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

Tech & Engineering

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 18-Jan-2026 02:11 ET (18-Jan-2026 07:11 GMT/UTC)

5-Nov-2025

Engineering defects could transform the future of nanomaterials

University of Minnesota
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Materials scientists at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities have found a way to create and control tiny “flaws” inside ultra-thin materials. These internal features, known as extended defects, could give next-generation nanomaterials entirely new properties, opening the door to advances in nanotechnology.

Journal: Nature Communications
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Air Force Office of Scientific Research

5-Nov-2025

Shedding new light on abnormal protein synthesis in neurodegenerative disorders

Institute of Science Tokyo
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Translation factors eIF1A and eIF5B are key repressors of an abnormal protein translation process linked to neurodegenerative disorders, as reported by researchers from Science Tokyo. Using a human cell-free translation system, they reconstructed the aberrant translation of a mutated C9orf72 gene. This translation process revealed that the initiation factors (eIF1A and eIF1B) act at distinct checkpoints to suppress toxic protein synthesis implicated in frontotemporal dementia and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Journal: Nucleic Acids Research
Funder: Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Advanced Research & Development Programs for Medical Innovation, Japan Science and Technology Agency, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Uehara Memorial Foundation, Mitsubishi Foundation, Daiichi Sankyo

5-Nov-2025

Are we ready for robot caregivers? The answer is a cautious “yes, if...”

Chiba University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Are we ready to live with caregiving robots? With Japan facing a projected shortage of 570,000 care workers by 2040, researchers at Chiba University surveyed older adults, families, caregivers, and developers about their acceptance of home-care robots. They found that openness to using robots influenced willingness among both users and developers, while other factors differed between the groups—revealing distinct perspectives and highlighting the need for collaboration and ethical awareness in developing home-care robots.

Journal: Computers in Human Behavior
Funder: Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Pioneering), IAAR Next-Generation Research on Social Value Creation Research Support Program, Chiba University

5-Nov-2025

Studies confirm that drug-coated balloons can replace stents – even in larger coronary arteries

Saarland University
Reports and Proceedings

In the treatment of larger narrowed blood vessels, drug-coated balloon catheters have been shown to deliver lasting and effective outcomes. Their minimally invasive nature makes them a viable alternative to stents. These findings, from a research team led by cardiologist Professor Bruno Scheller at Saarland University, have now been validated by an international study involving over 3,300 patients. The results were recently presented at TCT, the world’s largest conference on transcatheter cardiovascular therapeutics, held from 25 to 28 October in San Francisco, USA. Professor Scheller originally developed the method two decades ago and has continuously refined it through ongoing research.

Meeting: TCT 2025: Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics

5-Nov-2025

New therapeutic brain implants defy the need for surgery

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Microscopic bioelectronic devices could one day travel through the body’s circulatory system and autonomously self-implant in a target region of the brain. These “circulatronics” can be wirelessly powered to provide focused electrical stimulation to a precise region of the brain, which could be used to treat diseases like Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis, and cancer.

Journal: Nature Biotechnology

5-Nov-2025

More polar ocean turbulence due to planetary warming

Institute for Basic Science
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A study published in the journal Nature Climate Change by an international team of scientists, from the IBS Center for Climate Physics (ICCP) at Pusan National University in South Korea, presents new evidence that ocean turbulence and a process known as “horizontal stirring” will increase dramatically in the Arctic and Southern Oceans due to human-induced Global Warming and decreasing sea ice coverage.

Journal: Nature Climate Change
Funder: Institute for Basic Science

5-Nov-2025

Climate change and well-being: Science academies publish recommendations for G20 summit

Leopoldina
Reports and Proceedings

Ahead of the G20 summit in Johannesburg/South Africa, on 22 and 23 November 2025, the science academies of the G20 countries, including the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, have issued science-based recommendations developed in the Science20 process. The joint statement “Climate Change and Well-Being”, recommends measures to address the consequences of climate change and to adapt in the areas of health, ecology and technology.