With the aid of arms control technology and artificial intelligence, a team of scientists at Cardiff University’s School of Mathematics has developed a method that uses underwater microphones to provide early warnings of potentially deadly tsunamis. The result of earthquakes, volcanoes, underwater landslides, and other causes, tsunamis are among the most deadly of natural disasters, capable of causing widespread destruction […]

One of the challenges of minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery lies in getting surgical instruments into the patient’s body via a narrow catheter. Scientists have set about addressing that problem, with magnetic instruments that pop into and out of shape as needed. The experimental MaSoChain (magnetic soft-robotic chain) system was developed at Switzerland’s ETH Zurich research institute, by a team led […]

We may be one step closer to using technology to ensure productive, disease-free crops, thanks to the development of a multifunctional electronic patch ‘worn’ by plants that monitors for the presence of pathogens and environmental stressors. Smart agriculture, the use of innovative technology to provide information on important factors like water, soil types, and disease, has gained traction as a […]

Though probably best known for its instant cameras and rolls of film, the Kodak name has also appeared on such things as smartphones, actioncams and projectors. Now the brand’s first smart projector built around Android TV has been launched. The Flik HD10 Smart Projector is not from the same Eastman Kodak Company that announced its exit from the camera-making business in 2012, but a North American brand licensee […]

While metal detectors are useful for detecting land mines, they can be fooled by buried metallic debris … plus some mines don’t contain any metal. A new system is claimed to work better, by reading the unique molecular signature of the explosives used in mines. Developed by scientists at Australia’s CSIRO research institute, the technology is known as MRread – […]

While most of us will never bear witness to them, many of the world’s smallest organisms have some incredible means of survival. Some soil bacteria, for example, can gobble up hydrogen from the air and use it for fuel if starved of any other food. It’s exactly this microbiological trickery that set researchers from Monash University in Australia on a […]

Solar stills provide a clever and simple means of purifying dirty or salty water, but they work at a rather slow rate. A new material has been shown to boost their performance, and it’s made from fruit waste which would otherwise be discarded. In its most basic form, a conventional solar still consists of a basin of undrinkable water that […]

We are a solar-powered planet; the vast majority of energy needed for life on Earth comes from the sun – and a lot of it, including food and fossil fuels, is the result of plant-based photosynthesis – the conversion of sunlight, water and carbon dioxide into oxygen and sugars. The first chemical step in photosynthesis happens in the chlorophyll that […]

When you’re looking at a tank full of fish at a public aquarium, it can be difficult to figure out which ones are which species. The AI Aquarium is designed to help, by overlaying information that lines up with the individual fish in question. Created by Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), the AI Aquarium was recently the recipient of […]

With an ability to turn friction into small amounts of electricity, triboelectric generators may one day be used in clothes that turn movement into power, in battery-free brain implants, and a host of other scenarios. Scientists working on cheap and easy versions of these tiny generators have landed upon a design that makes use of store-bought double-sided tape, and which they say can […]