City University of Hong Kong

Li-ion batteries need complex cooling systems. Yet, the human body, which generates enough heat to boil over 100 cups of tea daily, is literally just chillin’. The secret? Our skin’s ability to sweat. Scientists may have given batteries this ability.

Flying robots do have advantages over their ground-going counterparts, but they're not very energy-efficient. A new bot addresses that tradeoff by using a wing-assisted mechanism to hop instead of walking or flying in the traditional sense.

It might look hilarious in motion, but this remarkable aerial drone extends its battery life from a few minutes up to a full hour by bouncing around on a springy pogo tail. That incredible efficiency makes it attractive for a wide range of missions.

Scientists have demonstrated a new ultra-white ceramic material that drastically cools buildings, with record-high sunlight and heat reflectivity. The beetle-inspired material gets its ability from its nanostructure and should be easy to mass produce.

While we've seen multiple attempts to produce real-world odors in VR environments, many have involved cumbersome wearable devices. Chinese scientists have developed a much more streamlined system, which is applied to the skin below the user's nose.

Last year we heard about an "electronic skin" developed at City University of Hong Kong, which delivers tactile sensations to wearers. The university has now gone one better, with an e-skin that both senses and reproduces users' touches.

While technology is making strides in absorbing our eyes and ears in virtual worlds, it’s harder to engage senses like touch. Engineers have now developed WeTac, a thin, wearable electronic "skin" that provides tactile feedback to users in VR and AR.

City University of Hong Kong researchers have accidentally discovered a first-of-its-kind high-entropy alloy that retains its stiffness, and actually becomes springier, instead of softening at high temperature. No other known metals behave this way.

Although wing-flapping micro-drones do already exist, the things tend to be quite fragile – and thus not ideally suited to real-world use. An experimental new one, however, utilizes a softer mechanism for greatly enhanced durability.

Scientists at the City University of Hong Kong have developed a new type of spray-on coating they say can give regular objects the capabilities of magnetically controlled robots, with particular potential in biomedical applications.

An international team of scientists has created a new type of solar flow battery that’s efficient and long-lasting. The device is made up of a silicon/perovskite tandem solar cell, paired with a redox flow battery, with organic chemical electrolytes.

Although VR tech may allow users to see and hear computer-generated environments, the extent to which people can feel those worlds is still quite limited. That could be about to change, though, thanks to what's being called an "epidermal VR" system.