Technology

First visible ‘time crystal’ developed by WPI-SKCM² members, advancing the institute’s goal to engineer novel forms of matter

Lingnan University congratulates elite student-athlete Yuen Wing-ki on winning a bronze medal for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) in the Women’s Table Tennis Doubles (Class TT5) at the 12th National Games for Persons with Disabilities and the 9th National Special Olympic Games (NGD). Her brilliant performance also sets a record for Lingnan’s outstanding sporting achievements.

Scientists used a 3D-printing approach to pattern hydrophobic barriers inside hydrophilic filter paper. These barriers, designed in different geometries, guide liquids along precise paths and shape their flow behavior, demonstrating effective use in mixing, gradient generation, and two-phase separation within miniaturized systems.

Probabilistic computers can solve certain problems more efficiently than traditional computers, but are usually saddled with a power-hungry, bulky, analog component. That is, until a research team developed a fully digital p-bit design.

A scientist has solved the conundrum of why robots struggle to pick tomatoes

Brain atlas, From perfume to plastic, Stable solar power, Plant aging switch, Anti-cancer droplets, Greener gold, Extreme star factory and How research shapes sustainability policy. Read all in the latest Editor's Choice.

Slow earthquakes have been discovered to exhibit anomalously slow, long-lasting, and small slips, adjacent to regular earthquakes where we sometimes feel catastrophic vibration. However, no one knows the reason why they show such strange characteristics. In a study published in a scientific journal Nature Communications, researchers at The University of Osaka succeeded in experimentally reproducing the multiple features of slow earthquakes in the lab and suggested the grain-scale origin of them based on their direct observations.

- Enables high-resolution Doppler estimations through signal extrapolation without complex computation... Expected to enhance unmanned system performance

GNSS Indonesia Summit & Expo 2025, the first international-scale GNSS forum in Indonesia, was successfully held from 19–23 November 2025 at Universitas Indonesia, Depok. This five-day event highlighted how global navigation satellite systems are becoming increasingly crucial across various sectors, including transportation, precision agriculture, disaster mitigation, environmental monitoring, and national digital transformation.

Researchers from The University of Osaka created a reagent for important building-block molecules with an abundant main-group element, gallium. These early findings show that an organic gallium compound can display transition-metal-like reactivity under light irradiation. Using common main-group elements like gallium offers a new way to make sustainable catalysts that do not need expensive transition metals, which are environmentally damaging and vulnerable to supply disruption.

Researchers from The University of Osaka developed mirror-image semiconductor polymer molecules for organic solar cells. The new acceptor molecules prevent recombination of electrons and holes by generating currents with spin-polarization of about 70% in which one electron spin dominates. Solar cells containing the new acceptors showed three times higher efficiency than the non-mirror-image version. Using mirror-image acceptor molecules provides a new way of increasing efficiency in clean energy technology.

Superconductive materials can conduct electricity with no resistance, but typically only at very low temperatures. Realizing superconductivity at room temperature could enable advanced, energy-efficient electronics and other technologies. Now, an international research team is one step closer to such an achievement.

Researchers from the Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo detect the motion of hydrogen atoms in palladium at low temperatures using channeling nuclear reaction analysis

Prof Song Yongduan, Dean of the School of Data Science and Chair Professor of the Division of Industrial Data Science at Lingnan University, has been elected as a Foreign Member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE). The result was announced today (21 November), naming him one of the 24 newly elected foreign academicians for 2025. The honour recognises Prof Song’s outstanding contributions to control science and engineering at the international level.

Physicists at The University of Osaka have unveiled a breakthrough theoretical framework that uncovers the hidden physical rule behind one of the most powerful compression methods in laser fusion science — the stacked-shock implosion. While multi-shock ignition has recently proven its effectiveness in major laser facilities worldwide, this new study identifies the underlying law that governs such implosions, expressed in an elegant and compact analytic form.

Scientists from National Taiwan University and the National Institutes of Applied Research of Taiwan develop a rapid and accurate microfluidic device that generates precise drug gradients and outperforms manual dilution, enabling reliable multi-drug screening for high-throughput and personalized medicine.

Researchers at The University of Osaka developed the Balloon-Assisted Bronchoscope Delivery (BDBD) technique and in a first-in-human clinical trial, the team successfully demonstrated that this technique is both safe and effective, enabling access to lesions smaller than 20 mm. By using a small balloon to gently widen airways, it allows endoscopes to reach deep, peripheral lung tumors, promising more accurate cancer diagnosis and new minimally invasive treatment options.

Researchers from The University of Osaka and Daikin Industries, Ltd. have discovered a key metric, "electrolyte lithium-ion chemical potential," that governs lithium-ion battery performance. This quantitative indicator shows that efficient charging occurs when lithium ions are sufficiently “unstable” in the electrolyte. This breakthrough replaces trial-and-error methods with a rational design approach, enabling faster development of safer, higher-performance batteries for applications like EVs and renewable energy storage.

A discovery of electrically controlled triple quantum dots in zinc oxide by the Advanced Institute for Materials Research (WPI-AIMR), Tohoku University, moves us closer to energy-efficient quantum devices can be used practically.

Untangling cosmic knots, Samurai jellyfish, Controlling rogue antibodies, Search for anti-ulcer vaccine & Metal-recovering yeast. Plus next SciCom coffee talk on experiences in science journalism in the AI era and WHO guide to reporting on non communicable diseases. Read all in the latest Editor's Choice.

Three distinguished scholars from Lingnan University have been named Highly Cited Researchers 2025 in the annual list compiled by leading global analytics company in academia and research Clarivate. The list is of exceptional researchers who have demonstrated significant and wide-ranging influence in their respective fields through the publication of multiple highly cited papers reflecting their substantial contributions to advancing innovation and addressing global challenges.

The University of Osaka D3 Center and NEC Corporation (NEC; TSE: 6701) have jointly commenced a demonstration aimed at the application of a wide-area distributed campus AI processing platform that enables on-demand use of GPU’s from compute servers. This demonstration will leverage NEC's "ExpEther," a technology that transmits signals from IT equipment with high reliability and low latency, to build a high-performance AI processing platform that can connect and disconnect compute servers and GPUs on-demand, even when they are in different buildings across campus.

On 20 November 2025, the Young Activists Summit (#YAS25) will honour five outstanding young people using technology to drive positive change. The event will take place at the European headquarters of the UN, in the recently renovated Assembly Hall of the historic Palais des Nations, in Geneva (Switzerland). The Summit will be webcast live and open to media participation.

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs), known for their high efficiency and low manufacturing costs, are considered a revolutionary photovoltaic (PV) technology that can further reduce the levelised cost of electricity (LCOE), thus promoting the development of green and renewable energy technology in order to reach our carbon reduction goals. However, state-of-the-art PSCs still face serious stability problems, especially during long-term continuous operation at high temperatures, which seriously hinder commercialisation.

Researchers have developed an eco-friendly method to create gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) using microalgae. This "green synthesis" avoids harsh chemicals, resulting in nanoparticles that are more stable than conventional ones. When activated by a laser, these AuNPs effectively destroy cancer cells while showing lower toxicity to healthy cells. This breakthrough promises a more sustainable and safer approach to photothermal cancer therapy and other applications in nanomedicine.

- Signal extrapolation yields high-resolution Doppler estimation without complex computation - Expected to improve unmanned system performance

More than 40% of existing and planned offshore wind farm sites in Europe and Asia are exposed to wind speeds above the maximum capacity of some turbines, highlighting the need for these energy infrastructures to adapt to extreme wind events associated with climate change.

The use of drones in search and rescue, patrolling, and environmental monitoring has become increasingly common. However, their performance is still constrained by complex environmental factors such as harsh weather conditions, and Prof Sam Kwong Tak-wu, a leading scholar in artificial intelligence (AI), Associate Vice-President (Strategic Research), Dean of the School of Graduate Studies and J.K. Lee Chair Professor of Computational Intelligence at Lingnan University in Hong Kong, and his research team have conducted a pioneering project titled “Key Technologies for Intelligent Enhancement and Content Understanding in Constrained Environments”.

Recent discoveries have shown that MFC systems can be combined with soil to form soil microbial fuel cells (SMFCs), or further combined with plants to form plant microbial fuel cells (PMFCs). Researchers at National Taiwan University investigated the effects of SMFCs and PMFCs on reducing greenhouse gas emissions from soil.

Researchers from SANKEN at The University of Osaka have successfully developed a groundbreaking “self-evolving” edge AI technology that enables real-time learning and forecasting capabilities directly within compact devices. This innovation, termed MicroAdapt, achieves unprecedented speed and accuracy. It processes data up to 100,000 times faster and achieves up to 60% higher accuracy compared to conventional state-of-the-art deep learning methods. This achievement represents a major advance toward next-generation real-time AI applications across manufacturing, automotive IoT, and medical wearables, addressing critical limitations of existing cloud-dependent AI.