Technology

A solar distillation device can purify brine from reverse osmosis plants with over 10 percent salinity, as well as water taken directly from the Red Sea. The technology offers double the freshwater production rate of existing salt-rejection solar stills.... Read more

For many avid outdoorspeople, summertime and camping go hand in hand. But as climate change continues to drive summer temperatures higher, outdoor recreation could become less relaxing—and cooling technologies like fans and portable air conditioners require electricity that is seldom available at the average campsite.... Read more

Plagued by ever-shrinking space to park its hundreds of thousands of bicycles, Amsterdam opened Wednesday the first of its largest-ever bicycle parking complexes, built underwater in a pioneering engineering project.... Read more

A chatbot powered by reams of data from the internet has passed exams at a US law school after writing essays on topics ranging from constitutional law to taxation and torts.... Read more

Investigators have developed an artificial skin that is even more sensitive than human skin in its ability to detect pressure applied by an object as well as its approach.... Read more

In recent years, many computer scientists have been exploring the notion of metaverse, an online space in which users can access different virtual environments and immersive experiences, using VR and AR headsets. While navigating the metaverse, users might also share personal data, whether to purchase goods, connect with other users,... Read more

Physicist and code specialist Dr. Sandipan Mohanty has been working on molecular biology simulations for the world's fastest supercomputers for 20 years. Such simulations help to unravel the building blocks of life and provide new insights into cellular machinery.... Read more

With rising concerns about energy and water management, microbial electrochemical technologies (METs), such as microbial fuel cells, have emerged as promising solutions. However, actual progress in these technologies have not lived up to the expectations so far. Now, in a new study, researchers from Korea, India, UAE, and Turkey have... Read more

A transdisciplinary Northwestern University research team has developed a revolutionary transistor that is expected be ideal for lightweight, flexible, high-performance bioelectronics.... Read more

Countless artists have taken inspiration from "The Starry Night" since Vincent Van Gogh painted the swirling scene in 1889.... Read more

A trio of researchers at Carnegie Mellon University has taken the use of WiFi signals to identify people in a building to a new level, through the use of a deep neural network. Jiaqi Geng, Dong Huang and Fernando De la Torre suggest, in a paper they have posted to... Read more

Electric car batteries could be used to boost power storage in the future, injecting electricity into the grid during times of scarcity or storing electricity during periods of excess, a new study found Tuesday.... Read more

Despite only about 25% of car travel happening after dark, almost half of fatal accidents occur at night. As our vehicles become more advanced and even autonomous, the ways of detecting and avoiding these collisions must evolve too. Current systems are often complicated, resource-intensive or work poorly in the dark.... Read more

Team Polar, a student team at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), took their first rover to perform research in the Norwegian snow in the first week of January. The team is dedicated to developing an independent rover that can perform Antarctic research. This is their first working prototype and the... Read more

Tsunamis, hurricanes, and maritime weather are monitored using sensors and other devices on platforms in the ocean to help keep coastal communities safe—until the batteries on these platforms run out of juice. Without power, ocean sensors can't collect critical wave and weather data, which results in safety concerns for coastal... Read more

A novel technique called Underground Gravity Energy Storage turns decommissioned mines into long-term energy storage solutions, thereby supporting the sustainable energy transition.... Read more

High resolution density, wide field of view (FoV), lightweight and compact formfactor, and low power consumption are demanding requirements for augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) displays. Compared to liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays, microLED is attracting more attention due to its high peak... Read more

As a teenager in Munich, Oliver Zahn made the difficult choice to go vegetarian after learning about the horrors of animal agriculture. But the way he sees it, others won't simply do the same.... Read more

A team of researchers at Microsoft has demonstrated a new AI system that is capable of mimicking a person's voice after training with a recording just three seconds long. The team explains developing the new app in a paper published on the arXiv preprint server. They have also posted a... Read more

Hydrogels are three-dimensional (3D) polymer networks that do not dissolve in water but retain large amounts of liquids. Due to this advantageous property, hydrogels are particularly promising material platforms for both biomedical and environmental applications, as they can survive in bodily fluids or in wet natural environments without dissipating.... Read more

The enhancement of human-machine interaction is expected to bring notable improvements in support for learning and access to health care.... Read more

In January 2023, the Caltech Space Solar Power Project (SSPP) is poised to launch into orbit a prototype, dubbed the Space Solar Power Demonstrator (SSPD), which will test several key components of an ambitious plan to harvest solar power in space and beam the energy back to Earth.... Read more

Programmable materials are true shapeshifters. They can change their characteristics in a controlled and reversible way with the push of a button, independently adapting to fit new conditions. They can be used, for example, to make comfy chairs or mattresses that prevent bedsores. To produce these, the support is formed... Read more

Solar panels disguised as ancient Roman tiles or terracotta bricks to match the city skyline. The innovative solutions adopted by the archaeological park of Pompeii and the Portuguese city of Evora pave the way for an inspiring model: turning architectural constraints into assets, boosting heritage and sustainability.... Read more

DGIST Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Professor Hwang Jae-yoon's team developed a deep learning-based ultrasound hologram generation framework technology that can freely configure the form of focused ultrasound in real time based on holograms. It is expected to be used as a basic technology in the field of... Read more

The research group of laser-matter interaction at the Institute of Intense Lasers and Applications (CELIA) at the University of Bordeaux, France, has explored a new glass micro-drilling method using a femtosecond laser in GHz-burst mode.... Read more

A new smart skin developed at Stanford University might foretell a day when people type on invisible keyboards, identify objects by touch alone, or allow users to communicate by hand gestures with apps in immersive environments.... Read more

A team of researchers at the University of Melbourne, working with a colleague from the University of Manchester, has developed a device that can use humidity from the air to make hydrogen gas. In their paper published in the journal Nature Communications, the group describes their device and its performance... Read more

University of Maine researchers invented a device that could serve as a launchpad for new technology to ease daily tracking of food and beverage consumption for seniors and people with chronic health conditions.... Read more

In recent years, roboticists and material scientists worldwide have been trying to create artificial systems that resemble human body parts and reproduce their functions. These include artificial skins, protective layers that could also enhance the sensing capabilities of robots.... Read more

Solar cells manufactured from materials known as "perovskites" are catching up with the efficiency of traditional silicon-based solar cells. At the same time, they have advantages of low cost and short energy payback time. However, such solar cells have problems with stability—something that researchers at Linköping University, together with international... Read more

What goes on inside planets like Neptune and Uranus? To find out, an international team headed by the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), the University of Rostock and France's École Polytechnique conducted a novel experiment. They fired a laser at a thin film of simple PET plastic and investigated what happened using... Read more

Using X-rays, artificial intelligence and 3D printing, two UCL researchers reproduced a "lost" work of art by renowned Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh, 135 years after he painted over it.... Read more

Accelerating demand for renewable energy and electric vehicles is sparking a high demand for the batteries that store generated energy and power engines. But the batteries behind these sustainability solutions aren't always sustainable themselves. In a paper publishing September 1 in the journal Matter, scientists create a zinc battery with... Read more

A technical paper by scientists at the Beijing Institute of Technology introduced simultaneous and sequential hybrid brain-computer interfaces (hBCIs) that incorporate EEG and EMG signals for classifying drivers' hard braking, soft braking, and normal driving intentions to better assist driving.... Read more

Cognitively enhanced lawyers may one day work in our courts. A recent report from The Law Society of England and Wales suggests the rapidly advancing field of neural technology could create "digitally enhanced" super-lawyers capable of focusing more keenly or accessing case law via an implant.... Read more

At the Venice International Film Festival, virtual reality is only a small part of the immersive experience. On a small island just a short water shuttle ride from the main festival headquarters on the Lido, festivalgoers can step into the metaverse. They can play games, or "world hop" with a... Read more

For all the talk about embedding computers in clothing, here's an interesting option. Make the clothing the computer, and do it without electricity.... Read more

An example of hybrid technology in its purest form has been developed and built by the Fraunhofer ILT for the DVS research project KoaxHybrid. In Aachen, the institute engineers have developed a new optical system with glass substrates and an arc torch which unites metal shielding gas (MSG) welding and... Read more

Whether in photosynthesis or in a photovoltaic system: If you want to use light efficiently, you have to absorb it as completely as possible. However, this is difficult if the absorption is to take place in a thin layer of material that normally lets a large part of the light... Read more

According to the United Nations, less than a quarter of all U.S. electronic waste gets recycled. In 2021 alone, global e-waste surged at 57.5 million tons, and only 17.4% of that was recycled.... Read more

As the world builds out ever larger installations of wind and solar power systems, the need is growing fast for economical, large-scale backup systems to provide power when the sun is down and the air is calm. Today's lithium-ion batteries are still too expensive for most such applications, and other... Read more

Making the construction of prototypes more efficient, cost-effective, faster and flexible—this will be possible with the world's largest industrial delta 3D printer. The four-meter-high machine was developed by Professor Yilmaz Uygun's research group at Jacobs University Bremen. The project exhibits promising potential for industrial application and further research and cooperation... Read more

Big scientific breakthroughs often require inventions at the smallest scale. Advances in tissue engineering that can replace hearts and lungs will require the fabrication of artificial tissues that allow for the flow of blood through passages that are no thicker than a strand of hair. Similarly, miniature softbotic (soft-robot) devices... Read more

In recent years, roboticists have developed a wide variety of robotic systems with different body structures and capabilities. Most of these robots are either made of hard materials, such as metals, or soft materials, such as silicon and rubbery materials.... Read more

Flexible electronics have enabled the design of sensors, actuators, microfluidics and electronics on flexible, conformal and/or stretchable sublayers for wearable, implantable or ingestible applications. However, these devices have very different mechanical and biological properties when compared to human tissue and thus cannot be integrated with the human body.... Read more

With the onset of the Internet of Things (IoT) era, devices have learned to communicate and exchange data. This is achieved through sensors installed in physical objects, machines, and equipment. The sensors can detect changes in events. However, the need for continuous energy supply to these sensors poses a challenge.... Read more

An invisible coating that can "fireproof" wood has been invented by scientists at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore).... Read more

A research team led by Baylor University chemists has taken a groundbreaking step forward in eliminating the exclusion of individuals with blindness from chemistry education and experiences. In an article published today in Science Advances, the researchers detail how they used lithophane—an old-fashioned art form—and 3D printing to turn scientific... Read more

Imagine being able to generate electricity by harnessing moisture in the air around you with just everyday items like sea salt and a piece of fabric, or even powering everyday electronics with a non-toxic battery that is as thin as paper. A team of researchers from the National University of... Read more