A few years ago, researchers in Michal Lipson’s Columbia Engineering lab noticed something remarkable. They were working on a project to design high-power chips that could...
University of Houston researchers have made a groundbreaking discovery in thermal conductivity, overturning an existing theory that boron arsenide (BAs) couldn’t compete with...
Soft robots, medical devices and implants, and next-generation drug delivery methods could soon be guided with magnetism — thanks to a metal-free magnetic gel developed by researchers at the University of Michigan and the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart, Germany. Read on to learn more about it.
From sorting objects in a warehouse to navigating furniture while vacuuming, robots today use sensors, software control systems, and moving parts to perform tasks. The harder the task or more complex the...
Transistors, the building blocks of modern electronics, are typically made of silicon. Because it’s a semiconductor, this material can control the flow of electricity in a...
A research team led by physicists Ming Yi and Emilia Morosan from Rice University has developed a new material with unique electronic properties that could enable more powerful and...
Animals like bats, whales, and insects have long used acoustic signals for communication and navigation. Now, an international team of scientists have taken a page from nature’s playbook to model micro-sized robots that use sound waves to coordinate into large swarms that exhibit intelligent-like behavior. Read on to learn more.
A team of engineers has developed a low-cost, durable, highly-sensitive robotic ‘skin’ that can be added to robotic hands like a glove, enabling robots to detect information about their surroundings in a way that’s similar to humans. Read on to learn more.
Researchers from the College of Engineering and Computer Science at Florida Atlantic University have proposed a design for an alternative, autonomous observational method, which holds promise for improving the autonomy of marine vehicles, aiding in maritime missions, and gaining a deeper understanding of how melting Arctic sea ice affects marine ecosystems. Read on to learn more.
Plans are underway to create more powerful particle accelerators, whose collisions will unleash large subatomic storms. How will researchers sift through the chaos? Read on to find out.
Between 50 and 100 kilometers (30-60 miles) above Earth’s surface lies a largely unstudied stretch of the atmosphere, called the mesosphere. It’s too high for airplanes and weather balloons,...
A new study explains how tiny water bugs use fan-like propellers to zip across streams at speeds up to 120 body lengths per second. The researchers then created...
In the quest for energy independence, researchers have studied solar thermoelectric generators (STEGs) as a promising source of solar electricity generation. Unlike the...
Innovators at NASA Johnson Space Center have developed a thin film sensor that measures temperatures up to 1200 °F, and whose prototype successor may achieve measurements up to ~3000 °F — which was the surface temperature of the Space Shuttle during its atmospheric reentry. Read on to learn more.
A research team led by scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has developed a new fabrication technique that could improve noise robustness in superconducting qubits, a key technology for enabling large-scale quantum computers. Read on to learn more.
See the products of tomorrow, including a new tunable laser that uses a series of rings to smoothly emit many light wavelengths from a single chip; a smart capsule called PillTrek, which can measure pH, temperature, and a variety of different biomarkers; and more.
A new study introduces a novel way to reach a largely unstudied stretch of the atmosphere, between 30-60 miles above Earth’s surface, the mesosphere. Researchers have introduced a new way to explore it: lightweight flying structures that can float using nothing but sunlight.
How can a horde of active robots be automatically brought to a standstill? By arresting their dynamics in a self-sustained way. This phenomenon was discovered by physicists at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU)...
Marine scientists have long marveled at how animals like fish and seals swim so efficiently despite having different shapes. Their bodies are optimized for efficient, hydrodynamic aquatic...
Johns Hopkins University researchers have grown a novel whole-brain organoid, complete with neural tissues and rudimentary blood vessels — an advance that could usher in a new era of research into neuropsychiatric disorders such as autism.
Professor Ashif Iquebal together with Professor Aviral Shrivastava and their team at Arizona State University are developing methods for improving the quality of highly critical metal parts manufactured using 3D printing.
The driverless robotaxis chauffeuring around San Francisco, and the advanced driver assistance features on more than half of new vehicles sold this year show just...
As electronics become smaller, it is becoming increasingly difficult to continue scaling down silicon-based transistors. Now, a research team led by the Institute of Industrial...
A new class of synthetic materials could herald the next revolution of wireless technologies, enabling devices to be smaller, require less signal strength and use less power.
Using a new technology, Juan-Pablo Correa-Baena's lab has found a way to stabilize perovskite solar cells, which are built like a battery. Read on to learn more.
Engineers from Australia and China have invented a sponge-like device that captures water from thin air and then releases it in a cup using the sun’s energy, even in low humidity where other technologies such as fog harvesting and radiative cooling have struggled. Read on to learn more.
