News by Subject Technology & Engineering

A new interface developed by researchers in Bristol and Paris takes touch technology to the next level by providing an artificial skin-like membrane for augmenting interactive devices such as phones, wearables or computers.

A research group at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, has developed an efficient process for breaking down any plastic waste to a molecular level. The resulting gases can then be transformed back into new plastics - of the same quality as the original. The new process could transform today's plastic factories into recycling refineries, within the framework of their existing infrastructure.

The National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) has demonstrated the first large-scale optical switching testbed capable of handling 1 Petabit per second optical signals. This demonstration made use of state-of-the-art large-scale and low-loss optical switches based on MEMS technology, three types of next-generation spatial-division multiplexing fibers, and included data rates from 10 Terabit per second to 1 Petabit per second. This is a major step forward towards practical petabit-class backbone networks.

Northwestern University researchers have developed a new, futuristic 3D printer that is so big and so fast it can print an object the size of an adult human in just a couple of hours.

Systems of tiny robots may someday build high-performance structures, from airplanes to space settlements.

Expect a tradeoff between alfalfa yield and quality when fertilizing with potassium.