Technology
press releases.

Technology18 Oct 2023

Google Quantum AI and Stanford University researchers use measurements to generate quantum entanglement and teleportation

Quantum mechanics is full of weird phenomena, but perhaps none as weird as the role measurement plays in the theory. Since a measurement tends to destroy the “quantumness” of a system, it seems to be the mysterious link between the quantum and classical world. And in a large system of quantum bits of information, known as “qubits,” the effect of measurements can induce dramatically new behavior, even driving the emergence of entirely new phases of quantum information. This happens when two competing effects come to a head: interactions and measurement. In a quantum system, when the qubits interact ...

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Technology18 Oct 2023

Association of antepartum and postpartum air pollution exposure with postpartum depression in southern California

About The Study: The findings of this study including 340,000 pregnant women suggest that long-term exposure to antepartum and postpartum air pollution was associated with higher postpartum depression risks. Identifying the modifiable environmental risk factors and developing interventions are important public health issues to improve maternal mental health and alleviate the disease burden of postpartum depression. Authors: Jun Wu, Ph.D., of the University of California, Irvine, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link ...

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Technology18 Oct 2023

Wearable device makes memories and powers up with the flex of a finger

Researchers have invented an experimental wearable device that generates power from a user’s bending finger and can create and store memories, in a promising step towards health monitoring and other technologies. The innovation features a single nanomaterial incorporated into a stretchable casing fitted to a person’s finger. The nanomaterial enabled the device to generate power with the user bending their finger. The super-thin material also allows the device to perform memory tasks, as outlined below. Multifunctional devices normally require several materials in layers, which involves the time-consuming challenge of stacking nanomaterials with high precision. The team, led ...

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Technology18 Oct 2023

Graz University of Technology study on e-scooter accidents: more helmets and less speed reduce the injury risk

The use of e-scooters has increased significantly in recent years, but so has the number of accidents involving this relatively new form of transport. At the same time, knowledge about injury mechanisms in this area was still very limited. In the project SURF, funded by Zukunftsfonds Steiermark, the Vehicle Safety Institute at Graz University of Technology (TU Graz) investigated this topic using Human Body Models and derived recommendations to reduce the injury risk in e-scooter accidents. Put on a helmet, decrease speed and get off the pavement As ...

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Technology18 Oct 2023

Do humans get lazier when robots help with tasks?

Now that improvements in technology mean that some robots work alongside humans, there is evidence that those humans have learned to see them as team-mates — and teamwork can have negative as well as positive effects on people’s performance. People sometimes relax, letting their colleagues do the work instead. This is called ‘social loafing’, and it’s common where people know their contribution won’t be noticed or they’ve acclimatized to another team member’s high performance. Scientists at the Technical University of Berlin investigated whether humans social loaf when they work with robots. “Teamwork ...

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Technology18 Oct 2023

New specimen collection system enhances assisted reproductive technologies

New Specimen Collection System Enhances Assisted Reproductive Technologies Considered an experimental procedure during the late 1970s when it made headlines with each birth it produced, in vitro fertilization (IVF) has helped many couples overcome infertility issues for more than four decades. In several nations, IVF is responsible for up to 3% of the babies born. The procedure, now a cornerstone of infertility treatments, has expanded to include other assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs). One of those ARTs, known as intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), involves using a microscopic needle to inject a single sperm into an egg. Though ...

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Technology17 Oct 2023

Q&A: Researchers aim to improve accessibility with augmented reality

Big Tech’s race into augmented reality (AR) grows more competitive by the day. This month, Meta released the latest iteration of its headset, the Quest 3. Early next year, Apple plans to drop its first headset, the Vision Pro. The announcements for each platform emphasize games and entertainment that merge the virtual and physical worlds: a digital board game imposed on a coffee table, a movie screen projected above airplane seats. Some researchers, though, are more curious about other uses for AR. The University of Washington’s Makeability Lab is applying these budding technologies to assist people with disabilities. This month, ...

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Technology17 Oct 2023

New technique helps robots pack objects into a tight space

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Anyone who has ever tried to pack a family-sized amount of luggage into a sedan-sized trunk knows this is a hard problem. Robots struggle with dense packing tasks, too. For the robot, solving the packing problem involves satisfying many constraints, such as stacking luggage so suitcases don’t topple out of the trunk, heavy objects aren’t placed on top of lighter ones, and collisions between the robotic arm and the car’s bumper are avoided. Some traditional methods tackle this problem sequentially, guessing a partial solution ...

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Technology17 Oct 2023

Human Lung Chip leveraged to faithfully model radiation-induced lung injury

By Benjamin Boettner (Boston) — The lung is one of the tissues most sensitive to radiation in the human body. People exposed to high radiation doses following nuclear incidents develop radiation-induced lung injury (RILI), which affects the function of many cell types in the lung, causing acute and sustained inflammation, and in the longer term, the thickening and scarring of lung tissue known as fibrosis. RILI also is a common side effect of radiation therapy administered to cancer patients to kill malignant cells in their bodies, and can limit the maximum radiation dose doctors can use to control their ...

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Technology17 Oct 2023

AI models identify biodiversity from animal sounds in tropical rainforests

Tropical forests are among the most important habitats on our planet. They are characterised by extremely high species diversity and play an eminent role in the global carbon cycle and the world climate. However, many tropical forest areas have been deforested and overexploitation continues day by day. Reforested areas in the tropics are therefore becoming increasingly important for the climate and biodiversity. How well biodiversity develops on such areas can be monitored very well with an automated analysis of animal sounds. This was reported by researchers in the journal Nature Communications. Recordings on Former Cocoa Plantations and Pastures As part of the DFG research group ...

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Technology17 Oct 2023

SwRI will advance impact modeling software for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

SAN ANTONIO — October 17, 2023 —Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) will continue advancing the Elastic Plastic Impact Computations (EPIC) dynamic finite-element code as part of an Other Transaction Prototype Agreement with the U.S Army Corps of Engineers. The first year’s funding of $500,000 has been awarded, with optional additional funding across the next three years totaling $3.5 million. “EPIC uses finite element and particle methods to simulate complex impact and explosion scenarios,” said SwRI Staff Engineer Dr. Stephen Beissel, who leads the EPIC project and has been involved in EPIC’s development since the mid-1990s. ...

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Technology17 Oct 2023

Unlocking nature's silent conversations: Real-time visualization of plant-plant communications through airborne volatiles

Saitama, Japan: Plants emit volatile organic compounds (VOCs) into the atmosphere upon mechanical damages or insect attacks. Undamaged neighboring plants sense the released VOCs as danger cues to activate defense responses against upcoming threats (Figure 1). This phenomenon of airborne communication among plants through VOCs was first documented in 1983 and has since been observed in more than 30 different plant species. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying VOC perception to defense induction remain unclear. Unveiling the Invisible Conversation The ...

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Technology17 Oct 2023

Virtual reality helps people with hoarding disorder practice decluttering

Many people who dream of an organized, uncluttered home à la Marie Kondo find it hard to decide what to keep and what to let go. But for those with hoarding disorder — a mental condition estimated to affect 2.5% of the U.S. population — the reluctance to let go can reach dangerous and debilitating levels. Now, a pilot study by Stanford Medicine researchers suggests that a virtual reality therapy that allows those with hoarding disorder to rehearse relinquishing possessions in a simulation of their own home could help them declutter ...

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Technology16 Oct 2023

Argonne to receive new funding to develop quantum networks

Quantum networks hold enormous potential for groundbreaking advances in many areas of science and technology. Once this technology matures, it is expected to be an essential component of quantum computing. It could have the equivalent impact as the internet has had on digital communication. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced that three collaborative projects in quantum networking will receive $24 million for up to three years. The DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory will ...

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Technology16 Oct 2023

Hillman grant for Penn Nursing professor to study virtual reality & loneliness

PHILADELPHIA (October 16, 2023) – Penn Nursing, with partners from the Annenberg Virtual Reality ColLABorative and New York University’s Rory Meyers College of Nursing, have been awarded 2023 grant from the Hillman Emergent Innovation: Serious Illness and End of Life program to study the use of social virtual reality (VR) in enhancing the treatment experience and reducing loneliness in people undergoing hemodialysis. This grant is awarded by The Rita and Alex Hillman Foundation. Hemodialysis is a life-saving treatment for people experiencing ...

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Technology16 Oct 2023

The new robot is taking its first intuitive steps

When walking on the sidewalk, a person is able to avoid puddles, other walkers, and cracks in the pavement. It may seem intuitive – and that's because it is. There’s actually a biological component that allows humans and other mammals to navigate our complex environments. Central Pattern Generators (CPG) are neural networks that produce rhythmic patterns of control signals for limbs using simple environmental cues. When we quickly step away to avoid something blocking our path, that’s ...

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Technology16 Oct 2023

New polymer membranes, AI predictions could dramatically reduce energy, water use in oil refining

A new kind of polymer membrane created by researchers at Georgia Tech could reshape how refineries process crude oil, dramatically reducing the energy and water required while extracting even more useful materials. The so-called DUCKY polymers — more on the unusual name in a minute — are reported Oct. 16 in Nature Materials. And they’re just the beginning for the team of Georgia Tech chemists, chemical engineers, and materials scientists. They also have created artificial intelligence tools to predict the performance of these kinds of polymer membranes, which could accelerate development of new ones. The implications are stark: ...

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Technology16 Oct 2023

Leaders in resuscitation science, education and technology commit to 1 million more lives saved each year by 2030

DALLAS and STAVANGER, Norway, October 16, 2023 — For nearly 20 years, the American Heart Association® (Association) and Laerdal Medical (Laerdal) have together developed and brought resuscitation education, training and technology to the health care market. The Association and Laerdal will now expand their focus beyond education to creating and nurturing health care quality improvement solutions to impact a community “systems of care” approach and influence more positive patient outcomes. This World Restart a Heart Day, the organizations are furthering their collaborative relationship ...

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Technology16 Oct 2023

Study: Deep neural networks don’t see the world the way we do

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Human sensory systems are very good at recognizing objects that we see or words that we hear, even if the object is upside down or the word is spoken by a voice we’ve never heard. Computational models known as deep neural networks can be trained to do the same thing, correctly identifying an image of a dog regardless of what color its fur is, or a word regardless of the pitch of the speaker’s voice. However, a new study from MIT neuroscientists has found that these models often also respond the same way to images or words that have no resemblance to the target. When these neural networks were used to generate an image ...

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Technology16 Oct 2023

UK needs AI legislation to create trust so companies can ‘plug AI into British economy’ – report

UK will struggle to build new AI models that compete with ChatGPT and big US tech firms, despite the government's “Frontier AI Taskforce”, say researchers. To boost the economy, UK should focus on developing products that apply “generative AI” to daily life, including tax breaks for businesses investing in AI skills. Legislation regulating AI safety and transparency is needed, so British industry and education can confidently put time and resource into AI development. The British government should offer tax breaks for businesses developing AI-powered products and services, or applying AI ...

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Technology13 Oct 2023

Researchers measure global consensus over the ethical use of AI

To examine the global state of AI ethics, a team of researchers from Brazil performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of global guidelines for AI use. Publishing October 13 in in the journal Patterns, the researchers found that, while most of the guidelines valued privacy, transparency, and accountability, very few valued truthfulness, intellectual property, or children’s rights. Additionally, most of the guidelines described ethical principles and values without proposing practical methods for implementing them and without pushing for legally binding regulation. “Establishing clear ethical guidelines and governance structures for the deployment ...

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Technology12 Oct 2023

AI just got 100-fold more energy efficient

AI is so energy hungry that most data analysis must be performed in the cloud New energy-efficient device enables AI tasks to be performed within wearables This allows real-time analysis and diagnostics for faster medical interventions Researchers tested the device by classifying 10,000 electrocardiogram samples The device successfully identified six types of heart beats with 95% accuracy EVANSTON, Ill. — Forget the cloud. Northwestern University engineers have developed a new nanoelectronic device that can perform accurate machine-learning classification tasks in the most energy-efficient ...

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Technology12 Oct 2023

NIH research program All of Us establishes CU Anschutz-led Center aimed at better utilizing data

AURORA, Colo. (October 12, 2023) – The National Institutes of Health’s All of Us Research Program has awarded $30 million to the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and its partners to establish the Center for Linkage and Acquisition of Data (CLAD). The All of Us Research Program is a historic effort to enroll at least 1 million people who reflect the diversity of the United States. Providing researchers with the data will help drive new discoveries and advance precision medicine. “This is ...

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Technology12 Oct 2023

The advantage of digital-native brands setting up physical brand stores—and the challenge of preventing sales losses in existing channels

Researchers from Erasmus School of Economics at Erasmus University Rotterdam, KU Leuven, Universität zu Lübeck, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, and FoodLabs published a new Journal of Marketing article that investigates the multichannel impact of brand stores by digital-native FMCG brands. The study, forthcoming in the Journal of Marketing, is titled “Assessing the Multichannel Impact of Brand Store Entry by a Digital-Native Grocery Brand” and is authored ...

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Technology12 Oct 2023

New technology for customized air purification of toxic gases

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in daily products such as paints, adhesives, furniture, cosmetics, and deodorants make our lives easier. However, constant exposure can cause serious health problems such as respiratory illness, headaches, dermatitis, and cancer. Natural ventilation is the most effective way to reduce VOCs in indoor air, but recently, air purifiers have become a common method to maintain indoor air quality due to the frequent extreme outdoor condition (e.g. high concentration of fine dust, heat waves, and extreme cold). Generally, air purifiers remove ...

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