Introducing MirrorBot, a robot designed to foster human connection

Introducing MirrorBot, a robot designed to foster human connection
Credit: Proceedings of the 21st ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (2026). DOI: 10.1145/3757279.3785647

While technology has made the world “smaller,” it has also pulled individuals apart, thanks to mobile phones and other devices that command our attention. Cornell University researchers are using technology, in the form of a mirror-equipped robot, to help bring people together. Members of the Architectural Robotics Lab, led by Keith Evan Green, have built a four-foot-tall robot—dubbed MirrorBot—with dual mirrors that, when placed in front of a pair of strangers, let each participant see themself in one mirror and the other person in the other.

In a study involving participants in a waiting-room setting, MirrorBot spurred conversations, playful excha...

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Protostars ‘sneeze’ and produce rings of gas and magnetic flux as they grow

Star light, star bright, baby stars blow rings alight
An artist’s rendering of the molecular cloud core of MC 27 based on observations from the ALMA telescope. The protostar and the disk surrounding it are shown in the lower right, with warm gas extending outward in a ring-like structure, with magnetic field lines penetrating the interior of the ring. Credit:The Astrophysical Journal Letters (2026). DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/ae47ec

Researchers have uncovered new insights into the early development of baby stars...

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Long COVID is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease

Photo: Getty Images
Photo: Getty Images

People with long COVID are at increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease, according to a new study from Karolinska Institutet published in eClinicalMedicine. The results show that the risk of conditions such as cardiac arrhythmias and coronary artery disease is higher even among those who were not hospitalized during the acute infection.

Long COVID has become an increasingly significant health problem worldwide, and a growing number of studies suggest that the condition can lead to secondary cardiovascular diseases. To date, research has mainly focused on people who were hospitalized, while the risks for those who stayed at home or were treated at a GP are less well known...

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New memory survives temperatures hotter than lava

Novel memory chip survives temperatures hotter than lava
Gra/HfOx/W device and cross-section image. a, optical image of a single device with ~1 um ×1 um device size. b, cross-section TEM image and EELS mapping of W, Hf and C elements. Credit: Science (2026). DOI: 10.1126/science.aeb9934

The electronics inside your phone, your car, and every satellite currently orbiting Earth share one critical weakness: heat. Push them past about 200 degrees Celsius and they start to fail. For decades, that thermal ceiling has been one of the hardest walls in engineering. Now a team at the University of Southern California may have just found a way around it.

In a study published in Science, researchers led by Joshua Yang, Arthur B...

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