UCLA and Broadcom researchers introduced the design and fabrication of a broadband, polarization-insensitive unidirectional imager operating in the visible spectrum. This device was fabricated through wafer-scale lithography on high-purity fused silica, offering high optical transparency, thermal stability and ultra-low loss. This work marks the first wafer-scale multilayer diffractive processor designed for visible imaging, enabling scalable, high-throughput production for advanced applications such as intelligent imaging, optical sensing, privacy protection, and all-optical information processing.

A research team led by Professor Sung Hoon Kim from the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Korea University has developed the world’s first alginate-based microrobot that can be tracked using Magnetic Particle Imaging (MPI). The newly developed system marks a major milestone in microrobotics by enabling real-time localization, selective thermal therapy, and cell delivery—all powered and controlled through a single magnetic actuation system, completely independent of conventional medical imaging devices such as cameras, CT, or X-ray machines.

Animals like bats, whales and insects have long used acoustic signals for communication and navigation. Now, an international team of scientists have taken a page from nature's playbook to model micro-sized robots that use sound waves to coordinate into large swarms that exhibit intelligent-like behavior. The robot groups could one day carry out complex tasks like exploring disaster zones, cleaning up pollution, or performing medical treatments from inside the body, according to team lead Igor Aronson, Huck Chair Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Chemistry, and Mathematics at Penn State.

New research by University at Buffalo and University of Colorado Boulder researchers has uncovered and characterized novel two-dimensional wave patterns — waves that propagate along two directions — whether they are in water or other settings like plasmas and condensed matter. 

In 2024, NASA’s Mars rover Perseverance collected an unusual rock sample, Sapphire Canyon, that features white, leopardlike spots and might hold clues about sources of organic molecules within Mars. In Review of Scientific Instruments, researchers used optical photothermal infrared spectroscopy to study a visually similar rock to try to determine if O-PTIR can be applied to the Sapphire Canyon sample when it is eventually brought here. They aimed to see if O-PTIR could differentiate between the rock’s primary material and its dark inclusions and found it was extremely effective because of the enhanced spatial resolution of O-PTIR.