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Tech & Engineering

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 30-Oct-2026 21:16 ET (31-Oct-2026 01:16 GMT/UTC)

Airflow mystery solved at America’s Underground Lab

South Dakota Science and Technology Authority
Peer-Reviewed Publication

An engineering team at SURF monitoring air flow through the complex system of 370 miles of tunnels and shafts did not understand why underground air patterns changed during times of heavy rain. The solution was just published in the journal Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration.

A mini robot to simplify dental treatment

University of Basel
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers at the University of Basel have developed a miniature dental robot that could one day automatically prepare teeth for crowns. The technology could help reduce the number of appointments needed for dental treatment.

Journal: IEEE Transactions on Medical Robotics and Bionics

Looking at AI startups to predict which jobs AI will affect

PNAS Nexus
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A study of funded AI startups provides a glimpse of which jobs may be most affected by AI.

Journal: PNAS Nexus

Neuroscience: Convergent evolution of mechanisms for spatial navigation

Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers from LMU and Cornell University reveal that zebrafish and fruit flies share the same internal compass mechanism.

Journal: Current Biology

AI enables breakthrough in MRI efficiency

Technion-Israel Institute of Technology
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers from the Technion and leading U.S. medical institutions have developed ELITE, a new AI-powered MRI method that dramatically improves the speed and quality of dynamic imaging. By combining artificial intelligence with advanced mathematical modeling, the technique generates MRI images at a rate of one image per second, enabling near-continuous tracking of contrast-agent flow through tissue. In a study involving 54 breast cancer patients, ELITE improved tumor visibility while maintaining high image quality and diagnostic sensitivity. The technology could help physicians detect and characterize tumors more accurately, increase MRI scanning capacity, and potentially be applied to imaging of the brain, head, and neck, as well as other medical imaging platforms.

Journal: Nature Communications

Reading the history of the universe in atoms from cosmic explosions

Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf
Grant and Award Announcement

The European Research Council (ERC) has today announced the winners of its latest Advanced Grant competition. The funding, worth €838 million, will go to 319 leading researchers across Europe. The Advanced Grants give senior researchers the opportunity to pursue ambitious, curiosity-driven projects that could lead to major scientific breakthroughs. Among the awardees in the Physical Sciences and Engineering domain is Prof. Anton Wallner from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), whose project SUPREME has been awarded €3 million to reconstruct the history of nearby cosmic explosions over the past 500 million years and shed light on how nature creates its heaviest elements.

ERC Advanced Grants for two researchers of Mainz University

Johannes Gutenberg Universitaet Mainz
Grant and Award Announcement

Two researchers from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) have been awarded ERC Advanced Grants by the European Research Council (ERC), each receiving millions in EU funding over five years. As announced today by the ERC, the following two researchers will receive funding: Professor Dr. Edward Lemke, Professor of Synthetic Biophysics at JGU and Adjunct Director of the Institute of Molecular Biology (IMB) will receive approximately EUR 3 million, and Professor Dr. Andreas Walther, Professor of Macromolecular Materials and Systems at JGU and Max Planck Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research will receive approximately EUR 2.6 million.

Funder: European Research Council

Rayleigh-driven ethanol cluster inference based on non-contact optical sensing and deep learning

Editorial Office of Opto-Electronic Journals Group
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Detecting gas molecules through light scattering is fundamentally limited by weak signals and environmental noise. To address this, researchers developed a non-contact optical sensing strategy based on inverse inference that avoids direct measurement of scattered light. Instead, it analyzes subtle distortions in a transmitted laser beam after interaction with gas molecules and decodes them to infer molecular information. By combining a graphene-based diffractive lens with deep learning, the system enables stable and precise ethanol sensing.

Journal: Opto-Electronic Advances
Funder: National Research Foundation of Korea, Korea Environment Industry & Technology Institute, Korea Ministry of Environment

Aperture-tuning antenna keeps 5G signals strong across wider frequencies

Institute of Science Tokyo
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A compact aperture-adjustable antenna developed by researchers at Science Tokyo could improve high-speed wireless communication across the wide 5G millimeter-wave frequency bands without increasing power consumption. The system maintained strong performance across 57–71 GHz band, improved signal strength by up to 62.2% at 57 GHz and 47.9% at 71 GHz, and achieved data transmission speeds of up to 56 Gb/s. These could support future Beyond 5G and 6G applications, including XR and data-intensive technologies.