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Tech & Engineering

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 31-May-2026 06:15 ET (31-May-2026 10:15 GMT/UTC)

MIT researchers develop a new sensor that could enable earlier detection of bladder cancer

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Using catheters coated with specialized carbon nanotubes, MIT researchers developed a new way to monitor bladder cancer patients for tumor recurrence.

Journal: Nature Nanotechnology
Funder: Bridge Project of the Koch Institute and Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center, Schmidt Science Fellowship, MIT UROP Program, Mathworks Inc., National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program

Calling Doctor GPT: AI responses to healthcare queries are nearly 76% accurate

Penn State
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbots respond to everyday health-related questions from general users with nearly 76% accuracy, which raises concerns about their trustworthiness in real-world client-facing applications, according to a new study led by Penn State researchers.

Meeting: 2026 ACM FAccT Conference

AI can mass-produce finance research papers indistinguishable from human work

Penn State
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new study, co-authored by a Penn State Smeal College of Business professor, shows that AI can mass-produce academic papers that look nearly indistinguishable from human-authored research, raising concerns about the potential impact on the academic community.

Journal: Journal of Economic Literature
Funder: Inquire Europe

World’s largest computing association elects new leadership

Association for Computing Machinery
Business Announcement

Members of ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, have elected new officers who will lead the organization for two-year terms beginning July 1. Heading the new team will be incoming President Elisa Bertino. Bertino is the Samuel Conte Distinguished Professor of Computer Science at Purdue University. Over her 40-year career, she has made pioneering contributions to information and systems security and privacy. She is known for broadening participation in computing through professional leadership and mentoring.

Clinical trial seeks to advance intuitive assistive robotics for people with paralysis

Rice University
Business Announcement

Rice, in collaboration with Baylor College of Medicine, will join BrainGate, a consortium of universities and academic medical centers working on creating brain-computer interface technologies.

WVU researcher finds a surprising phenomenon in NASA data from Mars

West Virginia University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Data beamed back from Mars by the NASA spacecraft MAVEN provides the first evidence that a phenomenon protecting planets from solar winds can occur in the atmospheres of worlds that lack strong magnetic fields, according to research led by West Virginia University planetary scientist Christopher Fowler.

Journal: Nature Communications

Data explosion in AI era: PolyU leads breakthroughs in protein-based data storage, delivering high storage capacity, strong stability and encryption capabilities 15 May 2026 Research and Innovation

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Massive volumes of digital data are generated every day from AI training, big data analytics and smart devices. As conventional hard drives and cloud storage are increasingly constrained by high costs, limited capacity, high power consumption and short lifespans, molecular data storage has emerged as a breakthrough storage alternative. Researchers at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) have pioneered a method that uses engineered proteins to store digital data and, for the first time, completed the full process from data storage to data retrieval in de novo designed unnatural proteins. This demonstrates the potential of establishing a protein-based storage framework with sustainability, high storage capacity and high stability, offering a promising solution to the explosive AI-generated growth in data globally.

Journal: Nature Communications

Drexel study reveals how people use AI for mental health support — and where they see risks

Drexel University
Reports and Proceedings

As more people turn to artificial intelligence chatbots for emotional and mental health support, a new study from Drexel University suggests that most users see these tools as supplements to — not substitutes for — human therapy. Drawing on millions of Reddit posts, the study highlights both the growing appeal of AI support tools for emotional reassurance, coping and practical guidance, as well as the concerns users express about emotional dependence, misinformation and overreliance on the technology.

Meeting: 2026 Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics

JMIR Report: Lab-grown brain organoids power biocomputers

JMIR Publications
Peer-Reviewed Publication

(Toronto, May 28, 2026) JMIR Publications today released a feature story on the emerging field of biocomputing in its News and Perspectives section. Authored by science journalist Simon Spichak, MSc, “Biocomputing: Beyond the Hype” investigates how biotech companies like Cortical Labs and FinalSpark harness human brain cells to electrodes, performing computational functions and testing the cells’ responses to electrical and chemical stimuli.

Journal: Journal of Medical Internet Research

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