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

Tech & Engineering

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 22-Jun-2025 01:10 ET (22-Jun-2025 05:10 GMT/UTC)

Unique Stanford Medicine-designed AI predicts cancer prognoses, responses to treatment

Stanford Medicine
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new artificial intelligence tool developed at Stanford Medicine combines data from medical images with text to predict cancer prognoses and treatment responses.

Journal: Nature

Using robots in nursing homes linked to higher employee retention, better patient care

University of Notre Dame
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Facing high employee turnover and an aging population, nursing homes have increasingly turned to robots to complete a variety of care tasks, but few researchers have explored how these technologies impact workers and the quality of care. A new study from a University of Notre Dame expert on the future of work finds that robot use is associated with increased employment and employee retention, improved productivity and a higher quality of care.

Journal: Labour Economics
Funder: Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies Japan Fund, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies, Kellogg Institute for International Studies

Removing microplastics with engineered bacteria

University of Waterloo

Microplastics can go right through wastewater treatment plants, and researchers have engineered bacteria commonly found in there to break down this pollution before it can persist in the environment.

Researchers from the University of Waterloo added DNA to several species of bacteria found in wastewater, allowing them to biodegrade polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a common plastic found in carpet, clothing and containers for food and beverages.

ISS National Lab announces up to $650,000 in funding for technology advancement in low Earth orbit

International Space Station U.S. National Laboratory
Grant and Award Announcement

The International Space Station (ISSInternational Space Station) National Laboratory is soliciting flight concepts for technology advancement that utilizes the space-based environment of the orbiting laboratory. This solicitation, “Technology Advancement and Applied Research Leveraging the ISS National Lab,” is open to a broad range of technology areas, including chemical and material synthesis in space, translational medicine, in-space edge computing, and in-space servicing, assembly, and manufacturing. It also encompasses the application of space station remote sensing data to improve geospatial analytics for commercial use.

Researchers develop new technology for sustainable rare earth mining

Chinese Academy of Sciences Headquarters
Peer-Reviewed Publication

To facilitate sustainable REE mining, Professors ZHU Jianxi and HE Hongping’s team from the Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has developed a green and efficient electrokinetic mining (EKM) technology.

Journal: Nature Sustainability
Funder: National Natural Science Foundation of China

Understanding survival disparities in cancer care: A population-based study on mobility patterns

Health Data Science
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A study led by Dr. Fengyu Wen from the Institute of Medical Technology at Peking University Health Science Center and Professor Luxia Zhang from the National Institute of Health Data Science at Peking University explored survival disparities among cancer patients based on their healthcare mobility patterns. Using data from over 20,000 cancer patients in Shandong Province, the research analyzed three mobility patterns: intra-city, local center, and national center care.

The findings revealed that cancer patients who traveled to local or national healthcare centers had higher five-year survival rates (69.3%) compared to those who received treatment within their residential cities (65.4%). The study highlights the role of advanced healthcare resources and specialized treatment in improving survival outcomes, while also pointing out the financial and logistical burdens associated with traveling for medical care.

The research team emphasizes the need for targeted interventions to enhance healthcare quality in resource-limited cities and reduce survival disparities. Future studies will incorporate additional data, such as cancer stages and diagnosis timelines, to refine insights and guide public health policies effectively.

Journal: Health Data Science

Innovative hardware for rapidly solving optimization problems

University of California - Santa Barbara

The rise of AI, graphic processing, combinatorial optimization and other data-intensive applications has resulted in data-processing bottlenecks, as ever greater amounts of data must be shuttled back and forth between the memory and compute elements in a computer. The physical distance is small, but the process can occur billions of times per second. Inevitably, the energy and time required to move so much data adds up. In response, computer engineers are designing specialized hardware accelerators with innovative architectures to improve the performance of such applications.

Journal: Nature Communications