Hi Tech & Innovation news

Engineering

New design tool 3D-prints woven metamaterials that stretch and fail predictably

Metamaterials—materials whose properties are primarily dictated by their internal microstructure, and not their chemical makeup—have been redefining the engineering materials space for the last decade. To date, however, ...

Energy & Green Tech

Fungi turn shredded mattress foam into lightweight building insulation

Swinburne researchers have turned old, unwanted mattresses into safe and sustainable building insulation materials using fungi. The team grew a common fungus together with shredded mattress foam to create a new material that ...

Engineering

Octopus-inspired 'smart skin' uses 4D printing to morph on cue

Despite the prevalence of synthetic materials across different industries and scientific fields, most are developed to serve a limited set of functions. To address this inflexibility, researchers at Penn State, led by Hongtao ...

Energy & Green Tech

Oxygen-modified graphene filters boost natural gas purification

As we shift toward more sustainable fuels, natural gas and biogas, which mainly contain methane (CH4), have become important sources of energy and raw materials for chemical production. However, these gases also contain impurities ...

Hi Tech & Innovation

New AI system fixes 3D printing defects in real time

Additive manufacturing has revolutionized manufacturing by enabling customized, cost-effective products with minimal waste. However, with the majority of 3D printers operating on open-loop systems, they are notoriously prone ...

Energy & Green Tech

Electric eel biology inspires powerful gel battery

Power sources used in devices found in or around biological tissue must be flexible and nontoxic, while still powerful enough to support demanding technologies such as medical devices or soft robotics. To achieve this balance, ...

Energy & Green Tech

Thin biofilm can transform CO₂ into renewable energy

NIBIO has contributed to developing a method for turning greenhouse gases like CO2 or CO into biomethane—a renewable energy source. Using thin layers of microorganisms, so-called biofilms, greenhouse gases can be transformed ...

Electronics & Semiconductors

Light-sensitive materials mimic synapses in the brain

An interdisciplinary research team has engineered a new class of organic photoelectrochemical transistors (OPECTs). These tiny devices can convert light into electrical signals and mimic the behavior of synapses in the brain. ...

Hi Tech & Innovation

Turning gestures into speech for people with limited communication

Communication is a fundamental human right, and many individuals need augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) approaches or tools, such as a notebook or electronic tablet with symbols the user can select to create ...

Engineering

After 250 years, Mount Vesuvius artwork erupts into life

A mechanical artwork designed in 1775 to depict the eruption of Italy's Mount Vesuvius has been brought to life for the first time—250 years after it was conceived—thanks to modern technology and the ingenuity of two ...

Telecom

Engineers develop a satellite-based navigation system for divers

Up to now, underwater navigation for divers has been limited primarily to orientation at distinctive points or compass navigation. Although there are concepts that, similar to a sonar, are intended to enable position determination ...

Electronics & Semiconductors

Metal-free supercapacitor stack delivers 200 volts from just 3.8 cm³

Researchers at Guangdong University of Technology have developed a new method to build powerful, compact energy storage devices—called thin-film supercapacitors (TFSCs)—without using metal parts or traditional separators. ...