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A new breakthrough from researchers in Singapore could bring bright, flexible and low-power displays to applications ranging from wearable health monitors to underwater communication. Imagine a small skin patch that changes color when your blood sugar level becomes abnormal, a flexible display wrapped around a diver's arm that remains readable underwater, or a soft robot that uses glowing signals to communicate when it touches an object or detects damage. These technologies require displays that are thin, flexible, energy-efficient and durable . Yet existing display technologies often struggle to deliver all of these properties at the same time. Researchers at the National University of Singapore (NUS) , working with scientists from the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE) and the Institute of High Performance Computing (IHPC) under Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), have now developed a much brighter and more durable type of ...

Imagine a group of robots searching through a collapsed building after an earthquake. Some robots scan for survivors, while others inspect damaged structures or search for dangerous chemicals. No human operator can control every machine individually. Instead, the robots must communicate, share what they discover and collectively decide where their efforts are needed most. This vision of autonomous robot swarms could transform disaster response, environmental monitoring and hazardous industrial operations. But there is a major challenge: What happens when some of the information shared within the swarm is wrong? A malfunctioning robot, unreliable sensor or even a cyberattack could spread misleading information. If the entire swarm follows that information, a small error could become a collective failure. A new study led by computer scientist Andreagiovanni Reina from the University of Konstanz offers a promising solution. Published in Nature Communications , the research shows that a ...

The rules of tag are simple: catch your opponent before they reach safety. But when the players are autonomous drones, the familiar playground game becomes a serious test of artificial intelligence, machine learning and split-second decision-making. Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have used reinforcement learning , a type of machine learning, to teach drones to play a strategic version of tag. The experiment is more than a technological game. It could help researchers develop better autonomous systems that can pursue targets, avoid threats and cooperate with other machines in rapidly changing environments. The research is part of AutonomyNM , a larger Sandia effort focused on exploring how artificial intelligence and machine learning can improve autonomous systems. The team's work was recently presented as a conference paper at the 2026 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation . Turning a Simple Game Into an AI Challenge In Sandia's version of tag, t...

Scientists have engineered bacteria that can work like electronic transistors, opening the door to living circuits that could one day help plants detect drought, pests, and other environmental threats. Imagine a circuit board that is not made of silicon, wires, and metal, but from living bacteria. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are working to make this idea a reality. The team has engineered bacteria that can behave like transistors , the basic switching components used in electronic devices. In an electronic circuit, a transistor controls the flow of electrical current. In these biological circuits, bacterial transistors control the flow of chemical signals between living cells. This approach could allow scientists to build biological "circuit boards" by arranging bacterial colonies on a growth surface. Turning Bacteria Into Transistors The researchers used a bacterium called Pantoea agglomerans , which commonly grows on surfaces, including pl...

  A new optofluidic technique uses laser-generated heat and Marangoni flows to precisely guide micro- and nanoparticles, opening new possibilities for lab-on-a-chip technology and micro-robotics. Controlling tiny particles inside liquids is important for many areas of modern science and technology. Micro- and nanoparticles are used in biological research, medical diagnostics, chemical analysis, micro-robotics, and lab-on-a-chip devices. However, moving these extremely small objects with high precision remains challenging. Light offers an attractive way to control microscopic objects because laser beams can be focused and moved without physically touching the particles. Yet conventional light-driven fluid systems often have important limitations. Their flow patterns can become unstable, their direction of movement can be difficult to control, and changing the particle trajectory often requires complicated hardware. Now, Liu and his research team have demonstrated a new approach that...

Wearable health devices are becoming an important part of modern healthcare. Smartwatches, skin patches, and flexible sensors can continuously monitor signals such as heart activity, muscle movement, and other biological information. These devices can help doctors and researchers understand a person's health without requiring constant hospital visits. However, there is one major challenge: movement can create unwanted noise in the signals recorded by wearable devices . A new material developed by Zhou and a team of researchers could offer a promising solution. Their work focuses on creating a special supramolecular organohydrogel that can absorb mechanical disturbances over a much wider range than conventional materials. The technology could help wearable bioelectronics record cleaner and more reliable biological signals, even when the wearer is moving. Why Motion Is a Problem for Wearable Sensors Wearable sensors need to remain in close contact with the skin. This allows them to ...

Imagine a device that can make an object appear to vanish—not from the human eye, but from an infrared camera. Researchers have developed a new 3D-printed thermal “invisibility cloak” that can hide objects from infrared sensors by controlling the way heat moves around them. Unlike earlier designs that worked only from certain directions or under limited conditions, the new device is designed to work around complex three-dimensional objects and from virtually any viewing direction. The breakthrough could open new possibilities in thermal management, electronics, sensing technology, and even defense. How can an object disappear from an infrared camera? Infrared cameras do not see objects in the same way our eyes do. Instead, they detect infrared radiation associated with temperature. A warm person, vehicle, drone, or electronic device therefore produces a recognizable thermal signature . The researchers wanted to solve a difficult problem: instead of simply blocking this heat, could th...