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

Tech & Engineering

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 2-Sep-2025 13:11 ET (2-Sep-2025 17:11 GMT/UTC)

27-Mar-2025

New material gives copper superalloy-like strength

Lehigh University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers from the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) and Lehigh University have developed a groundbreaking nanostructured copper alloy that could redefine high-temperature materials for aerospace, defense and industrial applications. Their findings, published in Science, introduce a Cu-Ta-Li (Copper-Tantalum-Lithium) alloy with exceptional thermal stability and mechanical strength, making it one of the most resilient copper-based materials ever created.

Journal: Science
Funder: Army Research Laboratory, U.S. National Science Foundation, U.S. National Science Foundation

27-Mar-2025

Researchers develop new design and fabrication method to make lightsails for interstellar travel

Brown University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

In a potential step toward sending small spacecraft to the stars, researchers have developed an ultra-thin, ultra-reflective membrane designed to ride a column of laser light to incredible speeds.

Journal: Nature Communications

27-Mar-2025

Mapping the Earth’s crops

National Center for Supercomputing Applications
Reports and Proceedings

Imagine you’re a farmer, and you’re planning what to grow this season. You may want to know what crop would be most valuable to grow. If you’re a policymaker, you might want to know if there would be a shortage of a particular crop and incentivize farmers to grow it through subsidies. To do this, you’d have to know what’s currently growing to make those decisions – that’s where crop mapping comes into play. Yi-Chia Chang, a Ph.D. student at the U. of I., used NCSA resources to conduct his research on crop mapping.

27-Mar-2025

Liquid-crystal platform overcomes optical losses in photonic circuits

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

Researchers at the University of Naples Federico II have developed a groundbreaking liquid-crystal-based photonic circuit platform capable of manipulating hundreds of optical modes in a compact, two-dimensional setup. This new optical processor addresses the challenge of optical losses in large-scale photonic systems by maintaining constant losses as the number of modes increases. By extending previous one-dimensional simulations to two-dimensional architectures, the team demonstrated simulations spanning up to 800 optical modes, marking a significant advancement. This technology has the potential to enhance quantum simulations and all-optical AI systems, offering a scalable and efficient approach to complex computational tasks.

Journal: Advanced Photonics

27-Mar-2025

Electronic Screen Use and Sleep Duration and Timing in Adults

JAMA Network
Peer-Reviewed Publication

About The Study: Daily screen use was associated with later bedtimes and approximately 50 minutes less sleep each week in this study. Associations were greater among those with evening chronotypes, who are at risk for poor sleep due to social jetlag (i.e., misalignment between circadian rhythms and social commitments). These findings confirm disruptions to sleep from electronic screens are not limited to children and adolescents. Further work is needed to understand the best mechanisms for intervention.

Journal: JAMA Network Open

27-Mar-2025

Biocompatible hydrogel enables wearable electronics for monitoring marine life health

Higher Education Press
Peer-Reviewed Publication

In a recent study published in Engineering, researchers have developed a hybrid keratin and liquid metal hydrogel. This innovative material shows promise in creating wearable electronics for monitoring the health of marine inhabitants, addressing limitations of traditional hydrogels in mechanical and conductive properties.

Journal: Engineering

27-Mar-2025

ENO2: a key player in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma metastasis

Higher Education Press
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new study published in Engineering has identified enolase 2 (ENO2) as a key factor in the lymphatic metastasis of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). The research reveals how ENO2 and its metabolite phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP) promote cancer cell invasion and macrophage polarization, and shows that inhibiting ENO2 can potentially slow down HNSCC metastasis.

Journal: Engineering