Batteries are undergoing rapid advances. For example, modern zinc-air batteries have the remarkable ability to use oxygen as energy—but that oxygen isn't stored in the battery itself. Zinc-air batteries take in surrounding oxygen to undergo a reaction to discharge energy called the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). While this convenient strategy is promising, the slow speed of the ORR limits the practicality of these batteries.
Seoul National University College of Engineering announced that a research team led by Prof. Yongtaek Hong from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering has developed a high-performance transparent organic light-emitting diode (OLED) incorporating highly conductive transparent metal mesh top electrodes fabricated using a selective metal deposition technique. The research was published in the journal Materials Horizons and was selected as the outside front cover image for the issue.
A joint research team has experimentally observed ballistic transport in single-crystalline copper thin films, demonstrating that ballistic transport is achievable in an industry-standard metal at interconnect-relevant dimensions. The study, titled "Ballistic transport in nanodevices based on single-crystalline Cu thin films," was published in Nature Communications.
Researchers from Plasma Technology and Surfaces, Paint/Lacquer Technology, as well as Automation and Production Technology at Fraunhofer IFAM, in collaboration with HYTANK project partners, developed resource-efficient manufacturing and joining technologies for the production of large-format, double-walled hydrogen tanks made of carbon fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP)—ranging from suitable surface pretreatments and functional barrier layers to automated production on a 1:1 scale, including machining and adhesive-bonding assembly. The goal was to lay the groundwork for the future efficient production of lighter, leak-tight and—under cryogenic conditions—more reliable tank structures, for example, for the aerospace industry.
In a recent editorial published in Science, Microsoft's chief scientific officer, Eric Horvitz, and researcher Robert West from the School of Computer and Communication Sciences at EPFL in Switzerland issue a stark warning about AI. They say the advancement of AI systems rapidly being woven into our everyday lives is beginning to outpace our understanding of them. At the same time, AI's understanding of human behavior is expanding.
You're browsing a major online marketplace for a warm winter jacket when a sponsored listing catches your eye: a black, fleece-lined jacket, prominently priced at A$18.99 each. It's just what you want, so you click through, ready to grab a bargain.
In the last few years, the hype around artificial intelligence has become stratospheric. Riding a wave of venture capital, tech leaders promised us AI would revolutionize work, boost productivity and lead to incredible new breakthroughs. OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, set a new record when it attained US$110 billion in investments several months ago—and its CEO, Sam Altman, recently claimed Australia could become a "data capital of the world."
Elon Musk's SpaceX is becoming a publicly traded company after selling 555.6 million shares in what was the biggest initial public offering in history. But my new research suggests that investors who bought those shares are unlikely to see the explosive growth that past IPOs had.
If you shop on Google Flights, you get a quick comparison of different itineraries: One flight's carbon emissions may be average, while another's are 14% higher. But if you go shopping for a new laptop, you likely won't find quick, comprehensible information on different models' sustainability bona fides, despite the notable environmental impacts of producing and discarding electronics. In part, that's because understanding a device's emissions is difficult and time-consuming, even for experts.
When they get home, the residents of a small housing association on the outskirts of Hudiksvall, Sweden, plug in their electric vehicles to charge them or, intriguingly, power their homes.
The photoacoustic effect has been known for more than 150 years: Gases exposed to light heat up. Pulsing the light generates periodic pressure fluctuations, or sound waves, with frequencies that can be uniquely assigned to individual gases. This photoacoustic effect forms the basis for a measurement method that is highly precise even at low gas concentrations. Despite its high sensitivity, the method has previously only occupied a niche, primarily because it relies on a resonator for acoustic amplification. This resonator is highly sensitive to even the slightest changes in air pressure, temperature or mechanical stress. However, ensuring an accurate measurement requires the system to precisely hit the correct resonant frequency.
Anthropic will donate $150 million to launch a fellowship program that places people early in their careers with nonprofits around the country to help them use artificial intelligence more effectively in their work.
A research team at the University of Tsukuba reported that 43.3% of Japanese esports players were classified as having poor subjective sleep quality, according to a cross-sectional survey. In particular, poor sleep quality was common among individuals who engaged in esports play between 3:00 a.m. and 8:59 a.m. The study also identified differences in sleep patterns according to competitive level: Professional players were more likely to have later bedtimes and wake-up times, and amateur players tended to report a shorter total sleep time.
A new type of gamma-ray sensor developed by NASA, called AstroPix, will take part in a robotic arm demonstration on the agency's upcoming Fly Foundational Robots mission, set to launch in late 2027.
Engineers at The University of Texas at Austin have developed a jacket that harvests drinking water directly from the air. The technology could benefit anyone who spends a lot of time in areas without easy access to drinking water, from hobbyist hikers, campers and runners to agricultural workers, emergency responders and soldiers. The advance in fabric technology comes alongside a new benchmark for atmospheric water harvesting.
Northwestern University scientists have developed a new liquid material that charges like a battery, transforms like a living organism and then resets itself in open air. Traditionally, harvesting energy, storing it and using it require separate materials or devices. The new platform merges all three functions into a single material, opening the door for adaptive, clean, renewable systems that don't require plastics or metals.
As artificial intelligence, cloud computing and digital services continue to expand, the world is facing a growing need for faster and more energy-efficient ways to store and process information. A team led by the National Institutes for Quantum Science and Technology (QST) has developed a new magnetic memory material that can be rewritten using laser light instead of electric current, a step that could help reduce power consumption in data centers and support future high-speed information systems.
A single photograph contains a wealth of information, but determining 3D spatial relationships from a 2D scene is no simple task. Many attempts have been made to develop a method to reconstruct both depth and sharp color images from a single snapshot, but many struggle to deliver accurate and reliable output.
In order to stabilize global warming at less than 1.5°C in the long term, there is a need not only for a drastic reduction in greenhouse gas emissions but also for technologies to remove and store hundreds of billions of tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere. This is also the underlying basis of the scenarios set out in the latest Assessment Report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
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