research

Engineers have developed a robot that can feed people with disabilities that inhibit them from feeding themselves. Powered by an artificial intelligence algorithm, the system detects pieces of food on a plate, stabs them with a fork, and transports the morsels to a person’s mouth.

Called an “acoustic meta-material,” the shape was developed based on a mathematically modeled design that enables it to cancel up to 94 percent of sound by reflecting certain frequencies back to their source.

Researchers have developed a new kind of sensor designed to enable artificial skin to sense pressure, vibrations, and even magnetic fields. The technology developed by engineers, chemists, and biologists could help burn victims and amputees “feel” again through their prosthetic limbs.

John Szivek, a scientist at the University of Arizona is investigating ways to mend broken bones using 3D printing and adult stem cells. The research is geared toward helping veterans who suffer combat injuries, which can often lead to prolonged ailments and bone defects.

Frogs have partially regrown amputated limbs thanks to a bioreactor developed by a team of researchers at Tufts University. By jump-starting tissue repair, the bioreactor was shown to help the amphibians regenerate a bigger, more complete appendage than they usually do in the wild.

Researchers at the University of Geneva in Switzerland have proposed a plan to use ultra-hot and ultra-short laser beams to punch through cloud layers and transmit information from satellites to Earth. The technique could be used to send thousands of times more information more securely.

Researchers at the University of Zurich have shown how space farming may be possible. By encouraging plants to excrete a certain hormone, they’ve demonstrated that crops can thrive despite challenging conditions, such as low-nutrient soil and microgravity.

By mimicking the vision of mantis shrimp, researchers were able to make significant improvements on today’s commercial cameras. They hope their technology can help mitigate accidents by letting self-driving vehicles see more clearly and making underwater GPS more accurate.

In a recent paper in the journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, researchers show that female mice are immune to the cognitive damage that results from simulated space radiation. The study may pave the way toward treating this hazardous consequence of space travel.

A team of researchers from Purdue University have designed a patch that can help measure radiation exposure in nearly real time for radiologists and nuclear disaster responders. They're simple, made out of little more than paper and yeast, and cost pennies on the dollar.

New research suggests that the likelihood that life will develop on an Earth-like planet is closely connected with the light given off by its host star. The findings help pin down candidate planets, while weeding out those less likely to host life.

Researchers are developing a unique system that can autonomously monitor schools of fish using sight and sound. Symbiosis is a system that uses optical and acoustic technologies to detect and identify entire schools, and could offer a noninvasive means of protecting environmental interests.

A innovative new technique could help make wetsuits more insulated. Developed by engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the treatment technique entails stuffing a standard wetsuit into a pressure tank, which displaces its air pockets and pumps them full of gas.

A study may offer a viable and less-invasive alternative to bypass surgery. Simply by swallowing a pill before each meal, patients who have type 2 diabetes may be able to coat their intestines with a thin layer of material, protecting them from blood sugar spikes that exacerbate the condition.

Developed by a team of MIT engineers, the system improves on the design of “fog harps,” devices that act as nets to capture water vapor. The researchers show how this system may allow plants to function more sustainably, by reusing the water themselves, or to help provide water to surrounding regions.

Researchers have mixed stem cells, collagen and algae molecules to create a bio-ink, which they used to 3D-printed an artificial cornea. The research is currently just a proof-of-concept but lays the groundwork for future techniques to create low-cost, easy-to-produce bionic eyes.

The goal of VirtualHome is to help robots learn tasks by first experiencing them in a virtual system. In the current system, an avatar can perform 1,000 separate actions, broken down as subtasks, in eight different settings, including a living room, kitchen, and home office.

A new study out of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California shows how EVs may also have an added benefit for consumers and society at large, bolstering the energy grid by providing mobile power storage.

Car dealers in Scandinavia have something against electric vehicles. That’s the conclusion of an investigative study conducted by Nordic researchers, who visited car dealerships and found agents actively discouraging them from going electric.

A team of computer scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory have developed a self-driving system that’s designed to successfully navigate unpaved roads by using basic GPS data and sensors technology.

In a recent study by an international team, scientists demonstrated for the first time that the groundbreaking gene-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9 can be successfully used on coral. The breakthrough suggests that CRISPR could offer a boost for conservationists trying to save these ancient animals.

At its core, the search for exoplanets is the search for habitable exoplanets and AI may now help make that hunt easier. Using machine learning algorithms, the researchers were able to calculate how well exoplanets could survive in stable orbits, outperforming scientists who made a career out of stuff like this.