ScienceDaily: Computers & Math News

Despite advances in deep neural networks, computers still struggle with the very human skill of 'imagination.' Now, a research team has developed an AI that uses human-like capabilities to imagine a never-before-seen object with different attributes.

Engineers made a pneumatic RAM chip using microfluidic valves instead of electronic transistors. The valves remain sealed against a pressure differential even when disconnected from an air supply line, creating trapped pressure differentials that function as memories and maintain the states of a robot's actuators. Dense arrays of these valves can perform advanced operations and reduce the expensive, bulky, and power-consuming electronic hardware typically used to control pneumatic robots.

A team of researchers has 3D printed a soft robotic hand that is agile enough to play Nintendo's Super Mario Bros. -- and win!

A team of researchers has developed a simplified method to perform the necessary calibration of optical tweezers. Shortening the measurement time helps to reduce the risk of damage to biological samples due to light-induced heating.

Using time- and spin-resolved methods at BESSY II, the physicists explored how, after optical excitation, the complex interplay in the behavior of excited electrons in the bulk and on the surface results in unusual spin dynamics. The work is an important step on the way to spintronic devices based on topological materials for ultrafast information processing.

Researchers have developed a microswimmer that appears to defy the laws of fluid dynamics: their model, consisting of two beads that are connected by a linear spring, is propelled by completely symmetrical oscillations.

Scientists on the hunt for an unconventional kind of superconductor have produced the most compelling evidence to date that they've found one. Researchers have shown that uranium ditelluride displays many of the hallmarks of a topological superconductor -- a material that may unlock new ways to build quantum computers and other futuristic devices.

A new study has shown that it is possible to create tiny, self-powered swimming robots from three simple ingredients.