ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

Engineering researchers have invented an advanced brain-computer interface with a flexible and moldable backing and penetrating microneedles. Adding a flexible backing to this kind of brain-computer interface allows the device to more evenly conform to the brain's complex curved surface and to more uniformly distribute the microneedles that pierce the cortex. The microneedles, which are 10 times thinner than the human hair, protrude from the flexible backing, penetrate the surface of the brain tissue without piercing surface venules, and record signals from nearby nerve cells evenly across a wide area of the cortex. This novel brain-computer interface has thus far been tested in rodents.

Scientists have a new tool to help them tease out the immune system's mysteries. Researchers cultured human B and T cells inside a microfluidic Organ Chip and coaxed them to form functional lymphoid follicles (LFs) -- structures that reside in lymph nodes and other parts of the human body and mediate immune responses. The LF Chip replicated human immune responses to both pathogens and a commercial influenza vaccine in vitro, offering significant improvement over existing preclinical models like cells in a dish and non-human primates.

Scientists have developed a new toolkit for the discovery of mineral deposits crucial to our transition to a 'green economy'.

Among thousands of known exoplanets,astronomers have flagged three that are actually stars.

Materials scientists have discovered the major reason why perovskite solar cells -- which show great promise for improved energy-conversion efficiency -- degrade in sunlight, causing their performance to suffer over time. The team successfully demonstrated a simple manufacturing adjustment to fix the cause of the degradation, clearing the biggest hurdle toward the widespread adoption of the thin-film solar cell technology.

Aided by microbes found in the subarctic conditions of Canada's Hudson Bay, an international team of scientists has created the first color catalog of icy planet surface signatures to uncover the existence of life in the cosmos.

As automated truck technology continues to be developed in the United States, there are still many questions about how the technology will be deployed and what its potential impacts will be on the long-haul trucking market.

Greenhouse gas emissions from air conditioners are expected to climb as economic growth drives efforts to control both temperature and humidity, according to a new analysis.

Scientists have announced a tiny, electronic device that can shunt excess electricity within a few billionths of a second while operating at a record-breaking 6,400 volts -- a significant step towards protecting the nation's electric grid from an electromagnetic pulse.

Wind turbine blades made from glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) laminate composites can serve for up to 25 years. After that, they end up in landfills which has become a real challenge for the renewable energy industry. Researchers have proposed a method for wind turbine blades' recycling. Using pyrolysis, they broke the composite materials into their constituent parts. According to scientists, the extracted materials can be reused, and the process is virtually waste-free.

Scientists review research on gravitational wave detectors as a historical example of quantum technologies and examine the fundamental research on the connection between quantum physics and gravity. The team examined recent gravitational wave experiments, showing it is possible to shield large objects from strong influences from the thermal and seismic environment to allow them to evolve as one quantum object. This decoupling from the environment enables measurement sensitivities that would otherwise be impossible.