Engineering advances and applied technology.
Researchers developed light-sensitive hydrogels that rapidly form twists, helices and other handed shapes when selected areas are illuminated. The shapes can be erased in darkness and reprogrammed with light, and the gel can rotate for robotic movement.
Researchers developed an aerial robot that uses touch to refine its position and perch on structures it has not encountered before. The system succeeded in more than 99% of simulated trials and completed 26 real-world perching trials despite corrupted position estimates.
A modeling study of Belgium’s 2045 energy system found that all near-optimal low-carbon pathways met the climate target but exceeded limits for ecotoxicity and particulate matter under the most permissive assessment approach. The pathways had similar costs but differed in whether they relied mainly on electrification, hydrogen, renewable power capacity or a mix of strategies.
Researchers developed a way to calculate traffic sensitivities efficiently in road networks with different vehicle classes, merges, diverges and congestion spillback. Tests on a sample network found the approach was particularly efficient as the number of control parameters increased.
A study tested a moon-shaped pattern cut into AISI 5115 steel and found lower friction and wear than on untextured steel. At tested rotational speeds, the best texture reduced friction by up to 52% and wear by up to 83.9%.
A study tested nano-hydroxyapatite, a calcium-and-phosphorus mineral, as a leaf spray for phosphorus-deficient barley. The particles released phosphorus gradually, but uptake varied with plant species, humidity and spray properties.
A review of earthquakes linked to hydraulic fracturing in the Duvernay shale identifies geological and operational factors associated with higher seismicity. It proposes screening, injection limits and real-time monitoring, while noting that key triggering thresholds remain uncertain.
A system that combines camera images with radar data improved 3D object detection over single-sensor systems in tests on the nuScenes dataset. Its results were competitive with other leading methods that combine data from multiple sensors.
Aggressive driving was associated with more than 2.5 times the model-predicted battery capacity fade of eco-driving in a study using real-world electric-vehicle data. The result comes from a physics-based causal-inference framework, not a direct long-term measurement of battery loss.
Neural networks running on low-power microcontrollers decoded surface muscle signals in real time, a requirement for wearable devices and prosthetic control. On a large-scale benchmark, the models matched or exceeded earlier accuracy with up to 5,000 times lower computational cost in resource-constrained settings.
A single ionic wearable sensor simultaneously captured the heart’s electrical signals and arterial pulse waves in a wristband. The design could support beat-to-beat blood-pressure monitoring without timing errors between separate sensors, although the reported testing was limited to daily resting conditions.
A manganese dioxide cathode containing isolated, high-spin cobalt atoms helped an aqueous zinc–manganese battery deliver 658 mAh per gram and run for more than 15,000 cycles. The researchers say the cobalt enabled reversible three-electron storage and helped convert deposited manganese compounds back into active material without added acid or a redox mediator.
A two-molecule layered coating helped organic solar cells maintain higher efficiency when scaled into a mini-module. The module reached 17.0% efficiency, compared with 12.2% for a single-molecule control.
Chitosan scaffolds carrying two bone-related peptides improved bone-cell adhesion, growth and mineralization in laboratory tests. In vivo, scaffolds with both peptides supported greater cell colonization and reduced the thickness of fibrous tissue around the implant material.
Two different scandium treatments improved the cycling life of a layered sodium-battery cathode. After 100 cycles in sodium half-cells, capacity retention rose from 18.6% without the treatments to 67.8% with scandium inside the material and 75.4% with a scandium oxide coating.
