Startup from Penn State research to scale-up domestic critical mineral recovery
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Updates every hour. Last Updated: 19-Oct-2026 13:17 ET (19-Oct-2026 17:17 GMT/UTC)
Old electronics and solar panels could become a new, domestic source for critical and strategic materials through Intel-E-Waste, a startup whose technology builds on foundational research from Penn State.
Tau proteins misfold and stack into long fibrils that disrupt neurons, and when released, can cause tau in neighboring cells to misfold and aggregate, too. Researchers found naive soluble tau connects to an existing tau at a single hotspot, marked by water held in a particular shape, and becomes misfolded to match the shape and extend the fibril. Scientists could target hotspots to prevent a cascade of misfolding and fibrillization events that lead to neurodegenerative diseases.
Johns Hopkins University engineers have created robots the size of a pencil tip intended to travel through the body to deliver medicine to infections inside a beating heart.
The bots, designed to replace risky open-heart surgery and ineffective IV-drug therapy to treat life-threatening heart infections, could also be used to less invasively and more precisely treat other hard-to-reach diseases including cancer.
Researchers from Rutgers, IBM and collaborating institutions have shown that a quantum computer can check what is happening inside it and respond while it is running, repeatedly resetting parts of the system to bring chaotic behavior under control.
The advance is a critical step toward building larger, more reliable quantum computers.
Today’s quantum computers operate according to the unusual rules governing atoms and other extremely small particles. They could one day solve problems beyond the reach of conventional computers — designing better batteries and cleaner industrial catalysts, simulating molecules and materials too complex for today’s computers, and running certain artificial intelligence programs.
In a study published in Nature Physics, researchers from Rutgers, International Business Machines Corp., and collaborating institutions showed that a quantum computer can repeatedly check and reset parts of itself while running. The experiment is among the largest demonstrations to date of real-time quantum feedback control, a capability considered essential for future quantum computers that will be fault tolerant.
Adolescence is a sensitive period for brain development and mental health, though the connection between the two is not fully understood. New research published in Imaging Neuroscience identifies a link between specific brain circuits and anxiety, which could become the targets of precision interventions to improve mental health outcomes in youth.
UC San Diego biologists have unraveled the genetic adaptation that gave butterflies the ability to see rich, vivid color in their environment. The genetic change produces an additional photoreceptor that expands color vision for locating nectar and other butterflies.