Category Technology/Electronics

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...

Large language models (LLMs), the computational algorithms underpinning ChatGPT, Gemini and other artificial intelligence (AI)-powered conversational platforms, are now widely used worldwide. These models can rapidly answer questions, source information online, assist users with specific tasks and produce text tailored for specific purposes.

Over the past few years, computer scientists have introduced a wide range of LLMs, some of which can also complete tasks autonomously and take actions on a user’s behalf, for instance, answering messages, scheduling online appointments or updating programming code...

Quantum technologies, which leverage the principles of quantum mechanics, have been found to outperform their classical counterparts on specific tasks. Among other things, past studies have highlighted the potential of quantum systems that can enable long-distance communication, using photons (i.e., particles of light) to carry quantum information.

Despite their promise, quantum communication systems are often prone to photon loss, the scattering, absorption or disappearance of traveling photons. This photon loss becomes increasingly pronounced as transmission distances increase.

One proposed approach for reducing photon loss relies on a process known as quantum teleportation...