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IEEE Spectrum’s most popular biomedical stories of the last year centered both on incorporating new technologies and revamping old ones. While AI is all the rage in most sectors—including biomed, with applications like an in-brain warning system for worsening mental health and a model to estimate heart rate in real time—biomedical news this past year has also focused on legacy technologies. Tech like Wi-Fi, ultrasound, and lasers have all made comebacks or found new uses in 2025.Whether innovation stems from new tech or old, IEEE Spectrum will continue to cover it rigorously in 2026.1. Next-Gen Brain Implants Offer

This giant bubble on the island of Sardinia holds 2,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide. But the gas wasn’t captured from factory emissions, nor was it pulled from the air. It came from a gas supplier, and it lives permanently inside the dome’s system to serve an eco-friendly purpose: to store large amounts of excess renewable energy until it’s needed.Developed by the Milan-based company Energy Dome, the bubble and its surrounding machinery demonstrate a first-of-its-kind “CO2 Battery,” as the company calls it. The facility compresses and expands CO2 daily in its closed system, turning a turbine that generates 200 megawatt-hours of ele

Achieve accurate RCS predictions for electrically large aerospace structures in minutes instead ofhours using advanced approximation techniques on standard desktop hardware.What Attendees will Learn“Simulate smart, not slow” -- Extrapolation cuts 1-hour MoM runs to minutes.95%+ time savings -- Physical Optics delivers comparable accuracy in seconds.Hybrid approach proven -- MoM + PO combines precision with efficiency.No supercomputer needed -- Desktop workstation achieves high-fidelity results.Download

Demand for electricity is up in the United States, and so is its price. One way to increase supply and lower costs is to build new power plants, but that can take years and cost a fortune. Talgat Kopzhanov is working on a faster, more affordable solution: the generator replacement interconnection process.The technique links renewable energy sources to the grid connections of shuttered or underutilized power facilities and coal plants. The process

Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your friends at IEEE Spectrum robotics. We also post a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events. Please send us your events for inclusion.ICRA 2026: 1–5 June 2026, VIENNAEnjoy today’s videos! Happy Holidays from FZI Living Lab!

The head of a U.S. CHIPS and Science Act-funded center devoted to digital twins for chip manufacturing has informed its 121 members that the U.S. Department of Commerce will terminate its US $285-million five-year contract.According to its website, the SMART USA Institute has the goal of uniting academic and industrial labs to create “virtual manufacturing replicas” that reduce development and manufacturing costs by more than 35 percent, cut manufacturing development time by 30 percent, and improve manufacturing yields by 40 pe

Fast, direct-current charging can charge an EV’s battery from about 20 percent to 80 percent in 20 minutes. That’s not bad, but it’s still about six times as long as it takes to fill the tank of an ordinary petrol-powered vehicle.One of the major bottlenecks to even faster charging is cooling, specifically uneven cooling inside big EV battery packs as the pack is charged. Hydrohertz, a British startup launched by former motorsport and power-electronics engineers, says it has a solution: fire liquid coolant exactly where it’s needed during charging

In the modern era of rapid digital transformation, engineering leaders are expected to be more than project managers and technical experts. They need to be vision-setters, innovation enablers, and mentors shaping the next generation of talent.Leadership and mentorship, when paired with intention, do more than advance business goals. They create an ecosystem where innovation flourishes and careers accelerate.I want to share how my professional journey, spanning leadership roles at retail giant Walmart and cloud communications company Twilio, has underscored the profound synergy between the two dimensions.

For decades, atomic clocks have provided the most stable means of timekeeping. They measure time by oscillating in step with the resonant frequency of atoms, a method so accurate that it serves as the basis for the definition of a second. Now, a new challenger has emerged in the timekeeping arena. Researchers recently developed a tiny, MEMS-based clock that makes use of silicon doping to gain record stability. After running for 8 hours, the clock deviated only by 102 nanoseconds, approaching the standard of atomic clocks while both requiring less physical space and less

This article is crossposted from IEEE Spectrum’s careers newsletter. Sign up now to get insider tips, expert advice, and practical strategies, written in partnership with tech career development company Taro and delivered to your inbox for free!Don’t squander the reverse interviewAt the end of every job interview, you will get asked, “Do you have any questions for me?”There is only one correct answer here: yes! You