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April 16^th 2025

💻 Technology

🇦🇺 Australian researchers unveil jam-proof quantum navigation 50× more accurate than GPS

Australian company Q-CTRL has demonstrated Ironstone Opal, a quantum navigation system that operates without GPS and is immune to jamming. Using quantum sensors to detect Earth’s magnetic field, the system delivers precision 50 times greater than traditional inertial systems, even under harsh conditions like flight. This marks the first real-world demonstration of quantum advantage in navigation and could revolutionize autonomous vehicles, aviation, and defense systems. The research can be viewed on arXiv.

🦾 Robotics

🇨🇭 🇮🇹 Swiss and Italian researchers create edible robot cake with lights, motion, and nutrients

Researchers from Switzerland’s EPFL and Italy’s IIT have developed RoboCake, a cake topped with two edible teddy bear robots that dances, lights up, and delivers vitamins using fully edible rechargeable batteries. Built from gelatin, syrup, and chocolate-based components, the robots integrates robotics with food to address both e-waste and food waste challenges. Displayed at Expo 2025, this innovation could lead to future edible robots for disaster relief, medical delivery, and smart food monitoring.

🤖 Artificial Intelligence

🇺🇸 US researchers develop AI system for real-time communication between humans and dolphins

Google, in collaboration with the Wild Dolphin Project and Georgia Tech, has introduced DolphinGemma, an AI language model designed to interpret and mimic dolphin communication. Built on the same foundation as Google’s Gemini, DolphinGemma works with the Cetacean Hearing Augmentation Telemetry (CHAT) system to create a simplified shared vocabulary between humans and dolphins. If successful, this breakthrough could unlock new understanding of dolphin intelligence and pave the way for deeper interspecies communication.

🌎 Sustainability

🇨🇳 Chinese researchers create electricity-generating cement, paving way for energy-harvesting buildings

A team at Southeast University in China has developed a cement-hydrogel composite that generates and stores electricity, outperforming all previous cement-based thermoelectric materials. Inspired by the layered structure of plant stems, the new material uses alternating layers of traditional cement and hydrogel to significantly boost ion mobility and thermoelectric performance. Published in Science Bulletin, this innovation could enable roads, bridges, and buildings to power sensors and communication devices, advancing self-sustaining smart infrastructure.

🇺🇸 US researchers develop customizable membranes to cut brine waste from desalination plants

University of Michigan engineers have created new electrodialysis membranes that significantly boost salt removal efficiency while minimizing energy use, enabling more sustainable desalination. By packing dense charged molecules into the membranes and preventing water-swelling with carbon linkers, the team achieved record ion conductivity and reduced leakage, allowing for practical processing of highly salty brines. Published in Nature Chemical Engineering, this innovation could drastically reduce the 37 billion gallons of daily brine waste harming marine ecosystems.

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Max

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