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Automotive

Tesla's Cybercab: Elon Musk unveils robotaxi, pledges it 'before 2027'

Elon Musk on Thursday unveiled what he said was a robotaxi capable of self-driving, predicting it would be available by 2027—about a decade after he first promised an autonomous vehicle.

Engineering

Dragonfly wing pattern reinforces vaults and domes better than ancient Roman and tech-generated methods

Skoltech researchers and their colleagues from the University of Granada, Spain, have determined the most efficient ways to reinforce vaults and domes in architecture. The team compared how well various traditional and unconventional ...

Computer Sciences

AI-powered software narrates surroundings for visually impaired in real time

A world of color and texture could soon become more accessible to people who are blind or have low vision, via new software that narrates what a camera records.

Engineering

Hypersaline brine produced by fracking has left us in a pickle, but new process could help dry it up

Seemingly miraculous innovations have made it possible to slake the ever-growing thirsts of our industrial society. Need more energy? Frack it from deep-bedded rocks. Fresh water? Desalinate ocean flows. Precious metals? ...

Engineering

Have researchers found the best semiconductor of them all?

Silicon is one of the most abundant elements on Earth, and in its pure form the material has become the foundation of much of modern technology, from solar cells to computer chips. But silicon's properties as a semiconductor ...

Robotics

Underwater robot connects humans' sight and touch to deep sea

As the underwater robot OceanOneK carefully navigated toward the upper deck railing of the sunken Italian steamship Le Francesco Crispi about 500 m below the Mediterranean's surface this month (roughly a third of a mile), ...

Energy & Green Tech

All-in-one solar-powered tower makes carbon-neutral jet fuel

Researchers have designed a fuel production system that uses water, carbon dioxide (CO2), and sunlight to produce aviation fuel. They have implemented the system in the field, and the design, publishing July 20 in the journal ...

Engineering

Silk offers alternative to some microplastics

Microplastics, tiny particles of plastic that are now found worldwide in the air, water, and soil, are increasingly recognized as a serious pollution threat, and have been found in the bloodstream of animals and people around ...

Consumer & Gadgets

Wearable device uses sonar to reconstruct facial expressions

Cornell researchers have developed a wearable earphone device—or "earable"—that bounces sound off the cheeks and transforms the echoes into an avatar of a person's entire moving face, utilizing acoustic technology to ...

Robotics

Robot dog learns to walk in one hour

A newborn giraffe or foal must learn to walk on its legs as fast as possible to avoid predators. Animals are born with muscle coordination networks located in their spinal cord. However, learning the precise coordination ...

Engineering

New type of semiconductor may advance low-energy electronics

A research partnership between Penn State and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) could enable an improved method to make a new type of semiconductor that is a few atoms thin and interacts with light in an unusual ...