科学 ニュース

If a robot traveling to a destination has just two possible paths, it needs only to compare the routes' travel time and probability of success. But if the robot is traversing a complex environment with many possible paths, choosing the best route amid so much uncertainty can quickly become an intractable problem.

Inspired by the classic drinking bird toy, scientists in Hong Kong and Guangzhou, China have developed an engine that efficiently converts energy from water evaporation into electricity to power small electronics. The device produces energy outputs exceeding 100 volts—much higher than other techniques that generate electricity from water—and can operate for several days using only 100 milliliters of water as fuel, according to a study published March 14 in the journal Device.

University of Waterloo researchers have created a new technology that can remove harmful nanoplastics from contaminated water with 94% efficiency. The study, "Utilization of epoxy thermoset waste to produce activated carbon for the remediation of nano-plastic contaminated wastewater," was published in the journal Separation and Purification Technology.

New research shows that the next generation of lithium-sulfur (Li||S) batteries may be capable of being charged in less than five minutes, instead of several hours as is currently the case. The paper is published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

Today's test flight of the SpaceX Super Heavy-Starship rocket follows two launches last year that were only partially successful.

When lower limb exoskeletons—mechanical structures worn on the leg—do not operate properly, some people adjust quickly while others compensate with their ankle or hip, expending more energy than necessary, according to a new study by University of Michigan researchers.

In the 80 years since the shocking collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington, engineers have designed suspended structures to minimize their universal weakness: resonance. If not designed to deal with oscillations caused by forces like wind, the frequency of these forces would cause tensions to build and inevitably break the structure.

The study of ship maneuvering at sea has long been the central focus of the shipping industry. With the rapid advancements in remote control, communication technologies, and artificial intelligence, the concept of Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS) has emerged as a promising solution for autonomous marine navigation. This shift highlights the growing need for optimal control models for autonomous ship maneuvering.

A breakthrough could help lead to the development of new low-power semiconductors or quantum devices.

As the Internet of Things connects more devices into a collective network—even single-use sensors like food packaging, agriculture or "smart bandages"—the need for biodegradable electronics grows increasingly urgent.

A Dartmouth Engineering-led study published in Joule has reported the discovery of an entirely new high-performance material for solar absorbers—the central part of a solar cell that turns light into electricity—that is stable and Earth-abundant. The researchers used a unique high-throughput computational screening method to accelerate the discovery process and were able to quickly evaluate approximately 40,000 known candidate materials.

In the search for safer working conditions in the mining sector, a recent review published in the International Journal of Mining and Mineral Engineering has highlighted what might become a rich seam for future safety endeavors. The study, which looked at 54 research articles, not only categorizes existing safety measures but also identifies gaps in the existing literature, which could lead to more targeted investigations.

Through steady advances in the development of quantum computers and their ever-improving performance, it will be possible in the future to crack our current encryption processes. To address this challenge, researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) are participating in an international research consortium to develop encryption methods that will apply physical laws to prevent the interception of messages. To safeguard communications over long distances, the QUICK³ space mission will deploy satellites.

A small team of environmental scientists has found via simulations that rerouting commercial airplanes to reduce contrails would be less expensive than previously thought. In their study, published in the journal Environmental Research: Infrastructure and Sustainability, the group used data from prior studies to create simulations of airplanes routed to prevent the development of contrails.

In 2012, the best language models were small recurrent networks that struggled to form coherent sentences. Fast forward to today, and large language models like GPT-4 outperform most students on the SAT. How has this rapid progress been possible?

The shift toward renewable energy sources decreases our reliance on fossil fuels, providing a cleaner, more sustainable alternative. However, with their increasing use and development, we also face new challenges. Solar photovoltaic (PV) plants, for instance, are subject to the whims of the weather and many other environmental conditions. This variability leads to inconsistent power output from these plants.

Scientists from Australia's national science agency, CSIRO, have led an international team to a clean energy breakthrough by setting a new efficiency record for fully roll-to-roll printed solar cells.

How do you know you are looking at a dog? What are the odds you are right? If you're a machine-learning algorithm, you sift through thousands of images—and millions of probabilities—to arrive at the "true" answer, but different algorithms take different routes to get there.

Image classification is a complex task that deep learning architectures perform successfully. Those deep architectures are usually comprised of many layers, with each layer consisting of many filters.

Adding a fourth light to traffic signals—in addition to red, green, and yellow—would shorten wait times at street corners for pedestrians, as well as improve traffic flow for both autonomous vehicles and human drivers. And the more autonomous vehicles there are in the traffic network, the shorter the wait times for everyone.