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Researchers ran molecular dynamics simulations of a 1 M LiPF6 solution in ethylene carbonate solvent, comparing a machine-learned force field (QRNN) against a conventional empirical force field (OPLS4). The two methods produced markedly different molecular structures around lithium ions, with the QRNN simulations revealing previously unidentified clusters containing multiple lithium ions bound together.
Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe announced at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 that Doug Field, formerly Ford's EV chief and a veteran of Tesla, Apple and Segway, has joined Mind Robotics as president. Field will oversee product, engineering and operations at the industrial AI and robotics startup, which Rivian founded a year ago and has raised over $1 billion for from investors including Accel, Andreessen Horowitz, Kleiner Perkins, and Volkswagen and Salesforce's venture arms.
Mind Robotics, the industrial AI and robotics venture spun out of Rivian last year, has hired former Ford and Apple EV executive Doug Field as president. Field will oversee product, engineering and operations day-to-day, while Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe remains involved with the company. The startup has raised over $1 billion from investors including Accel, Andreessen Horowitz, Kleiner Perkins, and venture arms of Volkswagen and Salesforce.
Apple's updated Apple TV 4K adds far-field microphones for hands-free Siri commands and uses AI to pull context from apps like Messages, letting users ask it to play shows mentioned in texts. Siri can also answer trivia about on-screen content, displaying text-only responses in a corner of the screen rather than speaking over audio. The new Siri Remote can also emit a sound to help users locate it, similar to the AirPods 'find' feature.
Mind Robotics, the secretive robotics spinoff founded by Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe in 2025, has named Doug Field as its president. Field previously led Apple's Project Titan car effort, served as Tesla's chief vehicle engineer during Model 3 development, and most recently ran Ford's electric vehicle and software division until earlier this year. Mind Robotics has raised over $1 billion and says it is building robots intended for use in Rivian's factories and other applications.
OpenAI has published a large set of new results on mathematical problem-solving benchmarks, adding to the growing body of data on AI capabilities in this area. The release includes hundreds of new test outcomes, highlighting progress and ongoing challenges in AI understanding of complex math tasks.
Researchers studying the Higgs field suggest our universe may exist in a 'false vacuum' that could one day collapse into a lower-energy state, destroying reality as we know it through an expanding bubble. New theoretical work argues quantum mechanical effects could make this catastrophic event far less likely, or at least much slower, than earlier calculations implied.
Nature spoke with lecturers and outdoor-education researchers, including biologist Pedro Maria Abreu Ferreira and educational scientist Janne Fengler, about teaching classes outside. The discussion covered challenges such as weather disruptions and insects, alongside practical advice for preparing students and instructors for outdoor sessions.
Georgia Tech engineers led by Alex Abramson developed a system called SWANS that lets implanted devices communicate by sending electrical signals through body tissue rather than Bluetooth or NFC radio waves. The system mimics ionic conduction used by neurons, passing voltage signals through tissue instead of nerves to coordinate multiple implants like pacemakers and insulin pumps.
IEEE announced its 2027 Technical Field Award winners, honoring researchers for advances including therapeutic ultrasound, heat-assisted magnetic recording for hard drives, and nonlinear control theory. Recipients include Kullervo Hynynen of Sunnybrook Research Institute and the University of Toronto, a Seagate Technology team led by Edward Charles Gage, and Arjan van der Schaft of the University of Groningen. IEEE president and CEO Mary Ellen Randall said the honorees reflect innovation spanning microelectronics, AI, medical robotics, wireless networks, energy conversion, and technical education.
On December 2, 1942, scientists at the University of Chicago's Metallurgical Laboratory achieved the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction using the Chicago Pile, a 20-foot stack of graphite blocks and uranium built under Stagg Field. The reactor ran for about 30 minutes before being shut down, with cadmium control rods as its only safety mechanism, and the experiment was conducted without informing university or city officials.
Cryptography researchers demonstrated a method to forge certain RSA signatures without recovering the private key, using a variant of the special number field sieve algorithm combined with an oracle found in some blind-signature protocols. The attack is practical against deprecated 1,024-bit keys and reduces the estimated security margin of 2,048-bit and 4,096-bit keys in vulnerable blind-signature systems, while standard RSA implementations using PKCS or PSS padding appear unaffected.