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

Tech & Engineering

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 3-Apr-2026 16:15 ET (3-Apr-2026 20:15 GMT/UTC)

3-Feb-2026

Programmable Lego-like material emulates life’s flexibility

Duke University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Mechanical engineers at Duke University have demonstrated a proof-of-concept method for programming mechanical properties into solid Lego-like building blocks. By controlling the solidity of hundreds of individual cells in specific patterns, the approach could allow futuristic robotics to alter their mechanical properties and functionalities on the fly.

Journal: Science Advances

3-Feb-2026

No fences needed: GPS collars show ‘virtual fencing’ is next frontier of livestock grazing

University of Missouri-Columbia
Grant and Award Announcement

For generations, farmers have spent backbreaking hours tearing down and rebuilding fences just to move livestock to fresh grazing fields. Now, thanks to a groundbreaking project at the University of Missouri’s Center for Regenerative Agriculture, that chore is becoming a thing of the past.

Funder: National Fish and Wildlife Foundation

3-Feb-2026

Pensoft and ARPHA integrate Prophy to speed up reviewer discovery across 90+ scholarly journals

Pensoft Publishers
Business Announcement

Pensoft and ARPHA have integrated Prophy’s AI-driven discovery system to provide editors with a broader and more diverse pool of qualified peer reviewers based on automated semantic analysis.

3-Feb-2026

Your future home might be framed with printed plastic

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Peer-Reviewed Publication

MIT engineers are using recycled plastic to 3D print construction-grade beams, trusses, and other structural elements that could one day offer lighter, modular, and more sustainable alternatives to traditional wood-based framing.

Funder: Gerstner Foundation, the Gerstner Foundation, the Chandler Health of the Planet grant, Cincinnati Incorporated

3-Feb-2026

Dr. Barron Bichon promoted to vice president of SwRI’s Mechanical Engineering Division

Southwest Research Institute
Business Announcement

SAN ANTONIO — February 3, 2026 — Dr. Barron Bichon has been promoted to vice president of SwRI’s Mechanical Engineering Division. He previously served as the director of SwRI’s Materials Engineering Department. As vice president, Bichon will lead more than 400 staff members performing research, development, testing and evaluation for a wide variety of projects.

3-Feb-2026

Sugar beet, oilseed rape, tomatoes and dandelions: four precision breeding projects win major funding to support UK agriculture

John Innes Centre
Grant and Award Announcement

The John Innes Centre and its industrial and academic partners have been awarded UK Government funding to help deliver four ambitious projects that unleash the potential of precision breeding.

Funder: Defra

3-Feb-2026

Cavendish Laboratory and FormationQ launch applied quantum program using IonQ technology platform

University of Cambridge
Business Announcement

Quantum technology research at the Cavendish Laboratory will benefit from a new collaboration with FormationQ, an independent platform for quantum adoption and application, to help speed translation of the University of Cambridge’s frontier research into real-world applications.