Technology
press releases.

Technology8 Dec 2025

A new paradigm in spectroscopic sensing: The revolutionary leap of SERS-optical waveguide integration and ai-enabled ultra-sensitive detection

Introduction Trace liquid analysis is crucial in fields such as biomedical diagnosis, environmental monitoring, and chemical process control. Traditional detection technologies often face bottlenecks including insufficient sensitivity, bulky equipment, and complex operations. Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) technology has emerged as a powerful tool for trace detection due to its molecular fingerprint identification capability. However, conventional SERS suffers from limitations such as low signal collection efficiency and intricate ...

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Technology8 Dec 2025

AI offers ‘roadmap’ to plant genetics

As global temperatures rise, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) scientists work to grow stronger, more resilient crops. Yet, this process is challenging. Plants often have several related genes that control desirable traits, such as size or drought resistance. Finding genes with overlapping functions, or “redundant genes,” is a near-impossible scavenger hunt. “Most of the time, there are major limitations in the pathway to crop improvement,” said Iacopo Gentile, a postdoc in CSHL’s Zachary ...

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Technology8 Dec 2025

Transforming acoustic waves with a chip

Acoustic waves are best known as the invisible delivery agents bringing voices, car horns, or our favorite song to our ears. But the waves can also move physical objects, like an item vibrating atop a concert speaker — offering the power to turn sound into a tool. Since receiving a 2024 National Science Foundation CAREER Award, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering Zhenhua Tian and his team have explored how to use acoustic waves as invisible grabbers to manipulate fluid flows and tiny particles on electronic chips. ...

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Technology5 Dec 2025

UNC-Chapel Hill study shows AI can dramatically speed up digitizing natural history collections

A new study from UNC-Chapel Hill researchers shows that advanced artificial intelligence tools, specifically large language models (LLMs), can accurately determine the locations where plant specimens were originally collected, a process known as georeferencing. This task has traditionally been slow, expensive and dependent on significant manual effort. The team found that LLMs can complete this work with near-human accuracy while being significantly faster and more cost-effective. “Our ...

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Technology5 Dec 2025

Naval aviator turned NPS doctoral student earns national recognition for applied quantum research

A Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) physics doctoral student has just been presented with a prestigious award for his pioneering research in quantum sensing using a unique atomic fountain. U.S. Navy Cmdr. Jens Berdahl, a former naval aviator and F/A-18 pilot currently pursuing his doctorate through the service’s Permanent Military Professor (PMP) program, was recently presented with the highly competitive Margaret Burbidge Award for Best Experimental Research by a Graduate Student. Presented by the American Physical Society, Far West Section, Berdahl received the award while presenting his research on NPS’s ...

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Technology5 Dec 2025

An iron-on electronic circuit to create wearable tech

Iron-on patches can repair clothing or add personal flair to backpacks and hats. And now they could power wearable tech, too. Researchers reporting in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces have combined liquid metal and a heat-activated adhesive to create an electrically conductive patch that bonds to fabric when heated with a hot iron. In demonstrations, circuits ironed onto a square of fabric lit up LEDs and attached an iron-on microphone to a button-up shirt. “E-textiles and wearable electronics can enable ...

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Technology5 Dec 2025

Making simulations more accurate than ever with deep learning

Future events such as the weather or satellite trajectories are computed in tiny time steps, so the computation must be both efficient and as accurate as possible at each step lest errors pile up. A Kobe University team now introduces a new method that uses deep learning for creating tailored, accurate simulations that respect physical laws, while also being more computationally efficient. From studying the behavior of atoms to setting the trajectory of space craft, from material development to weather prediction — the modern ...

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Technology4 Dec 2025

Software platform helps users find the best hearing protection

HONOLULU, Dec. 4, 2025 — The world is loud. A walk down the street bombards one’s ears with the sound of engines revving, car horns blaring, and the steady beeps of pedestrian crossings. While smartphone alerts to excessive sound and public awareness of noise exposure grows, few tools help people take protective action. To address this gap, Santino Cozza and a team from Applied Research Associates, Inc. developed the Hearing Protection Optimization Tool (HPOT). HPOT was designed to move beyond traditional noise reductions ratings and highlight performance characteristics that ...

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Technology4 Dec 2025

Clean hydrogen breakthrough: Chemical lopping technology with Dr. Muhammad Aziz (full webinar)

Explore the future of clean hydrogen in this recorded webinar featuring Dr. Muhammad Aziz from the University of Tokyo. Discover how chemical looping technology can produce high-purity hydrogen, capture CO₂, and recover usable heat—all within a near-zero emission process. ???? In this session, you’ll learn about: Advanced oxygen carrier materials for stable reactor performance Process intensification strategies for efficient hydrogen production Real-world applications in power generation, steelmaking, refineries, and renewable energy storage Key scientific, economic, ...

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Technology4 Dec 2025

AI chatbots can effectively sway voters – in either direction

ITHACA, N.Y. -- A short interaction with a chatbot can meaningfully shift a voter’s opinion about a presidential candidate or proposed policy in either direction, new Cornell University research finds. The potential for artificial intelligence to affect election results is a major public concern. Two new papers – with experiments conducted in four countries – demonstrate that chatbots powered by large language models (LLMs) are quite effective at political persuasion, moving opposition voters’ preferences ...

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Technology4 Dec 2025

Study reveals 'levers' driving the political persuasiveness of AI chatbots

Even small, open-source AI chatbots can be effective political persuaders, according to a new study. The findings provide a comprehensive empirical map of the mechanisms behind AI political persuasion, revealing that post-training and prompting – not model scale and personalization – are the dominant levers. It also reveals evidence of a persuasion-accuracy tradeoff, reshaping how policymakers and researchers should conceptualize the risks of persuasive AI. There is a growing concern amongst many that advances in AI – particularly conversational ...

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Technology4 Dec 2025

Development of 'OCTOID,' a soft robot that changes color and moves like an octopus

Underwater octopuses change their body color and texture in the blink of an eye to blend perfectly into their surroundings when evading predators or capturing prey. They transform their bodies to match the colors of nearby corals or seaweed, turning blue or red, and move by softly curling their arms or snatching prey. This behavior has long been regarded as the epitome of a 'perfectly transformed robot created by nature'. Such 'soft robot' technology, modeled after biological capabilities, is rapidly evolving thanks to recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced materials science. ...

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Technology4 Dec 2025

High-speed all-optical neural networks empowered spatiotemporal mode multiplexing

In high-speed optical communications, traditional orbital angular momentum (OAM) multiplexing systems face fundamental limitations, including exponentially increasing spatial-domain complexity, aggravated modal crosstalk, and strong dependence on continuous-wave lasers. These challenges hinder scalability and robustness in complex environments. To address this, a research team led by Professor Fu Feng and Professor Xiaocong Yuan from Zhejiang Lab has developed a novel OAM-based spatiotemporal multiplexing (OAM-STM) architecture. This approach couples pulsed OAM beams with a diffractive deep neural ...

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Technology4 Dec 2025

Socially aware AI helps autonomous vehicles weave through crowds without collisions

Researchers from Tongji University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University have developed a socially aware prediction-to-control pipeline that lets autonomous vehicles safely navigate dense crowds by anticipating multiple ways pedestrians might move. Instead of betting on a single forecast, their system combines a Social GAN trajectory predictor with a real-time Model Predictive Control (MPC) planner, treating each predicted path as a moving obstacle. In dynamic crowd simulations, the integrated Social GAN+MPC controller achieved zero safety violations and maintained ...

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Technology3 Dec 2025

A metamaterial that bridges air and water

HONOLULU, Dec. 3, 2025 — Have you ever tried yelling underwater? Not only is it difficult to make the noise, but it is rarely audible to those outside of the water. Sound travels differently in mediums of different densities, and that causes a high acoustic impedance ratio between air and water, meaning that sound waves have a tough time breaking the air-water barrier, and most of the sound waves reflect off the barrier rather than penetrating it. To help sound travel between these two mediums, Rutgers University doctoral student Hesam Bakhtiary Yekta simulated a metamaterial that will sit at the air-water interface and improve sound transmission. Bakhtiary Yekta will present his ...

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Technology3 Dec 2025

Fish freshness easily monitored with a new sensor

To see if a fish is fresh, people recommend looking at its eyes and gills or giving it a sniff. But a more accurate check for food quality and safety is to look for compounds that form when decomposition starts. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Sensors have developed a simple, effective electronic device that quickly measures one of these compounds. The prototype sensor can determine how fresh a fish is in less than two minutes. For fish, signs of spoilage (cloudy eyes, bruised gills, foul or fishy odors) might take hours or even days to appear. In contrast, compounds such as hypoxanthine (HX) start forming ...

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Technology3 Dec 2025

Operando X-ray tomography reveals silicon–electrolyte interface dynamics in all-solid-state batteries

All-solid-state batteries (ASSBs) using silicon (Si) anodes are among the most promising candidates for high-energy and long-lasting power sources, particularly for electric vehicles. Si can store more lithium than conventional graphite, but its volume expands by roughly 410% during charging. This swelling generates mechanical stress that cracks particles and weakens their contact with the solid electrolyte, disrupting the flow of ions and reducing efficiency. To address this, a research group led by Professor Yuki Orikasa from the College of Life Sciences, Ritsumeikan University, ...

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Technology3 Dec 2025

Experts call for AED placement on every commercial aircraft to boost in-flight cardiac arrest survival rates from 6% to up to 70%

December 3, 2025 – In-flight cardiac arrest is extremely rare, yet catastrophic, and responsible for up to 86% of all deaths in the air. A new comprehensive literature review highlights systemic and policy shortcomings of current aviation safety standards, calling for global alignment. Recommendations include regulated and mandated automated external defibrillators (AEDs) on board, standardized cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) protocols training, and integration of telemedicine. The article in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology, published by Elsevier, aims to inform policy regulators, airlines, and international aviation ...

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Technology3 Dec 2025

Success in measuring nano droplets, a new breakthrough in hydrogen, semiconductor, and battery research​

In hydrogen production catalysts, water droplets must detach easily from the surface to prevent blockage by bubbles, allowing for faster hydrogen generation. In semiconductor manufacturing, the quality of the process is determined by how evenly water or liquid spreads on the surface, or how quickly it dries. However, directly observing how such water or liquid spreads and moves on a surface ('wettability') at the nanoscale has been technically almost impossible until now, forcing researchers to rely mostly on conjecture. KAIST announced on ...

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Technology3 Dec 2025

Micro/nano‑reconfigurable robots for intelligent carbon management in confined‑space life‑support systems

As CO2 accumulates in crewed spacecraft, submarines and disaster shelters, life-support systems demand sorbents that combine high capacity, ultralow regeneration energy and compact form factors. Now, researchers from Guangxi University, led by Prof. Hui He, unveil micro/nano-reconfigurable robots (MNRM) that harvest sunlight to capture 6.19 mmol g-1 CO2 and release it at only 55 °C—while actively swimming to prevent overheating. In a sealed-mouse model the robots prolonged survival by 54.61 %, offering a self-powered route to carbon-metabolism ...

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Technology3 Dec 2025

Neural network helps detect gunshots from illegal rainforest poaching

HONOLULU, Dec. 2, 2025 — Wildlife poaching remains a major conservation concern. Technological advancements have enabled webs of acoustic sensors to be deployed throughout rainforests, creating the possibility of real-time alerts to the sounds of gun-based poaching. But the belly of the rainforest is loud, and sorting through a constant influx of sound data is computationally demanding. Detectors can distinguish a loud bang from the whistles, chirps, and rasps of birds and bugs. However, they often conflate the sounds of branches cracking, trees falling, or water dripping ...

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Technology3 Dec 2025

Overreliance on AI risks eroding new and future doctors’ critical thinking while reinforcing existing bias

Overreliance on generative AI risks eroding new and future doctors’ critical thinking skills, while potentially reinforcing existing data bias and inequity, warns an editorial published in the online journal BMJ Evidence Based Medicine. GenAI tools are already being widely used amid few institutional policies and regulatory guidance, point out the authors, who urge medical educators to exercise vigilance and adjust curricula and training to mitigate the technology’s pitfalls. The use of AI is now used in a vast array of different tasks, but along with its burgeoning potential comes an increasing risk of overreliance on it and a host of potential issues ...

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Technology2 Dec 2025

Event aims to unpack chaos caused by AI slop

Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) will host the world’s first academic symposium dedicated to addressing the impact of “brain rot” and “AI slop”. Taking place on Friday, 5 December, the event builds on research from ARU’s Centre for Media, Arts, and Creative Industries, and delegates from 23 countries will take part either online or in person at ARU in Cambridge, England. Brain rot, named Oxford’s Word of the Year in 2024, refers to the “deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as the result ...

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Technology2 Dec 2025

Could water, sunlight, and air be all that’s needed to make hydrogen peroxide?

CORNELL UNIVERSITY MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE FOR RELEASE: Dec. 2, 2025 Kaitlyn Serrao 607-882-1140 kms465@cornell.edu Could water, sunlight, and air be all that’s needed to make hydrogen peroxide? ITHACA, N.Y. - Cornell University scientists have discovered a potentially transformative approach to manufacturing one of the world’s most widely used chemicals – hydrogen peroxide – using nothing more than sunlight, water and air. “Currently, hydrogen peroxide ...

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Technology2 Dec 2025

UH engineers making AI faster, reducing power consumption

Addressing the staggering power and energy demands of artificial intelligence, engineers at the University of Houston have developed a revolutionary new thin-film material that promises to make AI devices significantly faster while dramatically cutting energy consumption. The breakthrough, detailed in the journal ACS Nano, introduces a specialized two-dimensional (2D) thin film dielectric - or an electric insulator - designed to replace traditional, heat generating components in integrated circuit chips. This new thin film material, ...

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