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Tech & Engineering

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 10-Jun-2026 04:16 ET (10-Jun-2026 08:16 GMT/UTC)

300 million years of hidden genetic instructions shaping plant evolution revealed

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A deep genetic mystery has baffled plant scientists for decades. Although leaves, stems, and flowers develop in strikingly similar ways across many plant species, scientists have struggled to identify the shared DNA instructions that guide their formation. A new study now uncovers this hidden regulatory code and shows that its core has been conserved for 300 million years of plant evolution. Remarkably, these ancient DNA sequences were hidden in plain sight but were obscured by the constant reshuffling and duplication of plant genomes. By uncovering this deep-time blueprint, the research reshapes our understanding of plant evolution, showing how core regulatory logic is preserved and modified to guide the diversity of plant shapes and forms. The findings also carry important implications for agriculture, where fine-tuning gene regulation, rather than altering genes themselves, opens new paths to developing more resilient and productive crops.

Journal: Science

A better method for planning complex visual tasks

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Reports and Proceedings

A new AI-driven system generates plans for long-term, complex tasks about twice as well as some existing methods. The technique, developed at MIT, uses two vision-language models that work together to simulate actions and produce files for formal planning software.

Funder: MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab

Overlooked brainstem pathway controls human hands

University of California - Riverside
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers have identified a network of connections linking the brainstem and spinal cord that helps control hand and arm movements, revealing an unexpected layer of the nervous system enabling people to grasp, hold, and manipulate objects.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

OU researchers are using revolutionary radars to advance lightning monitoring and storm electrification research

University of Oklahoma
Grant and Award Announcement

A newly funded research project led by David Schvartzman will use trailblazing technology to transform understanding of lightning and electrification, helping to improve storm warnings and better assess the risk of structural damage and power outages from thunderstorms.

Reduced-impact management can promote forest recovery and carbon storage

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Thirty years of research in the Amazon provides evidence that good timber harvesting practices increase above-ground biomass and can contribute to mitigating climate change.

Journal: Journal of Environmental Management
Funder: Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo

Testing large language models on scientific literature

Cornell University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Large language models (LLMs) show promise as a tool for exploring the vast scientific literature, but are they trustworthy when it comes to providing full and scientifically accurate answers to complex questions in specialized fields?

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

A new disaster recovery algorithm prioritizes fairness in aid delivery

Stevens Institute of Technology
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Humanitarian relief efforts commonly rely on the combination of trucks and drones as a "tag team" to solve the biggest challenge in a disaster: damaged or otherwise inaccessible roads. However, most aid delivery algorithms focus on reducing the average aid delivery times. Now, a research team at Stevens Institute of Technology designed an algorithm that generates the most optimal routes for the truck and drone aid delivery for all locations.

Journal: Computers & Industrial Engineering

USC study finds AI agents can autonomously coordinate propaganda campaigns without human direction

University of Southern California
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Study fiinds AI agents can autonomously coordinate propaganda campaigns without human direction.Traditional bot campaigns are tightly scripted to follow fixed instructions: always retweet this account, reply with this hashtag, post this prewritten message. The content is repetitive and the patterns predictable, making them possible to uncover.The new AI-powered model works differently. A hostile government, political operative, or bad actor sets a goal and designates a network of AI agents as a team. From there, the agents take over, writing their own posts, learning what works, copying their so-called teammates’ successful approaches, and echoing each other’s content. Because every post is slightly different and the coordination latent, these conversations or discussions seem genuine.

Funder: Intelligent Contract Automation for Rethinking User Services, PNRR MUR, Italian Ministry of Economic Development

Advancing breastfeeding research through optical analysis of human milk

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

Researchers have uncovered new insights into the optical properties of human milk that could improve the assessment of milk production in breastfeeding mothers. Low milk supply affects an estimated 10–15 percent of mothers, yet its underlying causes remain poorly understood. By analyzing how human milk scatters light, the researchers identified refractive index values specific to human milk fat particles—significantly different from those in cow’s milk—and demonstrated that both fat concentration and fat‑particle size distribution strongly influence light scattering behavior. Their two studies, published in Biophotonics Discovery, lay the groundwork for compact, noninvasive optical tools capable of monitoring changes in milk composition during breastfeeding. Such technology could enable real‑time evaluation of lactation physiology and support efforts to better understand and address lactation insufficiency.

Journal: Biophotonics Discovery