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Robotics
FingerEye bridges touch and vision to improve robot handling before and after contact
To reliably complete various manual tasks, robots should be able to handle a variety of objects, ranging from items found in households to tools used in specific professional settings. While many existing robotic systems ...
13 hours ago
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Energy & Green Tech
Computer-designed thermoelectric generator achieves more than 8-fold improvement in efficiency
A thermoelectric generator with a shape that no human designer would likely have imagined has now been created by a computer—and it performs more than eight times better than conventional designs. Rather than relying on intuition ...
10 hours ago
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A solar cell moonlights as an LED, both absorbing and emitting light more efficiently
Imagine a display that harvests ambient light when it is not actively in use, offsetting some of its own energy consumption. Materials physics shows that this is possible; the same semiconductor material can, in principle, ...
10 hours ago
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Molecular interface tweak unlocks more reliable perovskite solar cells, challenging common assumption
Perovskite solar cells are a rapidly advancing photovoltaic technology that has seen a dramatic rise in power conversion efficiency in recent years. A key driver of this progress is the use of molecular charge-selective contacts—ultrathin ...
11 hours ago
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Robotically assembled building blocks could make construction more efficient and sustainable
Robotically assembled building blocks could be a more environmentally friendly method for erecting large-scale structures than some existing construction techniques, according to a new study by MIT researchers published in ...
12 hours ago
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Energy & Green Tech
Solar photoreforming turns plastic waste into clean fuel at low temperatures
Scientists are advancing a promising solution to two of the world's biggest challenges—plastic pollution and clean energy—by transforming waste plastics into valuable fuels using sunlight.
16 hours ago
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Consumer & Gadgets
Meta-earplugs reduce booming voice effect, low-frequency rumbling sounds
Workplace hearing loss is one of the most common work-related illnesses. While hearing loss is preventable with earplugs, they can be uncomfortable, and users often remove them despite the risks. Low-frequency sounds, such ...
16 hours ago
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Technology news
Business
Agentic AI threatens research funding system
In a new analysis, two UCL researchers argue that the present system used to allocate billions in research funding was designed for a world without AI agents and may no longer be fit for that purpose.
17 hours ago
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Robotics
Bananas, cups and peelers: Robots learn how to handle curved objects like fruits and tools
It does not take much to confuse some robots. A machine might be great at handling a simple object like a box, yet when it tries to work with a more irregular shape like a banana, it often fails.
Electronics & Semiconductors
No batteries, just body heat: Demonstrating the potential of battery-free sensing
As devices for wireless sensing systems become smaller and more complex, finding suitable power sources for them is becoming increasingly difficult. However, advances in low-power sensing technology may allow such systems ...
Apr 27, 2026
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Engineering
A faster, greener method to recycle lithium-ion batteries can also ease supply chain issues
As global demand for lithium-ion batteries continues to surge, a team of Rice University researchers has developed a faster, more energy-efficient way to recover critical minerals from spent batteries, potentially easing ...
Apr 27, 2026
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Engineering
Motion-enhanced sensor captures ultra-high-resolution images, overcoming a pixel miniaturization bottleneck
Digital image sensors (DIS), devices that capture images by converting light patterns into electrical signals, are integrated in many contemporary electronic devices, including smartphones, digital cameras and some medical ...
Electronics & Semiconductors
Next-gen semiconductors that share life's handedness just got more practical
A University at Buffalo-led team has found a way to help chiral semiconductors, electronic materials whose structures are left- or right-handed like many of life's building blocks, absorb visible light. In a study published ...
Apr 27, 2026
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Consumer & Gadgets
Are you addicted to your AI chatbot? It might be by design
AI chatbots can grant almost any request—a celebrity in love with you, a research assistant, a book character sprung to life—instantly and with little effort. New research presented at the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors ...
Apr 27, 2026
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Electronics & Semiconductors
Video: Electrical control of a metal-mediated DNA memory
DNA stores our genetic code. What if it could also be integrated with electronics to store and read other information? Scientists have been investigating how to store data in DNA, but retrieving the information remains a ...
Apr 27, 2026
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Robotics
How fish muscles became blueprints for smarter underwater robots
Researchers at the Intelligent Biomimetic Design Lab at Peking University have developed a bio-signal framework showing that fish muscles do far more than generate swimming motion. In a series of studies led by Xie Guangming, ...
Apr 27, 2026
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Energy & Green Tech
AI's power bill just got easier to predict before the next data center surge
Due to the explosive growth of artificial intelligence, it is estimated that data centers will consume up to 12% of total U.S. electricity by 2028, according to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Improving data center ...
Apr 27, 2026
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