Author: GT

The scene is right out of the 1950s with students pecking away at manual typewriters, the machines dinging at the end of each line.Once each semester, Grit Matthias Phelps, a German language instructor at Cornell University, introduces her students to the raw feeling of typing without online assistance. No screens, online dictionaries, spellcheckers or delete keys.The exercise started in spring 2023 as Phelps grew frustrated with the reality that students were using generative AI and online translation platforms to churn out grammatically perfect assignments. “What’s the point of me reading it if it’s already correct anyway, and you didn’t write…

3D bioprinting, in which living tissues are printed with cells mixed into soft hydrogels, or “bio-inks,” is widely used in the field of bioengineering for modeling or replacing the tissues in our bodies. The print quality and reproducibility of tissues, however, can face challenges. One of the most significant challenges is created simply by gravity — cells naturally sink to the bottom of the bioink-extruding printer syringe because the cells are heavier than the hydrogel around them.“This cell settling, which becomes worse during the long print sessions required to print large tissues, leads to clogged nozzles, uneven cell distribution, and…

Sometimes, Michiko Kato thinks back on the great challenges of her life.  She once dropped everything in her native city of Tokyo to attend Harvard Business School in Massachusetts. One day, she decided to leave her career in the stable world of finance to enter the rocky terrain of startup life. That jump is what changed everything.  On Wednesday, Kato officially assumes her greatest challenge yet — CIO of Toyota’s Woven Capital and CEO of Toyota Invention Partners. The latter appointment makes her the first female CEO of a wholly owned Toyota subsidiary.  Woven Capital is the growth-stage venture capital…

There are some things you might expect, even count on, in a Super Mario Galaxy movie. The introduction of the celestial Princess Rosalina? Check. A scene of her reading bedtime stories to her adorable, glowing star children Lumas? Check. A wild revenge scenario that takes Princess Peach, Mario, Luigi and Toad away from the Mushroom Kingdom and into space, where intergalactic travel requires little more than a well-placed launch star that will hurtle anyone safely through cosmos and into the cozy, self-contained gravitational pulls of nearby planets? This one might depend on how familiar you are with the game itself,…

A new artificial intelligence control system enables soft robotic arms to learn a wide repertoire of motions and tasks once, then adjust to new scenarios on the fly, without needing retraining or sacrificing functionality. This breakthrough brings soft robotics closer to human-like adaptability for real-world applications, such as in assistive robotics, rehabilitation robots, and wearable or medical soft robots, by making them more intelligent, versatile, and safe.The work was led by the Mens, Manus and Machina (M3S) interdisciplinary research group — a play on the Latin MIT motto “mens et manus,” or “mind and hand,” with the addition of “machina” for “machine”…

Smoke emanates from smokestacks from an oil refinery in Linden, New Jersey, on March 18, 2026. Kena Betancur | AFP | Getty ImagesCrude prices extended gains during Asia trading as escalating attacks in the Persian Gulf and U.S. President Donald Trump’s signals on exiting the Iran conflict even as the Strait of Hormuz remains largely closed keep markets on edge.Brent contract for June delivery was up 1.5% at $105.56 a barrel as of 9:50 ET — prices surged more than 60% in March, in their strongest ever monthly rally dating back to 1988, with the May contract settling about 5%…

Amazon delivery drivers walk the picket line outside Amazon delivery station in Skokie, Illinois, Dec. 19, 2024.Kamil Krzaczynski | Afp | Getty ImagesAmazon has vowed not to retaliate against workers who go on strike as part of a settlement with federal labor officials. The company will restore unpaid time off that it “illegally” docked from employees who walked off the job and “ensure all Amazon workers can strike in the future without losing their UPT,” the International Brotherhood of Teamsters said Tuesday in a release.More than 100 employees will have unpaid time off restored, according to the National Labor Relations…

Mercor, a popular AI recruiting startup, has confirmed a security incident linked to a supply chain attack involving the open-source project LiteLLM. The AI startup told TechCrunch on Tuesday that it was “one of thousands of companies” affected by a recent compromise of LiteLLM’s project, which was linked to a hacking group called TeamPCP. Confirmation of the incident comes as extortion hacking group Lapsus$ claimed it had targeted Mercor and gained access to its data. It’s not immediately clear how the Lapsus$ gang obtained the stolen data from Mercor as part of TeamPCP’s cyberattack. Founded in 2023, Mercor works with…

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Australia’s online safety watchdog said Tuesday it was considering court action against Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube alleging they are not doing enough to keep Australian children younger than 16 off their platforms.Experts say the Australian courts could decide what steps the platforms can reasonably be expected to take under the laws that took effect on Dec. 10 banning young children from holding accounts.Julie Inman Grant, who is Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, on Tuesday released her first compliance report since those laws took effect demanding 10 platforms remove all Australian account-holders younger than 16.While 5 million…

During a summer internship at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Ivy Mahncke, an undergraduate student of robotics engineering at Olin College of Engineering, took a hands-on approach to testing algorithms for underwater navigation. She first discovered her love for working with underwater robotics as an intern at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in 2024. Drawn by the chance to tackle new problems and cutting-edge algorithm development, Mahncke began an internship with Lincoln Laboratory’s Advanced Undersea Systems and Technology Group in 2025. Mahncke spent the summer developing and troubleshooting an algorithm that would help a human diver and robotic vehicle collaboratively navigate underwater. The…