Canada-based BTQ Technologies and the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) have completed the first milestone in a multi-year program to validate a new chip architecture designed to accelerate post-quantum cryptography.

The Quantum Compute-in-Memory (QCIM) architecture is being developed as part of a broader chip roadmap led by BTQ and ICTK. The technology is intended to provide hardware-based cryptographic acceleration for devices and systems that will need protection against future quantum computers.

The companies say the results could support future applications across military systems, industrial equipment, automotive technology, IoT devices, Physical AI and connected infrastructure.

Architecture validated in 28-nanometre environment

The first phase of the collaboration focused on validating the QCIM core under demanding operating conditions. The architecture was tested within a TSMC 28-nanometre design environment, where researchers evaluated its ability to accelerate cryptographic operations while maintaining functional correctness.

The tests covered algorithms associated with FIPS 203, 204 and 205, which form part of NIST’s emerging post-quantum cryptography standards. The architecture is also being designed to support additional algorithms as security requirements and standards evolve.

BTQ describes QCIM as a soft IP cryptographic accelerator capable of supporting both conventional and post-quantum cryptographic functions in a compact, low-power design.

The key concept is to perform cryptographic operations inside the memory subsystem rather than moving data between separate processing and memory components. This approach is intended to reduce data movement, latency and power consumption.

Furthermore, the architecture is also designed to be “crypto-agile,” allowing it to support different cryptographic algorithms as requirements change.

From post-quantum algorithms to real-world hardware

The development is part of a collaboration involving three different areas of semiconductor expertise. BTQ is contributing its cryptographic architecture, while ICTK provides secure semiconductor and physical unclonable function capabilities. ITRI is contributing semiconductor design, integration and validation expertise.

The companies say the completed milestone reduces technical uncertainty around the QCIM architecture and provides a foundation for moving toward broader system integration. The next phase will focus on module-level integration, verification and validation. This work will examine how the QCIM core can be incorporated into larger chip and system architectures while maintaining performance, interoperability and functional correctness.

“The results demonstrate that the QCIM architecture can accurately and efficiently accelerate multiple NIST-standardized post-quantum cryptographic algorithms under demanding conditions while maintaining the flexibility required to respond to evolving security standards,” said Olivier Roussy Newton, CEO and chairman of BTQ Technologies.

The technology is being targeted at applications where long-term security, device authentication and efficient cryptographic processing are particularly important, including edge computing, industrial systems, secure elements and AI-enabled devices. BTQ also expects to ship test chips to selected customers and strategic partners by the end of the year for performance and functional validation.

Dr. Chih-Cheng Lu, manager of ITRI’s Electronic and Optoelectronic System Research Laboratories, added that the next stage will build on the current results through additional integration and verification.

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A new study has looked at historic flooding of the Yangtze River and concluded that human attempts to temper flood risks may have actually made things worse. From ancient dykes to modern dams and floodgates, the team has concluded that, overall, these may have made flood events more devastating.

The core idea is deceptively simple: if you squeeze a river into a narrower space, the same volume of floodwater has fewer places to go. The result is that flood events, when they occur, can be amplified rather than dampened.

Historically, when the Yangtze flooded, water spread into surrounding floodplains, lakes and wetlands. Locally, this was clearly bad news, but those areas acted like enormous temporary storage tanks.

In other words, they absorbed water, slowed it down and released it gradually. In response, people then built embankments, drained lakes and reclaimed floodplains for farming and development. That protected those particular areas from ordinary floods, but the team claims, removed much of the river system’s overflow capacity.

To support their claims, the international team, led by Yu Shiyong of Jiangsu Normal University, looked at flood events over the last 500 years as the core of their study. They combined sediment archives, historical reports, and high-resolution climate reanalysis data to reconstruct the size and scale of historic floods along the river.

Did humans make Yangtze floods worse?

They found that embankment construction increased the estimated magnitude of a 100-year flood by about 18%, while lake enclosure and reclamation increased it by about 8%. A “100-year flood” does not mean one flood every 100 years. It means a flood of that size has historically had roughly a 1% chance in any given year.

But, you may well wonder, aren’t dams and levees supposed to prevent this? In short, they do, for smaller, more frequent flooding events. But the team argues that measures intended to control flooding can amplify the peak discharge of rare, extreme events.

Another problem human measures like dams and levees seem to have created, the team argues, is a perception of safety. With them in place, locals feel more secure in living in flood plains and will build houses, factories, etc, in places where they otherwise wouldn’t.

Termed the “levee effect,” when an extreme flood eventually overtops or exceeds those defences, the resulting damage can be much greater because more people and assets are now exposed.

So what can be done? The team argues that a more hybrid water management system might be better going forward. Rather than removing dams and levees, etc, they argue for strengthening defenses where needed, especially near large population centers.

They also argue that lakes and wetlands should be reconnected to rivers, and floodplains should be restored and preserved to act as natural flood absorbers. The team also suggests setting up controlled areas that can act as artificial floodplains, and restoring forests and wetlands upstream to slow rain runoff into rivers.

Nature knows best

“The core idea is not to eliminate floods, but to allow them to accumulate, divert and be released slowly in a predictable, controllable and minimally damaging space,” Lead author Yu Shiyong said in an interview.

“An ideal flood control system for the Yangtze River should be a robust river and lake ecosystem with self-adjusting capabilities, rather than relying solely on ever-rising dykes,” he added.

“Truly modern water management is about scientifically determining which areas must be protected, which areas should be left flood-prone, and when to store water and release it, while ensuring that the costs and benefits are shared fairly,” Yu added.

You can view the study for yourself in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

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Researchers from the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) have successfully developed an optimized spark-ignited hydrogen engine suitable for medium-duty commercial vehicles. As a form of internal combustion engine (ICE), the new engine behaves much more like a diesel engine than earlier hydrogen engines.

In other words, it is not a new kind of fuel-cell engine, but rather burns hydrogen inside cylinders using spark ignition. Just like a petrol engine, the new ICE produces mechanical propulsion using pistons.

“In addition to decades of developing medium- and heavy-duty engines, SwRI has some of the most extensive experience in the world developing and testing H₂-ICEs for internal research, clients and industry demonstrations,” said Dr. Qilong Lu, a program manager in SwRI’s Powertrain Systems Engineering Department and one of the leads on this project.

“The engine was designed, constructed and rigorously tested at SwRI to ensure efficiency and performance,” Dr. Lu added.

Diesel-like torque hydrogen engine

“We began at the single-cylinder level, focusing on optimizing combustion and injection strategies,” Lu said. “From there, our team ramped up efforts to develop the full multi-cylinder engine, addressing key challenges such as pre-ignition, combustion stability and overall systems integration,” Lu added.

The attraction is that hydrogen contains no carbon, so burning it produces water rather than carbon dioxide. It also allows manufacturers to retain much of the familiar internal-combustion ecosystem: engines, transmissions, manufacturing equipment, servicing knowledge and supply chains.

The team also managed to deliver the new hydrogen ICE’s diesel-like torque using a turbocharger that forces more air into the engine. This allows it to burn more hydrogen and produce the strong low-speed torque needed to move loaded trucks.

The new engine also has improved airflow thanks to an innovative intake-port geometry allowing hydrogen to burn much faster than petrol and requiring different air movement inside the cylinder.

The engine also features larger intake valves and hydrogen-specific injectors to enable optimum fuel-to-air mixing within the cylinders. It also uses special software and calibrations to precisely manage injection, ignition, boost pressure and the air–fuel mixture.

Another wrinkle they had to overcome is safety. Hot engine surfaces or residual gases can ignite hydrogen before the spark fires, producing knocking, power loss or potentially engine damage.

Low-emissions but not zero

In terms of emissions, the engine produces what the team describes as “near-zero tailpipe CO₂.” While this is true in terms of the engine itself, the way in which the fuel hydrogen is produced matters here.

If produced from natural gas, rather than renewable electricity, CO₂ could remain high, all things considered. Also, hydrogen combustion can still produce nitrogen oxides, or NOx, because combustion heats nitrogen and oxygen from the air to very high temperatures.

It therefore isn’t literally a zero-emission engine and may require careful combustion control and exhaust after-treatment.

“The project brought together many areas and experts at the Institute to complete,” said Chris Bitsis, assistant director of SwRI’s Powertrain Systems Engineering Department, who oversees combustion research programs. “SwRI’s hydrogen combustion engine program is working every day to advance this technology and showcase its potential as a near-zero carbon emissions industry solution,” he added.

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Wind propulsion company bound4blue has completed the installation of a 22-metre (72-foot) tall suction sail on the 292-foot (89-metre) cargo ship Na Hiro E Pae. This makes it the “first multipurpose vessel” worldwide to adopt a wind propulsion system. The unit was fitted at the Astilleros Armon Vigo yard in Spain for Greek shipping firm Société de Navigation des Australes SNA Tuha’a Pae.

“We hope Na Hiro E Pae leads the way for other ambitious shipping companies keen to unlock sustainable advantages,” said José Miguel Bermúdez.

Capable of carrying 200 passengers and 1,500 tonnes of supplies between Tahiti and the Austral Islands, the ship is expected to cut its energy consumption by 10 percent using the autonomous system alongside existing service from the Tuhaa Pae IV, which has operated on the route since 2012.

Delivering significant fuel savings

The installed technology, known as the eSail, yields sevenfold the thrust generated by an equally sized conventional rigid sail. This high efficiency allows a relatively small unit to deliver significant fuel savings without interfering with the fast loading and unloading operations required on multipurpose ships.

“bound4blue’s mechanically simple suction sail, producing up to seven times the propulsive force of a standard rigid sail of the same size, slots into a ‘green technology mix’ that includes engines capable of running on biofuel or e-fuel, electric POD propulsion, efficient waste management, and autonomy in fresh water supply,” highlighted the company in a press release. 

The system functions by pulling airflow across a wide aerodynamic contour to assist the main engines. An autonomous vertical sail uses suction technology to draw air over this shape, creating propulsive thrust that decreases the mechanical burden on the vessel’s primary engines.

By pulling the air over its surface, the system prevents airflow separation that normally limits conventional sails. This aerodynamic effect allows the unit to generate far higher propulsive force relative to its physical surface area, directly lowering fuel usage and engine emissions.

“Multipurpose vessels have traditionally been seen as a challenging segment for wind power, due to the required flexibility of operations and related integration demands,” added Bermúdez.

Utilizing other green technologies

The compact nature of the eSail provides high force efficiency, allowing the vessel to maintain open deck space for cargo handling while utilizing wind energy.

The Na Hiro E Pae combines the suction sail with several other onboard green technologies. The ship features engines configured to burn biofuel or e-fuel as soon as local regional markets can supply them.

It also incorporates electric POD propulsion, efficient waste management systems, and autonomous fresh water supply capabilities to support its passenger and freight services.

“Sustainability was a key objective throughout the design process, and the eSAIL forms an important part of a wider package of technologies that will help us reduce energy consumption and environmental impact, while maintaining the reliable transport services our communities depend upon,” concluded Boris PIEL technical Director, SNA Tuha’a Pae Shipping Company.

Helicopters are no longer the only aircraft capable of taking off vertically. Electric motors, autonomous flight systems and lightweight materials are giving rise to machines that lift like helicopters but fly more like conventional airplanes.

Some are designed to carry passengers over congested cities, while others could transport soldiers, deliver cargo or give individuals their own personal aircraft. Here are 10 futuristic VTOL aircraft attempting to change how people and goods move through the sky.

1. Joby Aviation air taxi

Joby Aviation

Joby Aviation has developed one of the most mature electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft in the industry. Its air taxi uses six tilting electric propellers to rise vertically before transitioning into forward flight.

The aircraft is designed to carry a pilot and four passengers at speeds of up to 200 mph, with a range of up to 100 miles. Joby reported that its aircraft had completed more than 2,600 flights and covered over 50,000 miles by December 2025.

2. Archer Midnight

Archer Midnight

Archer Aviation’s Midnight is built for short, repeated journeys across crowded cities. The aircraft has 12 electric motors and propellers, providing additional redundancy if one propulsion unit fails.

Midnight can carry four passengers and a pilot at speeds of up to 150 mph. Although its claimed range reaches 100 miles, it is optimized for consecutive journeys of around 20 to 50 miles. A piloted aircraft completed a 55-mile flight in 31 minutes in August 2025.

3. BETA ALIA VTOL

Wikimedia Commons

BETA Technologies has taken a relatively straightforward approach with its ALIA VTOL. Four horizontal propellers provide vertical lift, while a separate propeller at the rear drives the aircraft during forward flight.

ALIA is designed to carry five passengers or around 200 cubic feet of cargo. It has a listed maximum speed of 153 knots, equivalent to approximately 176 mph.

BETA is targeting passenger transport, medical missions, logistics and military operations with the platform.

4. AutoFlight Prosperity I

AutoFlight

China’s AutoFlight is developing Prosperity I for longer passenger journeys between cities and transport hubs. Its unusual propulsion system includes 10 lifting propellers and three propellers for forward flight.

The aircraft has five seats, including one for the pilot, and a typical payload capacity of 350 kilograms. AutoFlight claims a range exceeding 250 kilometres and a cruise speed above 200 kilometres per hour.

The passenger aircraft is currently progressing through airworthiness certification.

5. Vertical Aerospace Valo

Valo is the latest electric aircraft being developed by Britain’s Vertical Aerospace. It uses eight tilt-shift propellers and a carbon-composite airframe to carry four passengers and one pilot.

The all-electric aircraft is designed to travel up to 100 miles at speeds reaching 150 mph. Vertical is also planning a hybrid-electric version with a significantly more ambitious range of up to 1,000 miles.

The company is targeting entry into service after regulatory approval, currently expected in 2028.

6. Horizon Cavorite X7

Hysky

Instead of placing its lift propellers outside the aircraft, Horizon Aircraft has hidden them inside the wings. Panels open to expose 12 electric fans during vertical takeoff and close once the Cavorite X7 transitions into forward flight.

The Canadian hybrid-electric aircraft is being developed to carry six passengers and one pilot. Horizon is targeting a range of approximately 500 miles and a maximum speed of around 280 mph.

Its proposed missions include regional transport, defence and emergency response.

7. Jetson ONE

Jetson ONE

The Jetson ONE resembles a cross between an open-wheel racing car and an oversized drone. Its lightweight aluminium-and-carbon-fibre frame carries a single pilot above eight electrically powered propellers.

The aircraft offers approximately 20 minutes of flight and has a software-limited maximum speed of 63 mph.

It is controlled using a four-axis joystick and includes automatic landing, motor redundancy and a ballistic parachute. Unlike many proposed personal eVTOLs, early Jetson ONE aircraft have already reached customers.

8. ARIDGE Land Aircraft Carrier

Aridge

ARIDGE’s Land Aircraft Carrier approaches the flying-car problem by separating driving and flying. The system consists of a six-wheeled ground vehicle carrying a detachable two-seat electric aircraft inside its rear compartment.

Once the vehicle reaches a suitable location, the aerial module can be released and prepared for vertical flight. This modular architecture avoids forcing one machine to operate effectively both on public roads and in the air.

9. Sikorsky Nomad

Lockheed Martin

Sikorsky’s Nomad is a family of autonomous aircraft built around a rotor-blown-wing design. Two large propellers generate airflow over the wing, allowing the aircraft to hover before transitioning into efficient horizontal flight.

A 10.3-foot-wing prototype completed more than 40 takeoffs and landings, including 30 transitions between helicopter and airplane modes.

The larger Nomad aircraft could eventually perform reconnaissance, light-attack and contested-logistics missions without putting a crew onboard.

10. Bell MV-75 Cheyenne II

Bell MV

Bell’s MV-75 Cheyenne II is being developed as the U.S. Army’s next-generation long-range assault aircraft. Derived from the V-280 Valor demonstrator, it uses tilting rotors to combine helicopter-like vertical flight with turboprop-like speed.

The Army expects the MV-75 to fly more than twice as far and twice as fast as parts of its current helicopter fleet. It could eventually conduct air assault, medical evacuation, resupply and disaster-relief missions while replacing the UH-60 Black Hawk in certain roles.

Conclusion

These aircraft show there is no single solution to the vertical-flight problem. Companies are experimenting with tilting propellers, dedicated lift rotors, concealed fans, hybrid engines and autonomous flight systems.

However, flying prototypes are only part of the challenge. Certification, infrastructure, battery life, noise and operating costs will ultimately decide which of these futuristic VTOL aircraft become everyday machines—and which remain captivating visions of aviation’s future.

Boston Dynamics trained its Atlas humanoid robot for millions of simulated hours before it successfully lifted and carried a mini-fridge.

This episode of the Physics World Weekly podcast features Yonatan Cohen, who is co-founder and chief technology officer of Quantum Machines.

The company was started in 2018 by three physicists from Israel’s Weizmann Institute. It develops control systems for quantum computers and has about 300 employees and 500 customers worldwide.

Cohen explains why hybrid quantum–classical control systems are increasing in importance as quantum computers scale-up to include more and more qubits. He also talks about Quantum Machines’ strategy to support a wide range of qubit types – including  superconducting circuits, trapped ions, neutral atoms, spins and NV centres.

We chat about some of the company’s products and its collaborations with quantum-technology companies including Rigetti Computing and Diraq. Cohen also gives career advice for physicists who want to work in the quantum sector.

The post Building bridges between quantum and classical computing appeared first on Physics World.

As Tim Cook hands the reins to hardware engineering chief John Ternus in September 2026, the company faces its biggest leadership transition in 15 years. While Cook’s tenure delivered massive revenue growth and operational excellence, many former employees and analysts say Apple has lost the product-first, risk-taking design culture that defined the Jobs years. Fortune explores whether Ternus can shift the company from steady iteration back to true innovation.

Sebastian Herrera for Fortune:
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Matthew Rogers remembers Apple’s scrappy days when, as an engineer fresh out of college, he could debate ideas directly with Steve Jobs… “I was 23, 24 years old, and I interacted with Steve Jobs. That’s crazy, right? But that’s the organization he ran,” Rogers told Fortune from his Silicon Valley office (he now runs food-recycling startup Mill).

Back then, Apple’s hierarchy was much flatter. What made Apple special, he said, is that Jobs surrounded himself with consumer-minded product leaders who were expected to argue. The mandate was to build “the best thing out there” and take real risks. Some of Apple’s most iconic products came out of a skunkworks team across the street from the main office.

That much-mythologized era continues to shape — and perhaps burden — Apple as it navigates its biggest leadership transition in 15 years. Somewhere along the way, Apple lost a part of its design and product magic, Rogers and several former design and hardware employees, investors, and analysts said. The September handoff from Tim Cook to incoming chief executive John Ternus, who currently leads hardware engineering, has Rogers and other longtime Apple watchers wondering: Can the company reclaim its product-first soul?

Rogers, who also cocreated smart home company Nest with former Apple executive Tony Fadell, said Ternus now faces a defining test. “I’ll put it this way,” he said. “He has a tall task, but a big opportunity.”

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MacDailyNews Take: As we posted on X just yesterday:

Under Tim Cook, Apple systematically strayed from Steve Jobs’ core vision. Product Design, the very soul of the company Jobs rebuilt, was demoted, sidelined, and subordinated to operations, supply-chain efficiency, and services revenue. The result? Fifteen long years of polished, but profoundly boring iteration: thinner bezels, faster chips, incremental camera bumps, and endless “Pro” variants that rarely moved the industry forward the way the original iPhone, iPad, or even the aluminum unibody MacBooks once did.

Jobs put Design at the absolute top of the food chain. Jony Ive’s group wasn’t a service department; it was the engine. Cook flipped the hierarchy. Hardware engineering, operations, and finance called the shots (poorly; witness Luca Maestri famously rejecting calls to invest in AI early on which is why he’s now sidelined). Design became reactive instead of directive. The Vision Pro launched as an impressive, but overpriced, underbaked curiosity. After billions spent, the Apple Car evaporated. True category-defining leaps simply did not happen.

Now comes John Ternus, a product person, a hardware guy who has spent his career shipping actual devices rather than optimizing margins. Early signals are encouraging: bringing trusted hardware lieutenants back into the fold and already embedding himself with the industrial design group. That is exactly the right instinct.

If Ternus moves quickly to restore Design to its rightful place at the apex of Apple’s decision-making, the company might finally escape the long, comfortable, lucrative mediocrity of the Cook era. Apple doesn’t need another fifteen years of safer, prettier, or just different iterations. It needs the return of products that make people stop, stare, and rethink what a computer in their pocket, on their wrist, or on their face can be.

The hardware engineer is about to become CEO. The question is whether he has the will — and the authority with Cook looming as Executive Chairman — to put Design back on top where Jobs left it. The next few years will tell us if Apple can innovate again… or if the iteration treadmill simply continues under a new CEO.

Fingers crossed!

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The post Can new CEO John Ternus bring back Apple’s design mojo? appeared first on MacDailyNews.

In African tech hubs, developers are picking China’s cheap, freely available artificial intelligence models over more powerful U.S. ones.