Toggle light / dark theme

Get the latest international news and world events from around the world.

Log in for authorized contributors

Scientists Discover the Brain’s “Reset Button” That Separates Your Memories

Although life unfolds in a continuous flow, our memories don’t capture it that way. We don’t recall the past as one seamless timeline but rather as a sequence of distinct, meaningful moments—much like how sentences are broken up with grammar and punctuation. This mental structure gives our experiences clarity and helps us understand both what happened and when it occurred.

The brain must devote a lot of space to this herculean task, right?

Wrong! It turns out that a tiny but mighty region pulls far more than its weight.

First 3D-Printed Home Made Primarily From Soil is Built in Japan–Ditching Unsustainable Concrete

Collaborating with robotics engineers and Italian 3D printer manufacturers, a Japanese company is building “homes of earth” made primarily from soil.

Utilizing AI technology from design through construction, Lib Work, Ltd. completed their first 3D-printed earth home in Yamaga, Kumamoto on July 22, calling their creative process “uncharted territory where tradition and convention offered no guide”

While the automotive industry has undergone rapid transformation through technological advances, the housing industry has seen virtually no fundamental innovation in construction methods, materials, or structures for over 50 years.

Neural Networks Go Nano: Brain-Inspired Learning Takes Flight

For the first time, a physical neural network has successfully been shown to learn and remember ‘on the fly’, in a way inspired by and similar to how the brain’s neurons work.

The result opens a pathway for developing efficient and low-energy machine intelligence for more complex, real-world learning and memory tasks.

Published today (November 1) in Nature Communications, the research is a collaboration between scientists at the University of Sydney and the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA).

A Scalable Artificial Neuron Based on Ultrathin Two-Dimensional Titanium OxideClick to copy article linkArticle link copied!

A spiking neural network consists of artificial synapses and neurons and may realize human-level intelligence. Unlike the widely reported artificial synapses, the fabrication of large-scale artificial neurons with good performance is still challenging due to the lack of a suitable material system and integration method. Here, we report an ultrathin (less than10 nm) and inch-size two-dimensional (2D) oxide-based artificial neuron system produced by a controllable assembly of solution-processed 2D monolayer TiOx nanosheets. Artificial neuron devices based on such 2D TiOx films show a high on/off ratio of 109 and a volatile resistance switching phenomenon. The devices can not only emulate the leaky integrate-and-fire activity but also self-recover without additional circuits for sensing and reset. Moreover, the artificial neuron arrays are fabricated and exhibited good uniformity, indicating their large-area integration potential. Our results offer a strategy for fabricating large-scale and ultrathin 2D material-based artificial neurons and 2D spiking neural networks.

Artificial neurons based on antiferromagnetic auto-oscillators as a platform for neuromorphic computing

A spiking neural network consists of artificial synapses and neurons and may realize human-level intelligence. Unlike the widely reported artificial synapses, the fabrication of large-scale artificial neurons with good performance is still challenging due to the lack of a suitable material system and integration method. Here, we report an ultrathin (less than10 nm) and inch-size two-dimensional (2D) oxide-based artificial neuron system produced by a controllable assembly of solution-processed 2D monolayer TiOx nanosheets. Artificial neuron devices based on such 2D TiOx films show a high on/off ratio of 109 and a volatile resistance switching phenomenon. The devices can not only emulate the leaky integrate-and-fire activity but also self-recover without additional circuits for sensing and reset. Moreover, the artificial neuron arrays are fabricated and exhibited good uniformity, indicating their large-area integration potential. Our results offer a strategy for fabricating large-scale and ultrathin 2D material-based artificial neurons and 2D spiking neural networks.

Small but mighty: A seed-inspired monocopter idea takes flight

From a seed-inspired design to a 26-minute flight time on a single rotor, a new monocopter developed by SUTD researchers marks a 10-year journey towards redefining how efficient small flying robots can be.

When Singapore celebrated its 50th year of independence in 2015, a team of student researchers led by Associate Professor Foong Shaohui from Singapore University Technology and Design (SUTD) embarked on an ambitious challenge: to design and build a drone capable of 50 minutes of sustained flight.

At the time, most hobbyist quadcopters could barely manage half of that. The SG50 Multi-Rotor Drone project succeeded, but to fly that long, the craft had to be large, complex, and heavy.

/* */