Hi-Tech News

Robotics and wearable devices might soon get a little smarter with the addition of a stretchy, wearable synaptic transistor developed by Penn State engineers. The device works like neurons in the brain to send signals to some cells and inhibit others in order to enhance and weaken the devices' memories.... Read more

The little aircraft appeared out of the blue sky above a Texas home, deposited its payload of a mid-morning snack in the yard and zoomed off, as deliveries by drone start becoming a reality in America.... Read more

In the future, many computers will most likely be based on electronic circuits made of superconductors. These are materials through which an electrical current can flow without energy losses, could be very promising for the development of high-performance supercomputers and quantum computers.... Read more

Scientists estimate that more than 95 percent of Earth's oceans have never been observed, which means we have seen less of our planet's ocean than we have the far side of the moon or the surface of Mars.... Read more

Imagine this: Clothing that charges your smart watch as you walk, buildings that vibrate in the wind and power your lights, a road that extracts energy from the friction created by moving cars, and flexible structures that change shape in ocean waves to generate clean electricity for communities around the... Read more

Imperial researchers have embedded new low-cost sensors that monitor breathing, heart rate, and ammonia into t-shirts and face masks.... Read more

For airliners, cargo ships, nuclear power plants and other critical technologies, strength and durability are essential. This is why many contain a remarkably strong and corrosion-resistant alloy called 17-4 precipitation hardening (PH) stainless steel. Now, for the first time ever, 17-4 PH steel can be consistently 3D-printed while retaining its... Read more

Cornell University researchers have installed electronic "brains" on solar-powered robots that are 100 to 250 micrometers in size—smaller than an ant's head—so that they can walk autonomously without being externally controlled.... Read more

Engineers at Duke University have developed a scalable soft surface that can continuously reshape itself to mimic objects in nature. Relying on electromagnetic actuation, mechanical modeling and machine learning to form new configurations, the surface can even learn to adapt to hindrances such as broken elements, unexpected constraints or changing... Read more

How do you find novel materials with very specific properties—for example, special electronic properties which are needed for quantum computers? This is usually a very complicated task: various compounds are created, in which potentially promising atoms are arranged in certain crystal structures, and then the material is examined, for example... Read more

Many state-of-the-art technologies work at incredibly low temperatures. Superconducting microprocessors and quantum computers promise to revolutionize computation, but scientists need to keep them just above absolute zero (–459.67° Fahrenheit) to protect their delicate states. Still, ultra-cold components have to interface with room temperature systems, providing both a challenge and an... Read more

Pouring layers of concrete like rows of toothpaste, an industrial-sized 3D printer this week continued adding a second floor to a Houston home that will be the first multistory printed structure in the United States.... Read more

To survive in extreme habitats, many animals and plants have developed brilliant abilities that we otherwise only know from superheroes in movies. In most cases, their abilities are based on the extraordinary properties of their surfaces. Mimicking these properties offers enormous potential in the engineering field for developing new products... Read more

An ultrathin invention could make future computing, sensing and encryption technologies remarkably smaller and more powerful by helping scientists control a strange but useful phenomenon of quantum mechanics, according to new research recently published in the journal Science.... Read more

Lasers have become a major part of our day-to-day lives.... Read more