Tech Xplore news

Tech Xplore / Birdlike robot swims underwater, then flaps into flight without paddling

Loons, gulls, puffins and petrels are some of the 100 species of birds that can both fly and swim. These diving birds can plunge into water to swim after prey, and leap back into the air to fly away.

Jul 9, 2026
Tech Xplore / Meet Biomni—an AI-powered biomedical co-scientist

In creating a comprehensive, AI-enabled research agent for the biomedical sciences, Stanford University researchers hope to speed innovation by eliminating the tedium of scientific legwork. Biomni, an AI-powered, multiskilled ...

Jul 9, 2026
Tech Xplore / Perovskite triple-junction solar cells reach 27.3% efficiency with record 770-hour stability

Perovskite semiconductors efficiently convert sunlight into electrical energy; they are also inexpensive and extremely lightweight. A team at HZB has developed a triple-junction solar cell comprising different perovskite ...

Jul 9, 2026
Tech Xplore / Small aquatic robots that assemble into reconfigurable structures on the water

Most people think of the waterfront as the edge of the city. A team of MIT researchers sees it as a dynamic, Lego-like construction site. Their new system, called "FloatForm," is a swarm of small square robotic boats that ...

Jul 9, 2026
Tech Xplore / Rooftop solar adoption may hinge on a household champion, studies suggest

Two sets of roles emerge when couples consider installing solar panels on their house, a new study shows: in sync, when partners with shared goals and defined tasks end up adopting solar, and oppositional, marked by discord ...

Jul 9, 2026
Tech Xplore / New pellet-making method points to safer, more predictable high-explosive manufacturing

For decades, manufacturing plastic-bonded high explosives, or PBXs, has relied on legacy processes like slurry coating. In this method, explosive crystals are mixed with a binder, a polymer that helps hold the material together, ...

Jul 9, 2026
Tech Xplore / Low-current standby protects carbon dioxide catalysts for 750 hours and cuts costs 25%

Catalysts that convert waste carbon dioxide into valuable products like acetate are designed to run continuously on electricity for the conversion process. But electricity from renewable energy sources, such as solar or hydroelectric ...

Jul 9, 2026
Tech Xplore / AI agent tests whether machines can speak for patients at life's end

Across aging societies, a gap is widening: People live longer, but families grow smaller. A rising number could reach the end of life, unable to make their own medical decisions and with no next of kin or trusted friend to ...

Jul 9, 2026
Tech Xplore / News outlets urge a judge to sanction OpenAI in a high-stakes AI copyright fight

The New York Times, the Daily News and other media outlets are asking a federal judge to impose sanctions on OpenAI, escalating a fight over artificial intelligence and copyright that could shape the future of a struggling ...

Jul 9, 2026
Tech Xplore / Smaller homes could cut Europe's CO₂ building emissions

Buildings are responsible for around 40% of CO2 emissions in the European Union. This means the building sector has a central role to play in achieving the EU's climate targets by 2050. An EU research project involving Graz ...

Jul 9, 2026
Tech Xplore / Researchers develop a new way to build molecular 'ladders' for organic electronics

Ladder-type oligothiophenes are an important class of sulfur-containing π-conjugated molecules. Because their fused, ladder-like structures can support efficient electronic interactions, they are widely studied as core motifs ...

Jul 9, 2026
Tech Xplore / Automated 2D semiconductor screening could speed low-power AI chip development

The era of researchers manually searching for two-dimensional semiconductors, which are drawing attention as next-generation AI semiconductors, is coming to an end. KAIST researchers have automated semiconductor screening ...

Jul 9, 2026