A new study led by a UNU scientist warns that land subsidence driven by groundwater decline is putting thousands of buildings in India’s largest cities at risk of structural damage. Researchers estimate that over 2,400 buildings in Delhi, Mumbai, and Chennai are already highly vulnerable, with more than 23,000 at risk across five megacities if current trends persist. The authors urge urgent action to reduce groundwater extraction and strengthen urban resilience to protect millions living in sinking areas.

Song Fang, a researcher with the University of Oklahoma, has been awarded funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation to create training-free detection methods and novel countermeasures to protect sensitive information from emerging wireless eavesdropping techniques.

After vocal cord surgery, many patients develop stiff vocal folds that impact their ability to speak. Hydrogels can help prevent this by promoting healing, but delivering hydrogels to the vocal cords is difficult. Publishing October 29 in the Cell Press journal Device, a team of biomechanical engineers and surgeons have developed a 3D-printing soft robot that can accurately deliver hydrogels to the vocal cord surgical site to reconstruct tissues removed during surgery. The robot’s printhead is only 2.7 mm in size—the smallest bioprinter reported to date.  

In chapters in a new book, researchers examine how the structure of tasks can facilitate or impede the adoption of genAI, how workers of different types choose to use genAI, and where workers are likely to look for jobs if they are displaced from their work due to genAI. GenAI will likely widen the “cone of automation” by substituting for labor in more complex work or in work that occurs less frequently, the authors conclude.