EurekAlert! News by Subject: Tech & Engineering - News by Subject: Tech & Engineering

Tech & Engineering

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 25-Nov-2025 20:11 ET (26-Nov-2025 01:11 GMT/UTC)

Old dog, new tricks: Prehistoric viruses can be used to defend bacterial cells

Penn State
Peer-Reviewed Publication

For billions of years, bacteria have waged an ongoing arms race against viruses, evolving many defense mechanisms against the infectious invaders. Now, these evolutions may offer innovative ways for humans to fight viruses, according to Thomas Wood, professor of chemical engineering at Penn State.

Journal: Nucleic Acids Research
Funder: The Biotechnology Endowment

Can honey bee-inspired research make electric grids more resilient?

Penn State
Grant and Award Announcement

What do honey bees and electric power grids have in common? More than you might think, according to Wangda Zuo, professor of architectural engineering at Penn State. Zuo is leading a new project funded by a $1 million award from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) to investigate how coordinating and controlling distributed energy resources — similar to how honey bees regulate their colony’s resources — may help improve the distribution resiliency of electric grids.

Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation

JMIR Publications and MCBIOS partner to boost open access bioinformatics research

JMIR Publications
Business Announcement

Designation of JMIR Bioinformatics and Biotechnology as Official Society Journal Elevates Visibility for MidSouth Researchers

Leading the way in targeted cancer treatment

University of Missouri-Columbia
Peer-Reviewed Publication

In the quest for more targeted lung cancer treatments, a researcher at the University of Missouri thinks the solution may lie in tiny bubble-shaped packages that cells use to talk to each other.

Journal: Molecular Therapy Oncology

Engineers create hydrogels to monitor activity in the body

Washington University in St. Louis
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A research team in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis is developing bioelectronic hydrogels that could one day replace existing implanted devices and have much more flexibility.

Journal: Small

With NIH grant, George Mason researcher refines AI storytelling tool for dementia care

George Mason University
Grant and Award Announcement

Nursing Professor Kyeung Mi Oh is testing how a “reminiscence therapy” app can strengthen emotional health and connection for people living with memory loss.

Funder: NIH/National Institute on Aging

Designing cost-effective carbon payments to induce cellulosic feedstock production for sustainable aviation fuel

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment

Sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) based on crop residues such as corn stover or perennial bioenergy crops such as miscanthus or switchgrass have the potential to mitigate carbon (C) emissions. However, SAF production scale-up is hindered by high establishment costs and yield and price riskiness, making the return profiles less appealing to risk-averse, present-biased, and credit-constrained farmers. A new study found that SAF feedstock choice, adoption levels, and spatial patterns depend on the type of C mitigation payments and farmer risk profiles, shedding light on potential policy decisions that might incentivize increased bioenergy crop cultivation.

Journal: Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy