News by Subject Technology & Engineering

DeepMind is partnering with EMBL to make the most complete and accurate database yet of the predicted human protein structures freely and openly available to the scientific community The AlphaFold Protein Structure Database will enable research that advances understanding of these building blocks of life, accelerating research across a variety of fields. AlphaFold's impact is already being realised by early partners researching neglected diseases, studying antibiotic resistance, and recycling single-use plastics.

Researchers from the University of Southern California and NVIDIA have unveiled a new simulator for robotic cutting that can accurately reproduce the forces acting on a knife as it slices through common foodstuffs, such as fruit and vegetables. The system could also simulate cutting through human tissue, offering potential applications in surgical robotics. The paper was presented at the Robotics: Science and Systems (RSS) Conference 2021 on July 16.

Researchers have created butterflies that flap their wings, flower petals that wiggle with the touch of a button and self-folding origami drawing on new advances in soft robotics.

Srikanth Singamaneni and Barani Raman in the McKelvey School of Engineering developed technology to use nanoparticles to heat, manipulate cells in the brain and heart.

For the first time an autonomously flying quadrotor has outperformed two human pilots in a drone race. The success is based on a novel algorithm that was developed by researchers of the University of Zurich. It calculates time-optimal trajectories that fully consider the drones' limitations.