Tech Xplore news
Tech Xplore / From trash to takeoff: Pilot plant produces 100 kg of sustainable aviation fuel per day from landfill gas
The aviation industry accounts for a significant share of global carbon emissions. In response, the international community is expanding mandatory use of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), which is produced from organic waste ...
Tech Xplore / Why reinforcement learning breaks at scale, and how a new method fixes it
From autonomous cars to video games, reinforcement learning (machine learning through interaction with environments) can have an important impact. That may feel especially true, for example, when you're a passenger late for ...
Tech Xplore / A programmable, Lego-like material for robots emulates life's flexibility
Mechanical engineers at Duke University have demonstrated a proof-of-concept method for programming mechanical properties into solid Lego-like building blocks. By controlling the solidity of hundreds of individual cells in ...
Tech Xplore / Neptunium study yields plutonium insights for space exploration
Researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory are breathing new life into the scientific understanding of neptunium, a unique, radioactive, metallic element—and a key precursor for production of ...
Tech Xplore / Unhackable metasurface holograms: Security technology can lock information with light color and distance
A research team led by Professor Junsuk Rho at POSTECH (Pohang University of Science and Technology) has developed a secure hologram platform that operates solely based on the wavelength of light and the spacing between metasurface ...
Tech Xplore / Your future home might be framed with printed plastic
The plastic bottle you just tossed in the recycling bin could provide structural support for your future house. MIT engineers are using recycled plastic to 3D print construction-grade beams, trusses, and other structural ...
Tech Xplore / They're robots, and they're here to help: Computer scientist improves robot interactions with human beings
Friendly robots, the ones people love to love, are quirky: R2-D2, C-3PO, WALL-E, BB-8, Marvin, Roz and Baymax. They're emotional, prone to panic or bossy, empathetic and able to communicate like humans do—even when they ...
Tech Xplore / Octopus-inspired 'smart skin' uses 4D printing to morph on cue
Despite the prevalence of synthetic materials across different industries and scientific fields, most are developed to serve a limited set of functions. To address this inflexibility, researchers at Penn State, led by Hongtao ...
Tech Xplore / MoSi₂ shows transverse thermoelectric effect, converting waste heat to electricity
Thermoelectric conversion devices offer a promising route for sustainable heat-to-energy conversion. They are particularly attractive for recovering energy from waste heat, such as that produced by conventional fossil fuel-based ...
Tech Xplore / Novel approach to a key biofuel production step captures an elusive energy source
Plants grown for biofuel have the potential to power our travel industry, but an important fraction of their chemical power has remained stubbornly difficult to recover. New research from the Center for Advanced Biofuel and ...
Tech Xplore / OpenClaw's AI agent does everything, even social media
Meet OpenClaw: the AI assistant that promised to be your dream intern, terrified cybersecurity experts, and now thrives on chatbot-only social media—all in just a few weeks.
Tech Xplore / How the web is learning to better protect itself
More than 35 years after the first website went online, the web has evolved from static pages to complex interactive systems, often with security added as an afterthought. To mitigate risks, developers use security headers ...
