Hi-Tech News

Origami, the traditional Japanese art of paper folding, has received considerable attention in engineering. By applying paper-folding principles, researchers have created compact structures that are flexible, lightweight, and reconfigurable across aerospace, medicine, and robotics.... Read more

An international research team has demonstrated how conventional radiative cooling coatings can be optimized to further reduce building surface temperatures, cutting energy consumption, while also improving fire safety.... Read more

Researchers have developed a solar cell system that uses mirrors to concentrate solar energy. In addition to electricity, it produces heat for a plant that will capture carbon from industrial emissions. The solar cells in the large pilot plant are a full 5 meters high and consist of many mirrors... Read more

Thousands of years from now, what will remain of our digital era? The ever-growing vastness of human knowledge is no longer stored in libraries, but on hard drives that struggle to last decades, let alone millennia.... Read more

From tracking the trajectory and speed of a footballer's strike to monitoring a Tour de France rider's real-time power output, performance athlete data is deepening its reach in sports, with specialized firms eyeing to score big business.... Read more

Farmer Bir Virk tapped the iPad mounted beside his tractor's steering wheel and switched the vehicle to automatic mode. The machine moved forward and began harvesting potatoes on its own in the fields of Karnal, a city in northern India.... Read more

The days of dropping a thermal imaging camera and replacing an expensive lens are coming to an end with a new repairable lens developed by Flinders University scientists. The high-performance lens for infrared cameras invented by Flinders researchers is emerging as a lower cost, more sustainable option for industries which... Read more

Up to now, it has only been possible to deduce indirectly why high-temperature batteries lose efficiency and durability while in use. For the first time, a team from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) has now used operando X-ray radiography to look directly into a sodium-zinc molten salt battery at approximately 600... Read more

As researchers around the world race toward the realization of 6G wireless communication systems, the need for antennas that can dynamically adapt to ever-changing signal environments has never been greater. A key requirement of 6G is intelligent beam control, which enables signals to be steered, shaped, and optimized in real... Read more

High-altitude flight is getting increasing attention from sectors ranging from telecommunications to emergency response. To make that airspace more accessible, NASA is developing an air traffic management system covering those altitudes and supplementing its work with real-time data from a research balloon in Earth's stratosphere.... Read more

Researchers at McGill University have improved the efficiency of a method for converting human urine into clean energy. The method employs microbial fuel cells (MFCs), which use bacteria to turn organic waste into electricity, providing a sustainable and low-cost means of treating wastewater while generating energy from an abundant source.... Read more

High-speed 3D printing has just gotten a lot faster. Researchers from Tsinghua University in China have developed a new high-speed printing technology capable of creating complex millimeter-scale objects in just 0.6 seconds. Traditional 3D printing is often slow because it builds objects one thin layer at a time. While a... Read more

In the frantic hours following an offshore oil spill, emergency responders face a destructive decision: let the oil spread or ignite it. Once ignited, it creates an "in-situ" fire pool that stops the oil from spreading and poisoning marine ecosystems—but it comes at a heavy cost. Thick, black smoke billows... Read more

Fiber batteries are an emerging technology which could one day be used to create smart clothing with a wide array of functions, from charging electronic devices to acting as wearable controllers. However, a new study finds scientists have two major obstacles to overcome before the technology is ready for practical... Read more

At first glance, few materials would seem to have less in common than metals and textiles. And yet, by manufacturing nickel-titanium alloys as a highly deformable, interwoven material, more similar to fabric than a typical metal component, researchers from IMDEA Materials Institute and the Technical University of Madrid (UPM) have... Read more