EurekAlert! News by Subject: Tech & Engineering - News by Subject: Tech & Engineering

Tech & Engineering

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 22-Apr-2025 08:08 ET (22-Apr-2025 12:08 GMT/UTC)

Through the looking glass: A cross-chiral reaction challenges our definition of life

Salk Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Salk President Gerald Joyce and team have engineered the first life-like chemical system that operates on both sides of the mirror of chirality. The achievement challenges basic assumptions in biology and could lead to cross-chiral therapeutics, diagnostics, and research tools.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Earthquake on a chip: Scientists harness sound waves on the surface of a microchip

University of Sydney
Peer-Reviewed Publication

For the first time scientists have used lasers to make, control and detect high-frequency sound waves on chip surface. This design will open door to devices in environmental sensing and information processing, including advanced telecommunications.

Journal: APL Photonics
Funder: European Research Council, Australian Research Council

SETI Institute launches Art and AI residency, unveils six nominees for innovative program

SETI Institute
Grant and Award Announcement

The SETI Artist in Residency (AIR) program announced Algorithmic Imaginings, a new residency that explores how AI technologies affect science and society. The residency focuses on creative research topics such as imaginary life, human-AI collaboration, AI futures, posthumanism, AI and consciousness, and the ethics of AI data. It also connects with current SETI Institute research, including exoplanet studies, astrobiology, signal detection, and advanced computing. The two-year program offers $30,000 in funding and an exhibition at the ZKM | Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe, Germany.

“AI is on everyone’s mind right now, be it ChatGPT4, text-to-video generators such as Sora, and discussions surrounding fake news and copyright,” said Bettina Forget, Director of the AIR program. “AI is a phenomenal tool, but it also comes with opportunities and concerns that should be addressed. This residency allows artists working at the intersection of art and technology to explore new avenues of thinking and connect them to SETI Institute research.”

Javadi receives DOE Early Career Award to study qubit hosts

University of Oklahoma
Grant and Award Announcement

Alisa Javadi, Ph.D., professor at the University of Oklahoma, has received funding from the U.S. Department of Energy Early Career Research Program to test the use of cerium oxide as a host for quantum bits.

CABHI launches funding program that ignites innovation to advance healthy aging

Baycrest Corporate Centre for Geriatric Care
Grant and Award Announcement

Today, the Centre for Aging + Brain Health Innovation (CABHI), powered by Baycrest launched Ignite, its new funding program to support Canadian innovators designing solutions for older persons. Ignite offers funding between $50,000 to $150,000 CAD, along with acceleration services, to early-stage innovators, empowering them to develop, test, and validate their solutions in real-world settings, with the ultimate goal of getting the best solutions to people who need them most. Funds can be applied to various activities, such as technological research and development activities, concept and prototype development, testing and simulating activities and validation trials.

Ignite is seeking applications from early-stage Canadian researchers, clinicians, healthcare organizations, and companies with a solution that meets the eligibility requirements and addresses at least one of CABHI’s innovation themes: Aging at Home, Caregiver Support, Care Coordination and Navigation, Cognitive and Mental Health and Financial Health and Wellness.

Artificial intelligence is creating a new way of thinking, an external thought process outside of our minds

Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The 'System 0', which in the future will support and enhance our cognitive abilities, is the ongoing revolution described in the journal Nature Human Behaviour by a multidisciplinary group of scientists coordinated by experts from Università Cattolica, campuses in Milan and Brescia. Beware: 'System 0' will never be able to replace our critical thinking ability but can only help it.

Journal: Nature Human Behaviour

Verified users on social media networks drive polarization and the formation of echo chambers

Cell Press
Peer-Reviewed Publication

When X (formerly Twitter) changed its verification system in 2022, many foresaw its potential to impact the spread of political opinions on the platform. In a modeling study publishing October 22 in the Cell Press journal iScience, researchers show that having verified users whose posts are prioritized by the platform’s algorithms can result in increased polarization and trigger the formation of echo chambers. Because X’s new verification system allows almost anybody to become verified, this side effect could be taken advantage of by users wishing to manipulate others’ opinions, the researchers say.

Journal: iScience