Scientists have developed a new type of optical disc that can increase information storage capacity to the “petabit” level — 125 terabytes of data, or the combined storage capacity of about 15,000 DVDs. Optical discs, such as DVDs and Blu-ray discs, are durable and inexpensive. A standard single-layer Blu-ray disc can store 25 gigabytes. By … Read more
Scientists have created a new biocomputing chip that makes calculations using a DNA substrate, including mathematical operations essential to artificial intelligence (AI) training and big data processing. Researchers described the new biocomputing platform Oct. 19, 2023, in the journal PLOS One. DNA is known as the blueprint for life and encodes genetic information, like data … Read more
A vehicle that’s a strange blend between a futuristic electric minivan and the rear half of an airplane could soon revolutionize island-hopping. The unusual vehicle, which is currently still only a concept, will be able to travel both on land and in the air and be powered by electricity or hydrogen, its designers claim. The … Read more
China says its maglev hyperloop train has broken the world speed record in a test run, reaching a blistering 387 mph (623 km/h). Ultimately, its makers want to build a train more than three times as fast that will break the sound barrier and outpace airplanes. The maglev train, dubbed the T-Flight, was built by … Read more
Smiling humanoid robots have been shown to sort objects, drop off packages and even tidy up a child’s toys in eerie new footage. The near-silent video, released by robotics company 1X, shows dozens of the company’s EVE robots performing these various tasks in a large test environment that simulated office spaces and a living room. … Read more
Putting a computer inside someone’s brain used to feel like the edge of science fiction. Today, it’s a reality. Academic and commercial groups are testing “brain-computer interface” devices to enable people with disabilities to function more independently. Yet Elon Musk’s company, Neuralink, has put this technology front and center in debates about safety, ethics and … Read more
Scientists are working to build blood vessels from human cells using tiny ice sculptures — these frigid 3D forms twist and branch like real arteries and can be used as temporary scaffolds that later get melted away, to be replaced by living cells. The researchers demonstrated the first step of this blood-vessel-building process in a … Read more
For the first time, scientists enabled an amputee to feel temperature via his prosthetic hand, crossing what the researchers say is one of the final hurdles in being able to imbue prosthetics with the full spectrum of senses available in a human limb. The team achieved this feat by implanting a small device in the … Read more
Universal computer memory that’s both super-fast and energy efficient is one step closer to reality after scientists built an “extremely” stable prototype using a completely new material. The new material, dubbed “GST467,” which contains germanium, antimony and terbium, was used as one repeating layer in a stacked-layer structure, known as a superlattice, and could pave … Read more
For the first time, scientists have generated functional human brain tissue using a 3D printer. Scientists printed the tissue to be less than 0.01 inch (0.02 centimeter) thick, and it contains both nerve cells and supporting cells called glia. All of these cells can communicate with one another and form networks, as they would in … Read more
