New Atlas
Engineers at UCLA and Michigan built an 11-cm robot that hops using twisted Nitinol rods. A small motor twists each rod until its shape becomes unstable and snaps to a new one, releasing stored energy in a burst that pushes the robot off the ground. It moved faster than a rigid-legged version on six surfaces and can also swim with fins.
Summary written with AI by HowTechMoves, based on reporting by New Atlas.
TechCrunch
Veritas puts a small chip inside luxury goods that answers each phone tap with a fresh secure response. A tamper-detection wire ties the chip to the object, so copying a QR code or an NFC link is not enough. The second version works on metal and through glass, opening jewelry, trophies and fragrance bottles.
MIT Technology Review
In macular degeneration, the light-sensing cells in the eye die but the rest of the retina's circuitry survives. The Prima system uses camera glasses and a pocket processor to convert video into near-infrared light, which a 378-pixel implant turns into electrical signals for the retina; the implant also powers itself like a solar cell. Over 80 percent of recipients could read again.
Scientific American
Quantum computers make frequent errors, so they need special states, called magic states, to run the gates that give them their power. The usual way to make those states can eat up most of the machine. Google researchers instead encoded one rough magic state on their Willow chip, checked it without destroying it, and grew it across more qubits, cutting errors about 40-fold.
en.sedaily
Industrial robots usually stay bolted in place behind safety fences, repeating one task, so older rules did not cover machines that walk among people. South Korea has approved a pilot where 20 two-legged Robros humanoids clean chip components, place auto parts, stack shipyard material and move logistics packaging alongside workers. Companies must assess risks, and the data will shape future safety standards.