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New membrane removes more than 99.99% of oil from seawater while producing fresh water using sunlight
As freshwater shortages intensify around the world, scientists are searching for technologies that can do more than simply desalinate seawater. One of the biggest challenges is treating oil-contaminated seawater, where conventional desalination systems often fail because oil clogs membranes, blocks water transport and reduces efficiency.
Rubicon ASCENT thruster moves from hot-fire testing to production
SAN FRANCISCO – Rubicon Space Systems completed hot-fire testing of its Velox 5-newton ASCENT monopropellant thruster, paving the way for on-orbit operations in 2027.
“The program demonstrated performance beyond our design objectives,” Rubicon Director Daniel Cavender told SpaceNews. “We are now transitioning the thruster into flight production.”
The Velox thruster, fueled with ASCENT, a hydrazine replacement, was tested in Rubicon’s vacuum altitude test chamber in Huntsville, Alabama.
Human-aware robots adapt to partners, reducing back strain during team lifting
When people work in pairs or teams, they can often solve a wider range of problems, completing some tasks faster and more efficiently than they would alone. To assist users similarly to how other humans would, robots should be able to rapidly interpret human behaviors and commands, using their predictions to plan and precisely execute helpful actions.
Researchers at GenerativeBionics, Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) and University of Manchester recently introduced a framework that could guide the design of robots that interact with humans more safely, efficiently and adaptively. Their design strategy, introduced in a paper published in Nature Machine Intelligence, was already used to create a new humanoid robot called ergoCub.
“Our work grew out of many years of experience developing different generations of humanoid robots,” Carlotta Sartore and Daniele Pucci, the paper’s first and senior authors, respectively, told Tech Xplore. “During this time, we repeatedly observed that robot hardware was often treated as fixed, while the control system was expected to compensate for its physical limitations.
Newly-discovered protein acts as off switch for human immune cells
Mayo Clinic researchers have identified a protein that cancer cells use to shut down the body’s immune response, a discovery that could help scientists develop new treatments that make cancer immunotherapies more effective.
Published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, the study identifies a previously unknown role for a protein called TRAILshort, which acts like an immune “off switch.” The researchers found that TRAILshort prevents T cells — the immune system’s primary cancer-fighting cells — from recognizing and destroying cancer and virus-infected cells. In preclinical models, blocking the protein restored T-cell activity and improved immune response.
The researchers also found that TRAILshort reduces the effectiveness of chimeric antigen receptor-T cell therapy (CAR-T cell therapy), one of the most advanced forms of cancer immunotherapy. Their findings suggest that therapies designed to block TRAILshort could improve CAR-T treatment and potentially benefit other immune-based cancer therapies.
Self-repairing, recyclable substrate developed for durable soft sensors
Soft sensors convert movement, temperature and moisture into electrical signals. Repeated bending and friction can cause their metal conductors to peel from the underlying polymer, while physical damage, such as cuts, can disable the device. Commonly used petroleum-derived substrates are also environmentally unfriendly because they are difficult to recycle.
Researchers at the College of Design and Engineering at the National University of Singapore (NUS CDE) have developed a soft, stretchable substrate that repairs itself, firmly grips metal conductors and can be remolded or broken down after use. It could make wearable patches and electronic skin used in applications such as health monitoring and virtual reality more durable while enabling the recovery of valuable components, thus reducing electronic waste.
The new material, called an intrinsically dynamic biosubstrate (IDBS), was developed by researchers led by assistant professor Zhai Wei from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at NUS CDE. Their findings were published in Nature Sustainability on June 19, 2026.
