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Imagine a metal structure that is stronger than many conventional marine materials, resistant to seawater, capable of surviving serious damage—and still able to float . That is exactly what engineers have demonstrated in a world-first development led by researchers at RMIT University . The team has created a 3D-printed titanium lattice that combines a lightweight metal framework with polyurethane foam, producing a material that can remain buoyant even after significant structural damage. The research, published in Advanced Materials , could open new possibilities for marine infrastructure, floating sensors, buoys and other technologies that need to be both lightweight and extremely durable. The Problem With Floating Metal Titanium is known for being strong, lightweight and highly resistant to corrosion. Engineers have also developed metallic lattice structures—frameworks made from interconnected hollow struts—that can achieve remarkably low overall densities. But there was a major pro...

Supermassive black holes are among the most powerful objects in the Universe. Although a black hole itself cannot be seen directly, the region around it can produce enormous amounts of radiation and launch narrow, extremely fast streams of plasma known as relativistic jets . These jets can extend across distances far greater than the size of their host galaxies. They move at speeds close to that of light and can carry huge amounts of energy into surrounding space. For decades, astronomers have studied these jets using radio telescopes. But there has been a major challenge: black hole jets are constantly changing, while traditional astronomical images often provide only snapshots. A new study published in Nature introduces a method called kine , designed to reconstruct continuous, time-dependent videos of rapidly changing astronomical sources. The technique could give scientists a much clearer picture of how plasma actually moves through black hole jets. Why black hole jets are so impo...

Pigeons may look harmless, but for people dealing with repeated nesting on balconies, they can quickly become a serious nuisance. Feathers, droppings, nesting material, noise, and constant cleaning can turn a peaceful balcony into a daily maintenance problem. One maker, Maximilian Bachl , decided to approach the problem like an engineering challenge. Instead of manually chasing pigeons away, he built an AI-powered automated pigeon defense system that can detect a bird, aim at it, and spray water automatically. The project combines computer vision, robotics, embedded computing, and a modified water gun into a surprisingly sophisticated automated system. From a Pigeon Problem to an AI Solution The basic idea behind the project is simple: if a camera can identify when a pigeon enters the balcony, a small robotic system can respond automatically. The system works through four main stages. First, a USB camera continuously captures live video of the area being monitored. The video is then...

Imagine a 3D printer creating something that can stretch more than six times its original length without easily tearing. Instead of producing only hard plastic parts and rigid objects, a new material could allow 3D printers to create flexible structures that behave much more like rubber. Researchers in South Korea have developed a highly stretchable 3D-printing material using artificial intelligence (AI). The material can be printed into complex shapes while remaining soft, flexible and highly elastic. The breakthrough could open new possibilities for 3D printing in areas such as soft robotics, wearable electronics and personalized medical devices. The research team was led by Professor Seungchul Lee from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). The team worked with Dr. Jongbeom Na's group at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology's Extreme Materials Research Center and Professor Bumsoo Park from the Depa...

For millions of people living with severe hair loss, a new treatment approach is offering fresh hope. An oral medicine originally developed to treat arthritis has shown significant potential for restoring scalp hair in people with severe alopecia areata , an autoimmune condition in which the body's immune system mistakenly attacks hair follicles. In two international clinical trials, researchers found that upadacitinib , a once-daily immune-modulating drug, produced substantial hair regrowth in many participants. Some patients experienced near-complete or even complete restoration of scalp hair during the studies. The findings are particularly important because the participants had already experienced extensive hair loss, making significant regrowth difficult to achieve with many existing approaches. What Is Alopecia Areata? Alopecia areata is an autoimmune disorder that causes the immune system to attack healthy hair follicles. As a result, hair suddenly begins falling out. The c...

Water scarcity and extreme heat are becoming two of the biggest threats to modern agriculture. As temperatures rise and rainfall becomes less predictable, farmers around the world are facing increasing difficulty in keeping crops properly hydrated while protecting them from heat stress. Now, researchers led by Liu and colleagues have developed an unusual biological material that could offer a new solution. Instead of relying entirely on irrigation or conventional soil coverings, the team created a living material made from fungal fibres and cellulose that can collect moisture from the atmosphere, move that water toward the soil and help reduce heat around crops. The technology uses a type of mushroom-forming fungus called Pleurotus ostreatus , commonly known as the oyster mushroom. Researchers carefully guided the growth of its microscopic fibres, called mycelium , to create a specially organized structure. A Living Material With a Special Architecture The material begins with a cellu...

Neutron stars are among the most extreme objects in the universe. They are incredibly compact, enormously dense, and contain matter unlike anything that can be naturally produced on Earth. Now, a new study by researchers Kantor, Gusakov and Kraav has revealed an important clue about what happens deep inside these mysterious stars during their final moments before collision. The researchers investigated a process known as hyperon bulk viscosity and its possible influence on gravitational waves produced by pairs of neutron stars spiraling toward each other. Their conclusion is surprising: hyperon bulk viscosity appears to have almost no measurable effect on the gravitational-wave signal, but it can dramatically heat the inner core of a neutron star to around 500 million kelvin. What makes neutron stars so extreme? A neutron star is the incredibly dense leftover core of a massive star that has undergone a supernova explosion. Although a neutron star can have a diameter of only around 20...