Tech Xplore news

Tech Xplore / Closed-loop process could unlock cheaper lithium from rocks with near-zero waste

Demand for lithium has surged in recent years as lithium-ion batteries increasingly power more of our world. And yet, even as places like the U.S., Europe, and Australia have abundant lithium resources within their borders, ...

May 28, 2026
Tech Xplore / Robot learns to play music by ear, opening new possibilities in medicine and therapy

Scientists at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering have developed a robotic hand that can hear a melody once and play it back after just two minutes of self-taught practice on a keyboard, without relying on sheet music or ...

May 28, 2026
Tech Xplore / Filtering out humanity: AI-assisted internet research favors cold logic over ethos and pathos

Is the internet losing its soul? A collaborative study by UC Riverside computer and social scientists suggests so. As artificial intelligence increasingly answers our online questions with quick summaries and polished explanations, ...

May 28, 2026
Tech Xplore / Biobased magnetic sensors printed from iron and cellulose rival some commercial devices

Today, magnetic field sensors are one of the invisible mass-produced products in the electronics industry. They measure movement, positions or distances and can be found in window contacts, steering wheels, hard disks, packaging ...

May 28, 2026
Tech Xplore / AI listens to insect body signals to guide cyborg cockroaches

Cyborg insects have long been studied as bio-hybrid systems that combine living organisms with small electronic devices. These systems may one day support tasks such as disaster search and rescue, environmental monitoring, ...

May 28, 2026
Tech Xplore / MetaBeeAI could speed systematic reviews of nearly 1,000 papers with human oversight

Queen Mary University researchers have developed a new AI-powered framework, MetaBeeAI, designed to help scientists review and analyze vast amounts of literature faster, more transparently, and with greater human oversight.

May 28, 2026
Tech Xplore / Disco lasers helps snow groomers project tracks, warnings and speed cues

When it comes to snow groomers, excavators or crane vehicles, how can their operation be optimized even in difficult conditions and made safer for people in and around the vehicle? An international research team, including ...

May 28, 2026
Tech Xplore / Breaking the optical barrier: Terahertz tech could help enable quantum internet security

A new method to distribute cryptographic keys using terahertz waves could help enable secure communication in the quantum-powered internet of the future, researchers say. Engineers from the University of Glasgow are pioneering ...

May 27, 2026
Tech Xplore / Safer all-solid-state sodium battery could cut grid storage costs and reduce lithium dependence

Lithium-ion batteries dominate the market for large-scale energy storage today. However, the element's uneven global distribution and rising costs are driving the search for alternatives. Sodium is roughly a thousand times ...

May 27, 2026
Tech Xplore / Solar-powered desalination system turns ocean water into drinking water, without waste

The United Nations estimates that 2.2 billion people lack safely managed drinking water, and communities from California to the Middle East rely on desalination plants to convert ocean water to fresh water. Common desalination ...

May 27, 2026
Tech Xplore / It looks like a sea urchin, but this strange 20-legged machine is rewriting what robots can do

Symmetry is everywhere in nature, from the bilateral form of vertebrates to the radial geometry of starfish. For decades, roboticists have tried to copy these shapes and their abilities with bodies that look like humans, ...

May 27, 2026
Tech Xplore / Quantum computing may need far more than power as future data centers scale up

As quantum computing moves closer to large-scale deployment, new research is examining its future energy, water, and material demands.

May 27, 2026