Smart windows... Read more

Shape memory alloys are exotic materials that can be deformed at room temperature and return to their "remembered," pre-deformed shape when heated. They are used in a broad range of applications, such as heart stents, dental braces, actuators that move wing flaps, and energy harvesting. Mechanical engineer Francesco Maresca and... Read more

Researchers have developed a simple, scalable way to reliably generate hydrogen with impure water, such as seawater or industrial wastewater.... Read more

Aran Nayebi jokes that his robot vacuum has a bigger brain than his two cats. But while the vacuum can only follow a preset path, Zoe and Shira leap, play and investigate the house with real autonomy.... Read more

The sheen of satin, the subtle glints of twill, the translucence of sheer silk: Fabric has long been difficult to render digitally because of the myriad ways different yarns can be woven or knitted together.... Read more

Structural health monitoring (SHM) and condition monitoring are crucial processes that ensure reliability and safety of engineering systems in a variety of fields, including aerospace, civil engineering, and industry. These systems are often assessed using vibration-based methods, where damage is detected by analyzing changes in a structure's vibration characteristics.... Read more

Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory have, for the first time, used a breakthrough technique with a goal of better identifying the origin of nuclear materials—a tool that could someday help efforts to prevent the spread of nuclear material around the globe.... Read more

No ice is colder and harder than speedskating ice. The precision it takes has meant that Olympic speedskaters have never competed for gold on a temporary indoor rink—until the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Games.... Read more

In recent years, electronics engineers have been trying to identify semiconducting materials that could substitute for silicon and enable the further advancement of electronic devices. Two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors, such as molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂), have proved to be among the most promising solutions, as their thinness and resistance to short-channel effects... Read more

Researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed an innovative energy storage system design that introduces a safer, more efficient method for electrical charge transfer.... Read more

Every year, companies lose revenue when goods are copied or illegally resold. Now, a new digital and legally binding fingerprint developed at the University of Copenhagen makes products impossible to counterfeit. Royal Copenhagen is among the first brands in the world to use the solution.... Read more

Under the threat of climate change and geopolitical tensions related to fossil fuels, the world faces an urgent need to find sustainable and renewable energy solutions. While wind, solar, and hydroelectric power are key renewable energy sources, their output strongly depends on environmental conditions, meaning they are unable to provide... Read more

A new study highlights a semi-transparent, color-tunable solar cell designed to work in places traditional panels can't, like windows and flexible surfaces. Using a 3D-printed pillar structure, the researchers can fine-tune how much light passes through and what color the cell appears, without changing the solar material itself. The result... Read more

Imagine driving down a busy highway. You need to check your speed and navigation, but glancing down at the dashboard takes your eyes off the road for a critical second. This is where head-up displays (HUDs) come in, projecting information directly onto the windshield. However, current HUD technologies are often... Read more

A research team led by Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, has presented a new way to produce hydrogen gas without the scarce and expensive metal platinum. Using sunlight, water and tiny particles of electrically conductive plastic, the researchers show how the hydrogen can be produced efficiently, sustainably and at low... Read more

Metamaterials—artificially made materials with properties that aren't found in the natural world—are poised to transform daily life. Their unique properties are enhancing products from sporting goods to consumer electronics and beyond.... Read more

Assistive devices that enable those who can no longer move their bodies to control wheelchairs or communicate by moving only their eyes function by using eye-tracking technologies, but these technologies often have limitations due to their size and weight.... Read more

Artificial intelligence dominated the conversation as CES 2026 opened on Jan. 6. Nearly every major exhibitor framed AI as a tool that can make daily routines smoother, faster and more efficient.... Read more

Crowds flooded the freshly opened showroom floors on Day 2 of the CES and were met by thousands of robots, AI companions, assistants, health longevity tech, wearables and more.... Read more

Lenovo, the world's top PC maker, unveiled its own AI assistant Tuesday at the CES tech show in Las Vegas, promising a tool that follows users seamlessly across laptops, smartphones and connected devices.... Read more

A research team led by Professor Leo Tianshuo Zhao from the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering, University of Hong Kong (HKU), has developed the world's smallest fully printed infrared photodetectors, which are an innovative room-temperature nano-printing platform that overcomes the limitations of traditional silicon-based... Read more

Uber on Monday unveiled a custom robotaxi it is adding to its global ride-share platform, starting on the San Francisco home turf it shares with rival Waymo, owned by Google.... Read more

Hyundai-owned Boston Dynamics publicly demonstrated its humanoid robot Atlas for the first time Monday at the CES tech showcase, ratcheting up a competition with Tesla and other rivals to build robots that look like people and do things that people do.... Read more

Tiny molecules already used to thicken everyday products like lotions and adhesives may soon help keep aircraft safe in icy conditions. These molecules, known as low-molecular-weight gelators (LMWGs), can self-assemble into soft, gel-like structures and have long been used in industrial formulations.... Read more

Researchers from the Institute of Metal Research (IMR) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have developed an innovative flexible sensor that can simultaneously detect strain, strain rate, and temperature using a single active material layer, representing a significant advance in multimodal sensing technology.... Read more

Research published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society demonstrates a new way to make carbon-based battery materials much safer, longer lasting, and more powerful by fundamentally redesigning how fullerene molecules are connected.... Read more

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