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

Tech & Engineering

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 21-Nov-2025 10:11 ET (21-Nov-2025 15:11 GMT/UTC)

10-Sep-2025

A new way to guide light, undeterred

University of Pennsylvania
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The University of Pennsylvania's Bo Zhen and postdoctoral researcher Li He developed a system for guiding light through tiny crystals in ways that allow it to navigate undeterred by bumps and defects. Their work could lead to sturdier lasers, faster data links, and light-based chips that don’t get tripped up by imperfections.

Journal: Nature Nanotechnology
Funder: Office of Naval Research, Army Research Office, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, DOE/US Department of Energy, U.S. National Science Foundation

10-Sep-2025

UCSB-designed soft robot intubation device could save lives

University of California - Santa Barbara
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Maintaining an open airway is a critical priority in emergency medicine. Without the flow of oxygen, other emergency interventions can become ineffective at saving the patient’s life. However, creating this airway through endotracheal intubation is a difficult task for highly trained individuals and under the best of circumstances. In the field and in the ER, where seconds matter, emergency medical personnel face many unknowns and wildly challenging conditions which lower their chances of success.

Journal: Science Translational Medicine

10-Sep-2025

Natural microfibers may degrade differently to synthetic materials under simulated sunlight exposure in freshwater and seawater conditions, with implications for how such pollutants affect aquatic life

PLOS
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Natural microfibers may degrade differently to synthetic materials under simulated sunlight exposure in freshwater and seawater conditions, with implications for how such pollutants affect aquatic life

Journal: PLOS One

10-Sep-2025

Could robots help kids conquer reading anxiety? New study from the Department of Computer Science at UChicago suggests so

University of Chicago
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers explore how social robots can help create a more supportive environment for early learners. The study found that children showed fewer physiological signs of anxiety when reading to a robot rather than a human, offering new possibilities for classrooms and beyond.

Journal: Science Robotics

10-Sep-2025

Smartwatches detect early signs of PTSD among those watching coverage of the Oct 7 attacks in Israel

PLOS
Peer-Reviewed Publication

In a three-year study involving more than 5,000 residents of Israel before and after the mass traumatic events of October 7, 2023, those who watched extensive media coverage of the attacks were found to be more likely to develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Prof. Erez Shmueli and Prof. Dan Yamin of Tel Aviv University and Wizermed LTD, in collaboration with colleagues from Tel Aviv University and Stanford University present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS Mental Health.

Journal: PLOS Mental Health

10-Sep-2025

In quantum sensing, what beats beating noise? Meeting noise halfway.

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Theoretical physicists have found a potential way to design groups of interlinked or “entangled” qubits to protect them from environmental disturbances or “noise” such as temperature changes. Although these entangled qubits would lose some of their potential sensitivity, they would also be more robust against noise, making them a promising route to real-world quantum sensors.

Journal: Physical Review Letters

10-Sep-2025

Equity implications of where long-term fossil fuel plants are located found to differ based on time period studied

Carnegie Mellon University
Reports and Proceedings

In a new study, researchers examined the relative contributions of siting decisions (i.e., where to locate infrastructure projects) and demographic shifts after projects are built to current disparities in exposure to polluting U.S. fossil fuel plants. The study found little evidence that plants were disproportionately located in counties with higher Black populations, on average. But it also found that the share of the Black population grew in the decades after the first fossil fuel plant was built in a county.

Funder: Wilton E. Scott Institute for Energy Innovation at Carnegie Mellon