Category Technology/Electronics

MIT researchers have created a computing platform that could be used to develop intelligent and adaptive next-generation electronics that can perform multiple functions, like computing and memory, within one extremely compact, energy-efficient device.

Such a platform opens opportunities for low-power edge computing applications, interactive medical and environmental monitoring systems, and smart robots.

The researchers accomplished this by leveraging the unique mechanical response of soft polymers at the nanoscale. A mechanical response is how a structure changes when a force is applied to it.

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William Overman began his Ph.D. program at Stanford Graduate School of Business at an auspicious moment: just two months before ChatGPT launched publicly in November 2022, exploding the widely held understanding of what machines are capable of.

Even as Overman began enlisting AI for his research, he grew wary of where the technology was headed. “This isn’t only about the apocalyptic potential of what could happen; I’m also thinking a lot about the future of human flourishing,” Overman says. He fears that misaligned AI could overstep its bounds—not necessarily maliciously—and inflict subtle yet real harms on people.

“To prevent that, we need to get this right,” Overman says.

“We must set up the proper interactions and training and incentive...

A “wearable electroceutical” has been developed that could reduce the need to visit a hospital or rely on painkillers every time pain occurs...

Within tiny halos of light clinging to a vanishingly thin wisp of optical fiber, scientist Jongmin Lee guides atoms like marbles through a narrow pipe. Rock the fiber and the atoms shift side by side; they just don’t fall off. But don’t be deceived by the seemingly delicate nature of his experiment. Lee is exploring how to measure motion precisely in rough-and-tumble environments.

A quantum sensing scientist at Sandia National Laboratories, Lee is an expert in a type of motion sensor...