Last week, I came across something that genuinely blew my mind – a flying squirrel-inspired drone with foldable wings. Yep, a drone that mimics how a squirrel glides through the air. It was one of those rare “wait, what?” moments that made me want to dig deeper. So, I reached out to the team behind it. Dohyeon Lee, one of the researchers on the project, said yes to an email interview.
Read MoreTag: innovation
Terrell-Penrose Effect: Visualizing High-Speed Relativity
I’ll be honest, I have always thought ‘thought-experiments’ can never be visually demonstrated. And so, we would have to keep imagining intangible concepts in our minds, like, what happens to an object traveling at the speed of light, where time would seemingly stop and length would contract. However, a group of researchers in Austria did something unbelievable. They visually demonstrated the Terrell-Penrose effect, a phenomenon predicted all the way back in 1959 but never actually observed.
Read MoreScientists Use VR to Teach Robots Swarming Behavior by Studying Fish
A team of biologists and robotic engineers recently used virtual reality (VR) to crack the code of how fish school, with the goal of teaching robots to swarm in the same way. Imagine you’re at a party where everyone’s dancing to the same rhythm, but there’s no DJ or leader telling people what to do. Everyone just knows how to stay in sync, avoid bumping into each other, and respond to changes in the crowd. That’s basically what schools of fish do, and it’s something that robots have struggled to…
Read MoreBiomimicry: Squirrel Drone with Foldable Wings Shows Superior Maneuverability
Drones that we see today are very well equipped with focusing systems that allow for high-resolution imaging, precise navigation, and advanced object tracking capabilities. However, when it comes to executing sharp turns, a key limitation of today’s drones, the tech is still in its early stages of development.
Read MoreSmaller Than a Grain of Rice, This Pacemaker Runs on Light
Northwestern engineers have come up with something pretty wild, a pacemaker so small it can fit inside the tip of a syringe. Not only that, but it’s wireless, dissolves inside the body after doing its job, and can be injected without surgery.
Read MoreInterview: Dr. Nicholas Jacobson, Computational Psychiatrist at Dartmouth College, US
When I first came across Therabot, Dartmouth’s AI-powered therapy chatbot, I was immediately intrigued. The idea that technology could play a meaningful role in mental health treatment fascinated me, so I reached out to Dr. Nicholas Jacobson, a leading expert in this space, for an interview. To my delight, he agreed.
Read MoreAntGrip: Enhancing Gripper Performance with Ant-Inspired Hairs
Whenever I find myself really fascinated by biomimicry, I often discover new things inspired by it. This time, it’s a robotic hand that takes ideas from how ants work. Imagine you’re picking up a slippery soda can with a simple two-finger robot gripper. No suction cups, no fancy sensors, just friction. Sounds tricky, right? That’s exactly the kind of challenge researchers tackled by taking inspiration from “ants”.
Read MoreULVAC and IBM Quantum Team Up to Revolutionize Quantum Computing Cooling
Quantum computing is one of the most promising technological frontiers, but it comes with a major challenge, which is, maintaining the extreme cold temperatures that is required for qubits to function. Today’s quantum computers rely on dilution refrigerators, complex and highly specialized cooling systems that keep qubits operating near absolute zero. However, these systems are expensive, tough to maintain and don’t scale easily.
Read MoreQNodeOS: Making Quantum Network Development Accessible to All
For decades, quantum networks have always been looked as a research curiosity than a practical technology. I personally imagined it to be a field of entangled particles, stretching across galaxy and the quantum connections in the field space enables telepathic communication, this is how I concluded, quantum entanglement happens.
Read MoreIs the AI Moat Gone? DeepSeek’s Low-Cost Model Challenges Tech Giants’ Dominance
Disruption is the new normal! – This happens to be the current motif of the AI landscape. DeepSeek has posed some serious challenges to the conventional approach to AI model development. It has proved, at least looking at the current scenario, that there is no need for massive capital expenditures on training the LLMs. In fact, the advancement of AI isn’t just about the amount of data you put in, but how well you can prompt it! This reminds of a talk when asked where an Indian startup with limited…
Read MoreSustainable Protein Production: Dual-Reactor System Converts CO₂ into Single-Cell Protein
A team of Chinese researchers have designed a dual-reactor system, which has the potential of transforming carbon dioxide (CO2) into a consumable single-cell protein, offering a sustainable solution for food production.
Read MoreInterview: Prof. Dr. Michael Gerlich, Head of Foresight & Sustainability, SBS Swiss Business School, Switzerland
Recently, I read one research paper titled, “AI Tools in Society: Impacts on Cognitive Offloading and the Future of Critical Thinking” by Prof. Dr. Michael Gerlich. It is one of those research pieces, which I find extremely interesting and want to get into the depth and collect more insights. So, I tried to touch base with the research scientist and asked for his time for an email interview fortunately, he agreed. Research scientists, like Dr. Gerlich are my intellectual heroes who, despite their towering intellect and busy schedule, remain grounded…
Read MoreRecord Cold Quantum Refrigerator: A Breakthrough for Quantum Computing Stability
An interesting development around quantum computing has surfaced. We all know that these quantum systems require super cold temperature to operate at their optimal performance. Why? Well, the fundamental blocks of quantum computers, which are, the qubits cannot function in regular temperature. For reliable quantum computation, these quantum systems require extremely low temperatures as they are highly sensitive to their surroundings, in fact, even a tiny disturbance by weak electromagnetic interference can cause errors in their system.
Read MoreSynthetic Phosphorylation Networks: A Breakthrough in Cell Signaling
Bioengineers at Rice University have developed an innovative technique for creating custom sense-and-respond circuits in human cells. This innovation could be a game changer for conditions like autoimmune disease and cancer. What is custom sense-and-respond circuits in human cells? It is an interesting mechanism where cells pick up particular signals from its outside environment and react in a certain manner. It can be compared to personalized tools that can empower us to finely tune how cells behave.
Read MoreWHaloCaMP Biosensor: Real-Time Insights into Animal Physiology
Researchers at the Janelia group created an innovative way for engineered protein biosensors & bright, fluorescent Janelia Fluor (JF) dyes to work together. Aim of the new biosensor is to measure physiological signals in live animals. The revolutionary sensor, WHaloCaMP, can track multiple physiological signals in live animals, unlike its previous version. And when it comes to illumination, the detector can emit bright far-red light. This light can penetrate deeper into tissues than the other (existing) wavelengths.
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