A Korean research team has developed a closed-loop 4D printing technology that enables self-actuating and recyclable structures using sulfur waste generated from petroleum refining processes. A joint research team led by Dr. Dong-Gyun Kim of the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT), Professor Jeong Jae Wie of Hanyang University, and Professor Yong Seok Kim of Sejong University reported the world’s first 4D printing technology based on sulfur-rich polymers that respond to heat, light, and magnetic fields.

3D printing could change how we build parts for jet engines and power plants, but the process leaves microscopic holes that cause the materials to shatter. Publishing in International Journal of Extreme Manufacturing, Prof. Fangyong Niu's team in Dalian University of Technology have fixed the problem by doing something unconventional: they added a microwave.

Publishing in International Journal of Extreme Manufacturing, Prof. Yanquan Geng's team in Harbin Institute of Technology have devised a way to carve variable-depth, three-dimensional trenches into gallium antimonide, a notably brittle semiconductor, using a microscopic tip vibrating thousands of times per second.

Researchers have developed an ultrasoft, breathable, and multichannel “ear-computer interface” patch. This discreet wearable, made with high-tech MXene materials, can monitor mental fatigue with 90.5% accuracy and even allow users to steer unmanned vehicles using only their thoughts, offering a “burden-free” alternative to traditional brain-mapping caps.

Inspired by Pavlov’s classical conditioning, researchers propose a bio-inspired optical neural network trained via associative learning. Using a dual-color photoresist, sequential UV and visible light exposure encodes memory directly into the material’s fluorescence response, enabling in-situ, computation-free training for pattern recognition—bypassing conventional backpropagation and offering a scalable route to low-cost, edge-compatible photonic AI hardware.