Tech Xplore news

Tech Xplore / Safer batteries for storing energy at massive scale: A new electrolyte with proton-hopping conductivity

Among the enduring challenges of storing energy—for wind or solar farms, or backup storage for the energy grid or data centers—is batteries that can hold large amounts of electricity for a long time. In addition to having ...

Feb 18, 2026 in Engineering
Tech Xplore / Dry-processed battery electrodes skip slurry and deliver better high-voltage cycling

Due to cheaper cost, ease of production and environmental benefits, battery makers and electric vehicle manufacturers have long pursued dry processes for building electrodes. A new dry-processed electrode architecture from ...

Feb 18, 2026 in Energy & Green Tech
Tech Xplore / People are overconfident about spotting AI faces, study finds

Most people believe they can spot AI-generated faces, but that confidence is out of date, research from UNSW Sydney and the Australian National University (ANU) has demonstrated. With AI-generated faces now almost impossible ...

Feb 18, 2026 in Consumer & Gadgets
Tech Xplore / Laughter reveals how we use AI at home

Voice assistants such as Alexa are often marketed as smart tools that streamline everyday life. But once the technology moves into people's homes, interest quickly fades. This is shown by new research in which laughter is ...

Feb 18, 2026 in Consumer & Gadgets
Tech Xplore / Safer railroads through ultrasound: Beamforming algorithms can improve track safety inspections

Advances in ultrasound—the same imaging technology that uses sound waves to allow doctors to monitor babies in utero—are being applied by engineers at the University of California San Diego to make railroad track inspection ...

Feb 18, 2026 in Engineering
Tech Xplore / Personalization features can make LLMs more agreeable, potentially creating a virtual echo chamber

Many of the latest large language models (LLMs) are designed to remember details from past conversations or store user profiles, enabling these models to personalize responses. But researchers from MIT and Penn State University ...

Feb 18, 2026 in Consumer & Gadgets
Tech Xplore / How can you rescue a 'kidnapped' robot? New AI system helps robots regain their sense of location

Mobile robots must continuously estimate their position to navigate autonomously. However, satellite-based navigation systems are not always reliable: signals may degrade near buildings or become unavailable indoors. To operate ...

Feb 18, 2026 in Robotics
Tech Xplore / Robot hand approaches human-like dexterity with new visual-tactile training

Human hands are a wonder of nature and unmatched in the animal kingdom. They can twist caps, flick switches, handle tiny objects with ease, and perform thousands of tasks every day. Robot hands struggle to keep up. They typically ...

Feb 17, 2026 in Robotics
Tech Xplore / Ultrafast 3D printing method creates complex objects in under a second

High-speed 3D printing has just gotten a lot faster. Researchers from Tsinghua University in China have developed a new high-speed printing technology capable of creating complex millimeter-scale objects in just 0.6 seconds. ...

Feb 17, 2026 in Engineering
Tech Xplore / The giant fire tornado that could save our oceans

In the frantic hours following an offshore oil spill, emergency responders face a destructive decision: let the oil spread or ignite it. Once ignited, it creates an "in-situ" fire pool that stops the oil from spreading and ...

Feb 17, 2026 in Engineering
Tech Xplore / Hydrogen-bond networks boost all-perovskite solar cell efficiency

The use of solar cells, devices that can convert sunlight into electricity, has grown exponentially over the past decades. These devices are enabling the production of clean and renewable energy, which could contribute to ...

Feb 17, 2026 in Engineering
Tech Xplore / New electrolyzer turns plastic-waste syngas into ethylene with less energy

For every ton of ethylene created, one ton of carbon dioxide is produced. With more than 300 million tons of ethylene produced each year, the production system has a huge carbon footprint that scientists and engineers are ...

Feb 17, 2026 in Engineering