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Tech & Engineering

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 27-Oct-2026 19:16 ET (27-Oct-2026 23:16 GMT/UTC)

Beyond vaccines: mRNA-LNPs transition into programmable living medicine

Science China Press
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new review in Medicine Plus traces the evolution of mRNA lipid nanoparticles (mRNA-LNPs) from prophylactic vaccine vehicles to programmable therapeutic platforms. The authors detail clinical and preclinical progress across infectious disease, cancer, autoimmunity, rare genetic disease and tissue repair, while identifying key translational hurdles including extrahepatic targeting, repeat-dose immunogenicity, off-target editing risks, and scalable manufacturing.

Journal: Medicine Plus

Beijing rivers harbor more resistance genes, diversion waters show stronger mobilization signals

KeAi Communications Co., Ltd.
Peer-Reviewed Publication

This study analyzes 30 surface-water metagenomes from four functionally distinct waterbody types in Beijing, revealing starkly differentiated antibiotic resistance gene (ARG) landscapes. Urban rivers sustained the highest ARG burden, while relatively isolated urban lakes exhibited the lowest. Notably, receiving waters linked to the South-to-North Water Diversion Project maintained an intermediate load yet displayed the strongest coupling between ARGs and mobile genetic elements (R²=0.965), signaling elevated mobilization potential at these hydrological interfaces. The findings provide a foundational ecological framework for tracking resistance transport and informing risk-oriented management of megacity aquatic networks.

Journal: Water & Ecology
Funder: National Natural Science Foundation of China

“Hidden order in disorder” makes nanodevices easier to design

Pohang University of Science & Technology (POSTECH)
Peer-Reviewed Publication

POSTECH researchers develop a new analytical framework that reveals hidden periodicity in complex metasurfaces.

Journal: Nature Communications

KAIST develops AI technology that fixes SQL errors without starting over

The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)
Peer-Reviewed Publication

- Professor Min-Soo Kim’s research team in the School of Computing develops SafeQL, a technology that identifies and selectively corrects errors in AI-generated SQL queries

- SafeQL resolves execution errors in up to 87.4% of initially erroneous queries in international benchmark tests, while reducing token use by a factor of up to 15.1 and correction time by a factor of up to 29.6 compared with full query regeneration

- The technology corrects references to nonexistent database tables, columns, functions, and values, helping reduce enterprise AI operating costs and advance reliable AI work assistants

Funder: National Research Foundation of Korea, Institute of Information & Communications Technology Planning & Evaluation, Ministry of Science and ICT

Seventy years of AI: From Dartmouth dream to scientific discovery partner

Shenyang Agricultural University Collaborative Journals
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Seventy years after a small group of scientists gathered at Dartmouth College and helped launch artificial intelligence as an academic discipline, AI has evolved from an ambitious idea into a powerful force reshaping science, medicine, industry, and environmental protection.

Three University of Tennessee faculty receive R&D 100 Awards

University of Tennessee at Knoxville
Grant and Award Announcement

Three faculty members at University of Tennessee, Knoxville, are among the recipients of 2026 R&D 100 Awards. Jack Dongarra, professor emeritus and Distinguished Professor of Computer Science, and Yilu Liu, UT-Oak Ridge National Laboratory Governor’s Chair for Power Grids, are being honored for their work on innovations that will benefit large-scale scientific computing and protect critical infrastructure. Parans Paranthaman, who holds a joint appointment at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and UT, has been recognized as the 2026 R&D 100 Researcher of the Year.

Worcester Polytechnic Institute researchers secure NSF CAREER Awards to power and secure future innovation

Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Grant and Award Announcement

NSF CAREER Awards will support two five-year research projects aimed at advancing cybersecurity and AI-guided electrochemical technologies. One project will develop privacy-protecting cybersecurity approaches for AI-enabled devices operating at the edge of networks, including wearable health monitors. The other will use AI to examine how small organic molecules influence catalytic reactions, with the goal of capturing carbon dioxide and converting it more efficiently into fuels and other valuable chemicals.

Can climate coalitions break the carbon “free-rider” problem?

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Reports and Proceedings

Because greenhouse gases affect the global climate regardless of where they are emitted, countries benefit from other nations' efforts to cut emissions while retaining incentives to underinvest themselves. In a Policy Article, Catherine Wolfram and colleagues argue that countries could make climate policy more effective by forming a coalition that would adopt carbon pricing for four major industrial sectors – iron and steel, aluminum, cement, and fertilizers – which together produce about 20% of global greenhouse-gas emissions. To prevent companies from shifting production to countries with weaker climate policies, coalition members would also impose carbon charges on imports from nonmembers, the authors note. Here, Wolfram et al. investigate the value and potential of such coalitions. Using detailed data on individual industrial plants and global trade patterns, the authors compared a uniform carbon price with a graduated system that sets lower prices for lower-income countries. They found that an initial coalition could reduce global greenhouse-gas emissions by about 1.5%, while having relatively small effects on industrial production, limiting carbon leakage, and generating nearly $200 billion in annual public revenue. According to the authors, the approach is designed to address a central weakness of international climate policy: countries differ greatly in their economic capacity and willingness to impose carbon costs. A tiered system, combined with technology sharing, climate finance, and capacity building, could therefore allow lower-income countries to participate while gradually strengthening their climate policies. “A coalition that marries carbon pricing and trade policies offers a practical path at a fractious time and offers a pathway to overcome the international climate-policy coordination problem. It aligns incentives, builds on what countries are already doing, and replaces a race to the bottom with a race to the cleanest,” Wolfram et al. write.

Journal: Science

Physics advance could improve how AI remembers and learns

Stanford University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The complex properties of spin glasses inspired aspects of modern AI software, and now physicists have produced an atomic-level spin glass that can store and recall memories. The new spin glass can retrieve complete memories from partial or degraded information, acting as an associative memory. It demonstrated memory recall storage capacity well beyond what was theorized for spin glass. While the study describes proof-of-principle work done with extremely cold atoms, the system could eventually point toward more efficient AI training and resource utilization.

Journal: Science