Hi Tech & Innovation news

Hi Tech & Innovation

Inspired by how children learn, new AI framework learns to theorize the world from observations

A KAIST research team has developed a next-generation world model, an internal model an AI builds to understand and predict the world, that learns executable theories from observation alone.

Hi Tech & Innovation

AI-powered method enables instant ultrasound imaging with a single fixed sensor

IMDEA Materials Institute has developed an acoustic imaging method that overcomes some of the fundamental limitations of technologies like ultrasound imaging.

Consumer & Gadgets

Wearable patch vibrates when it detects environmental hazards

Researchers have created a wearable patch that can detect hazards in the environment—such as dangerous gases or heavy metals in water—and then notify wearers by vibrating against their skin. The researchers have also extended ...

Engineering

Scientists demonstrate dual-use laser system for power beaming and counter-UAS operations

U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) scientists successfully demonstrated a dual-use laser system capable of wirelessly transmitting power over long distances and rapidly transitioning to defensive missions, advancing expeditionary ...

Hi Tech & Innovation

For the birds: Parakeet co-designs its own perch

Shiso, a ring-necked parakeet, can't speak English, but she knows how to make her preferences known. She has screaming fights with the dogs and cats in her household, snorts for attention and food, and perches on her human ...

Energy & Green Tech

Elephant-inspired cement tiles cool buildings without electricity

Inspired by the cracked, water-trapping skin of elephants, Penn researchers have developed a low-cost cement tile that cools buildings by capturing and slowly evaporating water—turning a structural flaw into a climate solution.

Engineering

Mechanical engineers develop buttons that rise with light

No wires. No actuators. Shine light on the metal surface, and it rises like a button. KAIST researchers have developed a metal structure that changes shape using light, without any light-absorbing coating. This technology ...

Robotics

Honeybees teach drones how to navigate

It sounds like science fiction, but also strangely familiar: drones buzzing around, inspecting tomatoes in greenhouses, delivering your package or inspecting an industrial site. With all the talk about drone-swarms, development ...

Energy & Green Tech

The ionic path to all-solid-state batteries

Carbon neutrality may come in the form of a battery. All-solid-state batteries (ASSBs) are gaining traction in the energy and electric vehicle industries as potentially safer alternatives to the standard, flammable liquid ...

Energy & Green Tech

Copper cold plates could slash data-center energy usage

Mechanical engineers have designed a more effective and energy-efficient technology for cooling computer chips. Published in Cell Reports Physical Science, the researchers used a mathematical algorithm and advanced 3D printing ...

Engineering

Scientists program materials just by spinning them

There is something universally appealing about the slap bracelet, and the way a simple tap causes it to switch between a straight shape and a curled one. What you probably didn't know is that a slap bracelet's satisfying ...

Engineering

Move over cassette tapes, adhesive tape has memory too

Materials can store information about their past—like a crease in a piece of paper that has been unfolded is a "memory" of being folded—that can be retrieved or read out and used for various purposes. In everyday life, combination ...

Engineering

Hidden math link helps designers build fantastic shapes

Termite mounds are remarkable structures that regulate temperature, balance airflow, and maintain structural stability in some of Earth's harshest climates. And like other irregular, disordered systems, they can be difficult ...