Category Physics

The capabilities of large AI systems are constantly improving, but they consume a great deal of energy during training and operation. The human brain, by contrast, is extremely energy-efficient: It requires only around 20 watts.

Researchers at Graz University of Technology, in collaboration with international partners, have developed a novel brain-inspired AI model that can plan flexibly and solve complex problems. In doing so, it consumes significantly less energy than multilayer neural networks or large language models. The study is published in the journal Nature Machine Intelligence.

“The brain works in a completely different way from tod...

Wearable health monitors are designed to move with the body. But for many devices, movement creates a problem: The more a person bends, stretches, reaches or runs, the harder it can be for the device to keep a stable wireless connection. Penn State researchers and international collaborators set out to solve that problem by developing a soft, stretchable antenna that can keep working even when pulled in different directions...

A new type of 3D-printable material developed by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin mimics human tissue’s ability to sort and filter, allowing certain molecules to pass through while keeping others out. This broad functionality means the material can be used in a variety of applications across medicine, water and robotics.

Current methods for building small tissue-like materials don’t scale to sizes that can make applications possible, the researchers say. The team overcame these issues of speed and scalability by jamming billions of tiny water droplets tightly together using simple mixing and centrifuge techniques to form large, tissue-like materials in just a few minutes...

Quantum information is notoriously fragile. Internet traffic is anything but. Yet Northwestern University scientists have demonstrated they can peacefully coexist inside the same fiber-optic cable.

In a new...