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Tech & Engineering

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 30-Oct-2026 23:16 ET (31-Oct-2026 03:16 GMT/UTC)

Venture debt acts as a bridge between funding stages for tech startups, global study finds

Heriot-Watt University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Research across 59 countries shows venture debt reshapes startup finance by reducing early-stage equity, increasing late-stage investment, and expanding the total pool of capital

A new international study has found that venture debt is reshaping how capital moves through technology startup ecosystems around the world. Analysing data from 59 countries between 2015 and 2024, the researchers show that greater venture debt availability is associated with lower early-stage equity funding, higher late-stage equity funding and a positive overall effect on the total capital available to startups.

Published in International Review of Economics and Finance by researchers from the Edinburgh Business School based at Heriot-Watt University, the study is the first to provide an international comparison of venture debt and its influence on equity funding. The research argues that venture debt should not be seen as a passive supplement to equity, but as a strategic financial instrument that can reshape innovation pathways.

Journal: International Review of Economics & Finance

New gene insertion method for plant engineering

King Abdullah University of Science & Technology (KAUST)
Peer-Reviewed Publication

By adapting a natural genetic element, researchers insert large genes into tobacco and rice.

Journal: Nature Biotechnology

Wet coffee grounds turned into high-grade solid fuel in just 90 seconds

National Research Council of Science & Technology
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A Researcher team at the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM) has developed a technology that converts wet spent coffee grounds directly into high-quality biochar in just 90 seconds, no drying or oil removal required. The breakthrough offers a fast, energy-efficient path to turning high-moisture organic waste into valuable fuel and carbon materials.

The study, led by Dr. Taejun Park in collaboration with GodTech Co., Ltd., was published in the Chemical Engineering Journal (Elsevier), one of the world's leading journals in chemical engineering.

Journal: Chemical Engineering Journal
Funder: Ministry of Science and ICT

Johns Hopkins and WVU launch research partnership to advance joint solutions for shared challenges

West Virginia University
Business Announcement

Tapping into the power of collaboration, Johns Hopkins University and West Virginia University are launching a new partnership to bring together researchers from both institutions to address complex challenges in health, science and society while positioning faculty teams to compete for future external funding.

Funder: Johns Hopkins University

From optical forces to optical spectroscopy: recent advances in optical sorting and detection of chiral particles

Editorial Office of Opto-Electronic Journals Group
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers from Tongji University present a comprehensive review of emerging optical techniques for sorting and detecting chiral particles. The review highlights advances in engineered light fields, nanophotonic platforms, and artificial intelligence that enhance the sensitivity, selectivity, and efficiency of chiral analysis. By comparing optical sorting and detection strategies across diverse platforms, the work outlines current challenges and future directions, providing a valuable roadmap for developing practical, high-performance optical technologies for chemistry, biomedicine, and materials science.

Journal: Opto-Electronic Advances
Funder: National Key Research and Development Program of China, National Natural Science Foundation of China, Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality, Shanghai Municipal Education Commission and Shanghai Education, Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities

Electrically tunable “super-lasers”

University of Warsaw, Faculty of Physics
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A team of physicists from the University of Southampton (UK), University of Warsaw (PL), Military University of Technology (PL), Institut Pascal, Université Clermont Auvergne, CNRS (FR), and CNR (IT) has developed a new class of tunable photonic devices in which multiple tiny laser beams spontaneously synchronize and behave as a unified, spatially extended, and coherent light source. Remarkably, this effect is achieved at room temperature using a simple system based on liquid crystals and organic dye molecules, opening new possibilities for low-cost and reconfigurable optical technologies.

Journal: Nature Communications
Funder: European Union’s Horizon 2020, Polish National Science Centre, uropean Union Framework Programme for Research and Innovation Horizon 2020, Leverhulme Trust, UK Research and Innovation, Icelandic Research Fund

Oil palm, coconut and soybean cause more species extinction than thought

ETH Zurich
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Oil crops cause a loss of around 1.5 percent of animal and plant species. This is the conclusion of a new study. According to the study, the biodiversity loss caused by oil crops has increased by around 80 percent since 1995. The key driver is per-capita consumption and not global population growth.

Journal: Nature Food

A light-color-programmed artificial synapse for brain-like balanced learning

Sungkyunkwan University External Affairs Division (PR team)
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The human brain actively keeps “learning” in balance, by holding on to what matters and letting go of what does not. Researchers in Korea have now reproduced this ability in a semiconductor device, using the color of light to strengthen (remember) or weaken (forget) an artificial synapse's memory.

Journal: Nature Communications

KAIST develops next-generation database technology that reduces AI hallucinations and improves accuracy by 78%

The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Professor Min-Soo Kim’s research team in the School of Computing and GraphAI Co., Ltd. develop “AkasicDB,” which integrates vector, graph, and relational databases into a single system

Expected to serve as core AI data infrastructure across industries such as finance, law, and manufacturing, improving enterprise AI agent accuracy by up to 78% and processing speed by up to 20 times