Technology
press releases.

Technology9 Jul 2024

New carbon storage technology is fastest of its kind

A new way to store carbon captured from the atmosphere developed by researchers from The University of Texas at Austin works much faster than current methods without the harmful chemical accelerants they require. In new research published in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, the team developed a technique for ultrafast formation of carbon dioxide hydrates. These unique ice-like materials can bury carbon dioxide in the ocean, preventing it from being released into the atmosphere. ​ “We’re staring at a huge challenge — finding a way ...

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Technology8 Jul 2024

Boosting UV light absorption in 2D semiconductor with quantum dot hybrids for enhanced light emission

A new publication from Opto-Electronic Advances; DOI 10.29026/oes.2024.240002 , discusses boosting UV Light Absorption in 2D Semiconductor with quantum dot hybrids for enhanced light emission. Two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) have emerged as a promising class of materials due to their remarkable properties. These materials, such as monolayer tungsten disulfide (1L-WS2), are just a few atoms thick, yet they possess intriguing electronic and optical characteristics that make them highly attractive for various applications, from flexible electronics ...

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Technology8 Jul 2024

Employees prefer human performance monitors over AI, study finds

ITHACA, N.Y. - Organizations using AI to monitor employees’ behavior and productivity can expect them to complain more, be less productive and want to quit more – unless the technology can be framed as supporting their development, Cornell University research finds. Surveillance tools cause people to feel a greater loss of autonomy than oversight by humans, according to the research. Businesses and other organizations using the fast-changing technologies to evaluate employee behaviors should consider their unintended consequences, which may prompt resistance and hurt performance, the researchers say. They also suggest an opportunity to win buy-in, ...

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Technology8 Jul 2024

Raw milk is risky, but airborne transmission of H5N1 from cow's milk is inefficient in mammals

While H5N1 avian influenza virus taken from infected cow’s milk makes mice and ferrets sick when dripped into their noses, airborne transmission of the virus between ferrets — a common model for human transmission — appears to be limited. These and other new findings about the strain of H5N1 circulating among North American dairy cattle this year come from a set of laboratory experiments led by University of Wisconsin–Madison researchers, reported today in the journal Nature. Together, they suggest that exposure to raw milk infected with the currently circulating virus poses a real risk of infecting humans, but that the virus may not ...

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Technology5 Jul 2024

SIAM Conference on Mathematics of Data Science (MDS24)

At the upcoming SIAM Conference on Mathematics of Data Science (MDS24), a diverse mix of professionals from universities, industry, government, and research labs are set to join. The conference will showcase cutting-edge research that advances mathematical, statistical, and computational methods in the context of what we do with data and how to do it better. Presentations will range from foundational theory of data science to diverse applications. A particular focus this year is on the interaction of data science with the broader society in terms of privacy, interpretability, explainability, ...

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Technology5 Jul 2024

Self-driving technology: improving safety through sound

Calyo, Benedex Robotics and Cranfield University have joined forces to improve safety in self-driving vehicles. The new partnership, part of the DRIVEN BY SOUND project led by Calyo, will develop a functional safety sensing platform based on 3D ultrasound, capable of operating effectively in even the most challenging environmental conditions. The new technology allows autonomous vehicles to detect their surroundings in 3D in real time. It complements existing sensing and safety detection systems, providing an additional layer of ...

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Technology5 Jul 2024

A 2D device for quantum cooling

To perform quantum computations, quantum bits (qubits) must be cooled down to temperatures in the millikelvin range (close to -273 Celsius), to slow down atomic motion and minimize noise. However, the electronics used to manage these quantum circuits generate heat, which is difficult to remove at such low temperatures. Most current technologies must therefore separate quantum circuits from their electronic components, causing noise and inefficiencies that hinder the realization of larger quantum systems beyond the lab. Researchers in EPFL’s Laboratory of ...

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Technology4 Jul 2024

Searching for dark matter with the coldest quantum detectors in the world

One of the greatest mysteries of science could be one step closer to being solved. Approximately 80% of the matter in the universe is dark, meaning that it cannot be seen. In fact, dark matter is passing through us constantly – possibly at a rate of trillions of particles per second. We know it exists because we can see the effects of its gravity, but experiments to date have so far failed to detect it. Taking advantage of the most advanced quantum technologies, scientists from Lancaster University, the University of Oxford, and Royal Holloway, ...

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Technology4 Jul 2024

Compact cities have lower carbon emissions, but poorer air quality, less green space and higher mortality rates

What types of cities exist in Europe and which are more favourable in terms of human health, environmental quality and carbon footprint? To answer these questions, a study led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), a centre supported by the "la Caixa" Foundation, has analysed 919 European cities. The research, published in The Lancet Planetary Health, identified four basic urban configurations on the continent: compact-high density cities, open lowrise-medium density cities, open lowrise-low density cities and green-low density cities. The results show that greener and less densely populated ...

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Technology3 Jul 2024

Rice research aims to reprogram the genetic code

Rice University chemist Han Xiao has been awarded nearly $2 million from the National Institutes of Health Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (MIRA) program for established investigators. All organisms with few exceptions use 20 standard amino acids to build proteins. Xiao’s research aims to reprogram the genetic code to precisely manipulate biological systems by using noncanonical amino acids (ncAAs) with diverse properties to help build proteins. Researchers generally use ncAAs to investigate the structure and dynamics of proteins, but Xiao wants to take that a step further. “This innovative approach could revolutionize how ...

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Technology3 Jul 2024

Cryptocurrency investors are more likely to self-report “Dark Tetrad” personality traits alongside other characteristics

Owning cryptocurrency may be associated with certain personality and demographic characteristics as well as a reliance on alternative or fringe social media sources, according to a study published July 3, 2024 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Shane Littrell from the University of Toronto, Canada, along with colleagues from the University of Miami, USA. Anonymous trading and unregulated markets hallmark cryptocurrency’s unique subculture. While some consider the digital currency to be financially unreliable, hundreds of millions of global investors think otherwise. This study identified various political, psychological, and social characteristics ...

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Technology3 Jul 2024

PolyU study reveals the mechanism of bio-inspired control of liquid flow, enlightening breakthroughs in fluid dynamics and nature-inspired materials technologies

The more we discover about the natural world, the more we find that nature is the greatest engineer. Past research believed that liquids can only be transported in fixed direction on species with specific liquid communication properties and cannot switch the transport direction. Recently, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) researchers have shown that an African plant controls water movement in a previously unknown way – and this could inspire breakthroughs in a range of technologies in fluid dynamics and nature-inspired materials, including applications that require multistep and repeated reactions, such as microassays, medical ...

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Technology3 Jul 2024

Artificial light is a deadly siren song for young fish

New research finds that artificial light at night (ALAN) attracts larval fish away from naturally lit habitats, while dramatically lowering their chances of survival in an “ecological trap”, with serious consequences for fish conservation and fishing stock management. “Light pollution is a huge ongoing subject with many aspects that are still not well understood by scientists,” says Mr Jules Schligler, a PhD student at CRIOBE Laboratory (Centre de Recherches Insulaires et Observatoire de l’Environnement) in Moorea, French Polynesia. ALAN is the product of human-related ...

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Technology3 Jul 2024

A genetic algorithm for phononic crystals

Tokyo, Japan – The advent of quantum computers promises to revolutionize computing by solving complex problems exponentially more rapidly than classical computers. However, today's quantum computers face challenges such as maintaining stability and transporting quantum information. Phonons, which are quantized vibrations in periodic lattices, offer new ways to improve these systems by enhancing qubit interactions and providing more reliable information conversion. Phonons also facilitate better communication ...

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Technology3 Jul 2024

Machine learning could aid efforts to answer long-standing astrophysical questions

In an ongoing game of cosmic hide and seek, scientists have a new tool that may give them an edge. Physicists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have developed a computer program incorporating machine learning that could help identify blobs of plasma in outer space known as plasmoids. In a novel twist, the program has been trained using simulated data. The program will sift through reams of data gathered by spacecraft in the magnetosphere, the region of outer space strongly affected by Earth’s ...

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Technology2 Jul 2024

Optoelectronics gain spin control from chiral perovskites and III-V semiconductors

A research effort led by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has made advances that could enable a broader range of currently unimagined optoelectronic devices. The researchers, whose previous innovation included incorporating a perovskite layer that allowed the creation of a new type of polarized light-emitting diode (LED) that emits spin-controlled photons at room temperature without the use of magnetic fields or ferromagnetic contacts, now have gone a step further by integrating a III-V semiconductor ...

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Technology2 Jul 2024

New lab test to detect persistent HIV strains in Africa may aid search for cure

New Lab Test to Detect Persistent HIV Strains in Africa May Aid Search for Cure A multinational team led by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators developed a test that will help measure the persistence of HIV in people affected by viral strains found predominantly in Africa—a vital tool in the search for an HIV cure that will benefit patients around the world. The study, published in Nature Communications on July 2, helps fill a major gap in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) research. Most HIV studies have focused on strains circulating in Western countries, predominantly ...

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Technology1 Jul 2024

Flatiron Institute launches initiative for computational catalysis

The Simons Foundation’s Flatiron Institute has launched a new initiative focused on advancing the science of catalysis. The Initiative for Computational Catalysis (ICC), which began operations on July 1, will harness computational techniques to study and design substances called catalysts that speed up chemical reactions. Such substances promise to be instrumental in clean energy generation and in reducing greenhouse gas emissions from industrial processes. “These are big questions that are hard to address from the very first step of the ...

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Technology1 Jul 2024

Revolutionary technology promises to reduce the time to pregnancy in assisted reproduction

A new technology developed by the "Bioengineering in Reproductive Health" team at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) is able to visualise the metabolism of embryos obtained through in vitro fertilisation in order to decide which are most likely to implant correctly in the uterus and reaching full-term. It is a more accurate and reliable technique than traditional methods. The revolutionary method, called METAPHOR", generates 3D images that reveal the colours present in the embryo in a completely non-invasive way. Certain naturally fluorescent compounds in the embryo's metabolism are also key to processes such as cellular respiration ...

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Technology1 Jul 2024

Self-assembling, highly conductive sensors could improve wearable devices

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — To advance soft robotics, skin-integrated electronics and biomedical devices, researchers at Penn State have developed a 3D-printed material that is soft and stretchable — traits needed for matching the properties of tissues and organs — and that self-assembles. Their approach employs a process that eliminates many drawbacks of previous fabrication methods, such as less conductivity or device failure, the team said. They published their results in Advanced Materials. “People have been developing soft and stretchable conductors for almost a decade, but the conductivity ...

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Technology1 Jul 2024

Xue to receive funding for project aimed at youth tobacco use prevention

Hong Xue, Associate Professor, Health Administration and Policy, received funding for the project: “Innovating and Implementing Youth Tobacco Prevention in Virginia.” Xue will leverage the forefront of technological innovation, utilizing generative artificial intelligence (AI) and state-of-the-art immersive technologies, integrating them with novel just-in-time adaptive intervention strategies, to tackle the pressing public health issue of electronic cigarette/tobacco use among the youth in Virginia. Xue will receive $450,000 from Virginia ...

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Technology1 Jul 2024

How researchers are using digital city-building games to shape the future

Lancaster University researchers have come up with exciting and sophisticated new mapping technology enabling future generations to get involved in creating their own future built landscape. They say, in their new research published today, that planners are missing a real trick when it comes to encouraging and involving the public to help shape their own towns, cities and counties for the future. They also say that games platforms can be used to plan future cities and also help the public immerse themselves in these future worlds. The researchers have modified Colossal Order’s game ‘Cities: Skylines’ ...

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Technology1 Jul 2024

New professorship for Large Engines Research at Graz University of Technology

Large engines are essential for the global transport and energy sector, powering container ships, locomotives, decentralised power plants and heavy construction machinery. In many areas, battery-powered electric engines are not feasible, which is why the further development of large combustion engines is a key factor for meeting climate protection targets: through greater efficiency, but above all by using new, climate-neutral fuels. In order to strengthen research and the training of specialists in this field, Graz University of Technology ...

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Technology28 Jun 2024

Enhancing nasal endoscopy with AI

A team of researchers from Ochsner Health recently published an insightful article in the International Forum of Allergy & Rhinology exploring the application of convolutional neural networks (CNNs) to improve the accuracy and efficiency of nasal endoscopy. The study, authored by resident physician Dr. Vinayak Ganeshan under the guidance of senior otolaryngologist Dr. Edward D. McCoul, addresses the challenges posed by the intricate nasal cavity anatomy in rhinology diagnostics. Nasal endoscopy (NE) is an essential diagnostic tool in rhinology, but its effectiveness can be hampered by the complex ...

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Technology28 Jun 2024

Drone technology aid restoration, resilience of Native Hawaiian fishponds

Scientists and kiaʻi loko (fishpond practitioners) have a new tool to aid their efforts to restore and ensure the resilience of Native Hawaiian fishponds. Researchers from the University of Hawai‘i (UH) and fishpond stewards in Hilo, Hawai‘i recently published a study in the Journal of Remote Sensing highlighting the use of uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) to support integrated coastal zone management, including at cultural heritage sites. “We discovered that drones are effective and cost-efficient ...

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