EurekAlert! News by Subject: Tech & Engineering - News by Subject: Tech & Engineering

Tech & Engineering

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 6-May-2025 06:09 ET (6-May-2025 10:09 GMT/UTC)

New technology turns waste heat into electricity, defies physical limit

University of Colorado at Boulder
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new advancement in technology known as thermophotovoltaics could help harvest heat from geothermal, nuclear and solar radiation power plans around the globe.

Journal: Energy & Environmental Science

‘Hey Siri, choose my medical expert.’

University of South Australia
Peer-Reviewed Publication

From tailored Netflix recommendations to personalised Facebook feeds, artificial intelligence (AI) adeptly serves content that matches our preferences and past behaviours. But while a restaurant tip or two is handy, how comfortable would you be if AI-algorithms were in charge of your medical expert or new hire?

Journal: Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence

Looking to the past to understand the impacts of human land use in South Asia

University of Pennsylvania
Peer-Reviewed Publication

An international group of scholars, including archaeologists from the School of Arts & Sciences, synthesized archaeological evidence in South Asia from 12,000 and 6,000 years ago.

Journal: PLOS One
Funder: Past Global Changes, Swiss Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., European Research Council, International Union for Quaternary Research, Universitat Pompeu Fabra

New laparoscopic imaging technique accurately maps biological tissue for minimally invasive surgery

SPIE--International Society for Optics and Photonics
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new laparoscopic imaging system developed by researchers at Johns Hopkins University combines stereo depth estimation and speckle-illumination spatial frequency domain imaging (si-SFDI) to provide accurate optical property maps of tissues during minimally invasive surgery. The compact two-camera laparoscope uses a fiber-coupled laser to generate high-contrast speckle patterns, enabling precise measurements of tissue absorption and scattering. Unlike previous methods that required multiple images, the new system achieves accurate results with just two images, enabling future real-time mapping. This breakthrough has the potential to improve surgical precision, particularly in distinguishing cancerous tissue and critical margins, offering a promising tool for enhanced surgical guidance in procedures like cancer resection.

Journal: Journal of Biomedical Optics

Introducing ‘Spidernet’ - a smart tech tool to tackle digital crime

University of Portsmouth
Peer-Reviewed Publication

England's University of Portsmouth and University of Winchester experts in computing and criminology have developed a tool which can track down perpetrators of online crime who believe they're untraceable

Journal: Future Internet

Pancreatic cancer: blocked nerves as a possible new treatment strategy

German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ)
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Pancreatic cancer is fueled by connections to the nervous system. This is reported by scientists from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and the Heidelberg Institute for Stem Cell Technology and Experimental Medicine (HI-STEM)* in their current publication in Nature. The team discovered that the tumor specifically reprograms the neurons for its own benefit. In mice, blocking nerve function inhibited cancer growth and increased the sensitivity of tumor cells to certain chemotherapies and immunotherapies.

Journal: Nature

This research is absolutely nuts – for better health care

University of Chicago
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A nut used in herbal tea has become a hydrogel perfect for a variety of biomedical uses in new research from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Engineering (UChicago PME) and UChicago Chemistry Department. A paper published today in Matter created a malva nut hydrogel for medical uses ranging from wound care to ECG readings. The research doesn’t rely on the rumored health benefits of the nuts – in China, they’re known as the sore throat remedy Pangdahai (PDH) – but for their ability to swell 20 times their weight in water.

Journal: Matter