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, ...

Electronics & Semiconductors

Extending optical fiber's ultralow loss performance to photonic chips

Caltech scientists have developed a way to guide light on silicon wafers with low signal loss approaching that of optical fiber at visible wavelengths. This accomplishment paves the way for a new generation of ultra-coherent ...

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, ...

Engineering

Engineers fortify wood with eco-friendly nano-iron

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 ...

Hi Tech & Innovation

Generative AI masters the art of scent creation

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. ...

Electronics & Semiconductors

New electronic 'skin' could enable lightweight night-vision glasses

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 ...

Engineering

Transforming flat-to-shape objects using sewing technology

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 ...

Energy & Green Tech

A step toward harnessing clean energy from falling rainwater

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 ...

Engineering

Wearable AI system helps blind people navigate

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 ...