Technology

Tuochao Chen, a University of Washington doctoral student, recently toured a museum in Mexico. Chen doesn't speak Spanish, so he ran a translation app on his phone and pointed the microphone at the tour guide. But even in a museum's relative quiet, the surrounding noise was too much. The resulting... Read more

Inorganic semiconductors form the backbone of modern electronics due to their excellent physical properties, including high carrier mobility, thermal stability, and well-defined energy band structures, which enable precise control over electrical conductivity. Unfortunately, their intrinsic brittleness has traditionally required the use of costly, complex processing methods like deposition and sputtering—which... Read more

As virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies rapidly evolve, the demand for more immersive, multisensory experiences grows alongside them. Among the key frontiers is tactile feedback—the ability to physically feel the virtual world.... Read more

A team of researchers from Cornell Tech is reimagining how technology can support users with speech disabilities—not just in functional speech, but also in making real-time jokes during conversations.... Read more

Imagine concrete healing its own cracks like human skin recovering from a cut. That's the vision behind the latest research of Dr. Congrui Grace Jin, published in Materials Today Communications.... Read more

Scientists from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) and Harvard University have experimentally demonstrated that it is possible to reprogram the mechanical and structural behavior of innovative artificial materials with magnetic properties, known as metamaterials, without the need to modify their composition. This technology opens the door to innovations in... Read more

Scientists at Washington State University have found a new way to produce sugar from corn stalks and other crop waste, potentially opening a new pathway to sustainable biofuels.... Read more

Origami—the art of paper folding that originated in Japan centuries ago—could open a new frontier in innovative materials, thanks to research led at the University of Michigan.... Read more

Whether designing a window in an airliner or a cable conduit for an engine, manufacturers devote a lot of effort to reinforcing openings for structural integrity. But the reinforcement is rarely perfect and often creates structural weaknesses elsewhere.... Read more

Humans' relationships with plants is largely utilitarian, serving our needs. We generally either eat them or make things out of them.... Read more

The United Arab Emirates will introduce artificial intelligence lessons for schoolchildren of all ages, officials said, in its latest initiative to stay at the technology's forefront.... Read more

Thousands of people who are born deafblind will understand live conversations for the first time thanks to new research into smart textiles being developed by Nottingham Trent University (NTU).... Read more

For the first time, researchers can study the microstructures inside metals, ceramics and rocks with X-rays in a standard laboratory without needing to travel to a particle accelerator, according to a study led by University of Michigan engineers.... Read more

A Korean research team has developed a novel thermoelectric material and generator (TEG) that leverages sponge-like carbon nanotube (CNT) structures, improving the limitations of organic thermoelectric materials while retaining flexibility. The resulting device is expected to be useful in powering small-scale wearable sensors through thermal energy harvesting.... Read more

It's easy to solve a 3x3 Rubik's cube, says Shantanu Chakrabartty, the Clifford W. Murphy Professor and vice dean for research and graduate education in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis. Just learn and memorize the steps then execute them to arrive at the solution.... Read more

By infusing red oak with ferrihydrite using a simple, low-cost process, researchers strengthened the wood at the cellular level without adding weight or altering flexibility—offering a durable, eco-friendly alternative to steel and concrete. The treated wood retains its natural behavior but gains internal durability—paving the way for greener alternatives in... Read more

Many products in the modern world are in some way fabricated using computer numerical control (CNC) machines, which use computers to automate machine operations in manufacturing. While simple in concept, the ways to instruct these machines is, in reality, often complex.... Read more

Addressing the challenges of fragrance design, researchers at the Institute of Science Tokyo (Science Tokyo) have developed an AI model that can automate the creation of new fragrances based on user-defined scent descriptors. The model uses mass spectrometry profiles of essential oils and corresponding odor descriptors to generate essential oil... Read more

Inspired by the movements of a tiny parasitic worm, Georgia Tech engineers have created a 5-inch soft robot that can jump as high as a basketball hoop.... Read more

MIT engineers have developed a technique to grow and peel ultrathin "skins" of electronic material. The method could pave the way for new classes of electronic devices, such as ultrathin wearable sensors, flexible transistors and computing elements, and highly sensitive and compact imaging devices.... Read more

In metamaterials design, the name of the game has long been "stronger is better." Metamaterials are synthetic materials with microscopic structures that give the overall material exceptional properties. A huge focus has been on designing metamaterials that are stronger and stiffer than their conventional counterparts. But there's a trade-off: The... Read more

Researchers from the Human Computer Interaction Institute (HCII) and Robotics Institute (RI) at Carnegie Mellon University introduced a novel method for fabricating functional flat-to-shape objects using a computer-controlled sewing machine.... Read more

Colloidal quantum dots (CQDs) are tiny semiconductor particles that are just a few nanometers in size, which are synthesized in a liquid solution (i.e., colloid). These single-crystal particles, created by breaking down bulk materials via chemical and physical processes, have proved to be promising for the development of photovoltaic (PV)... Read more

Engineers have developed a building material that uses the root-like mycelium of a fungus and bacteria cells. Their results, published in Cell Reports Physical Science, show that this material—which is manufactured with living cells at low temperatures—is capable of self-repairing and could eventually offer a sustainable alternative for high-emission building... Read more

When two materials come into contact, charged entities on their surfaces get a little nudge. This is how rubbing a balloon on the skin creates static electricity. Likewise, water flowing over some surfaces can gain or lose charge.... Read more

Most energy generators currently employed within the electronics industry are based on inorganic piezoelectric materials that are not bio-compatible and contribute to the pollution of the environment on Earth. In recent years, some electronics researchers and chemical engineers have thus been trying to develop alternative devices that can generate electricity... Read more

A multidisciplinary team at the University of California, Berkeley, the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology has developed a stretchable, self-healing lithium battery that remains stable after 500 charge/discharge cycles. In their paper published in the journal Science Advances, the group describes how... Read more

Surround-sound speakers can immerse you in a multimedia experience, but what if there was a speaker that could completely re-create a three-dimensional soundscape?... Read more

Neural networks are one typical structure on which artificial intelligence can be based. The term "neural" describes their learning ability, which to some extent mimics the functioning of neurons in our brains. To be able to work, several key ingredients are required: one of them is an activation function which... Read more

A wearable system designed to assist navigation for blind and partially sighted people is presented in a study published in Nature Machine Intelligence. This system uses artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to survey the environment and send signals to the wearer as they approach an obstacle or object.... Read more

RoboCake is ready. This edible robotic cake is the result of a collaboration between researchers from EPFL (the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne), the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT-Italian Institute of Technology) and pastry chefs and food scientists from EHL in Lausanne.... Read more

Using electrodes in a fluid form, researchers at Linköping University have developed a battery that can take any shape. This soft and conformable battery can be integrated into future technology in a completely new way. Their study has been published in the journal Science Advances.... Read more

People seeking to feel fully immersed in virtual environments will soon be able to experience a revolutionary approach to spatial computing that bridges the gap between real and digital worlds. A collaborative research team from NTT DOCOMO, Inc. and Nara Institute of Science and Technology (NAIST), Japan, has developed a... Read more

A system developed at EPFL uses augmented reality (AR) to help carpenters make extremely precise timber cuts without having to measure or mark up beams. Its hybrid approach stands to make digitally assisted technology affordable for small businesses, woodworkers and construction professionals in developing countries.... Read more

Japanese companies have built what they call the world's first 3D-printed train station, a compact white curved-roof structure installed in a rural western region.... Read more

Researchers at the Institute of Visual Computing have made it possible to remove objects from live recordings of three-dimensional environments without time delay while the camera remains in motion.... Read more

When personal computers were first invented, only a small group of people who understood programming languages could use them. Today, anyone can look up the local weather, play their favorite song or even generate code with just a few keystrokes.... Read more

A new method of predicting where people lost in the wilderness may be found based on simulations of their decision-making processes could help mountain rescue teams save lives in the future.... Read more

Seafood lovers know the fatty marbling is what makes tuna sashimi and sushi so tasty, so for the industry, it's the fish's level of fattiness that's used to judge its quality and pricing.... Read more

Researchers have succeeded, for the first time, in displaying three-dimensional graphics in mid-air that can be manipulated with the hands. The team includes Doctor Elodie Bouzbib, from Public University of Navarra (UPNA), together with Iosune Sarasate, Unai Fernández, Manuel López-Amo, Iván Fernández, Iñigo Ezcurdia and Asier Marzo (the latter two,... Read more

There have been several headlines over the past week about an AI chatbot officially passing the Turing test.... Read more

A research team from the Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, along with collaborators, has introduced a novel membrane design that mimics biological protein channels to enhance proton transport for efficient energy harvesting. The study was published in the Journal of the American... Read more

Think of your most prized belongings. In an increasingly virtual world, wouldn't it be great to save a copy of that precious item and all the memories it holds?... Read more

Quantum computers are a specter for future data security because they might break many of today's encryption methods. Among other things, this will affect encrypted emails, messenger services, or online banking. Together with partners, researchers from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have developed a method that can reliably protect today's... Read more

Andrew Iams saw something strange while looking through his electron microscope. He was examining a sliver of a new aluminum alloy at the atomic scale, searching for the key to its strength, when he noticed that the atoms were arranged in an extremely unusual pattern.... Read more

Two-dimensional (2D) semiconductor materials could enable the development of smaller yet highly performing electronic components, thus contributing to the advancement of a variety of devices. While significant strides have been made in the synthesis of 2D semiconductors with advanced electronic properties, their clean transfer onto substrates and reliable integration in... Read more

Artificial intelligence is set to bring sweeping change to modern life, but at an industrial fair in Germany many companies wonder how they fit into the tech revolution.... Read more

A team of Penn State researchers has used a new 3D-printing method to produce a complex metal build that was once only possible with welding: fusing two metals together into a single structure.... Read more

Extended reality makes it possible to artificially modify human sensations. For example, researchers have succeeded in using extended reality to make vegetarian food even more attractive.... Read more

Scientists said Wednesday they have developed the world's tiniest pacemaker, a temporary heartbeat regulator smaller than a grain of rice that can be injected and controlled by light before dissolving.... Read more