India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has completed three back-to-back flight tests of its Phase 2 Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) system, marking a major step in the country’s effort to build a credible multi-layered missile shield.

The trials were carried out on June 10 and 11 and saw interceptors destroy targets in both the endo-atmospheric and exo-atmospheric regions.

In simpler terms, the system demonstrated its ability to engage incoming missile threats both within Earth’s atmosphere and outside it.

The Phase 2 shield is designed to counter faster and longer-range ballistic missiles than the earlier version of the program. It is also expected to eventually scale up toward intercepting intercontinental ballistic missile threats.

“The interceptors successfully engaged their respective targets. The systems are designed and developed with the latest technologies to address the emerging missile threats,” the ministry stated.

“These tests have put the country in the elite group of nations having BMD capability to engage up to Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles.”

Designed for longer-range threats

The Phase 2 system includes two interceptors, AD-1 and AD-2, which are meant to destroy ballistic missile threats during different phases of flight. The system is network-centric, relying on launchers, long-range radars, launch control centers, and a mission control center.

While the Ministry of Defense said the system can engage threats up to the ICBM class, the latest demonstrations reportedly involved targets in the 2,000 to 5,000-kilometer range.

Missiles in this range are generally classified as intermediate-range ballistic missiles, while ICBMs are usually defined as missiles with ranges above 5,500 kilometers.

The trials still represent a significant step up from the earlier Phase 1 system, which was developed to defend against shorter-range ballistic missile threats.

Two decades in the making

India’s BMD program began in the late 1990s, after Pakistan’s 1998 nuclear tests. Its first major success came in 2006, when a Prithvi-II ballistic missile target was intercepted in an endo-atmospheric test at an altitude of around 48 kilometers.

Phase 1 of the missile shield was completed in 2019 and was designed to protect key cities such as Delhi and Mumbai.

It used the Prithvi Defense Vehicle for high-altitude interception and the Advanced Air Defense interceptor for lower-altitude engagements.

Phase 3 eyes hypersonic weapons

DRDO is already working on the next stage of the program. Phase 3 is expected to focus on more complex threats, including hypersonic glide vehicles and missiles carrying Multiple Independently Targetable Re-entry Vehicles, or MIRVs.

Hypersonic glide vehicles are especially difficult to intercept because they travel above Mach 5 and can maneuver during flight. MIRV-equipped missiles pose another challenge because a single missile can release multiple warheads aimed at different targets.

The next-generation interceptors, reportedly designated AD-AH and AD-AM, are still at an early conceptual stage, with flight testing yet to begin.

The latest BMD trials come as China continues to field advanced missile systems and Pakistan develops longer-range and MIRV-capable weapons. For New Delhi, the tests mark another step toward a more advanced defensive shield against evolving missile threats.

US firm Aurelius Systems has completed live testing of its Archimedes autonomous directed-energy system for the Pentagon, demonstrating the laser weapon’s ability to counter unmanned aerial system threats in a live exercise.

The test was held at Camp Atterbury in Indiana and formed part of a broader evaluation effort involving nearly 60 platforms being assessed for their potential to improve warfighter protection, operational effectiveness, and next-generation defense capabilities.

During the exercise, Archimedes engaged more than 20 quadcopter drones and five U.S. Army-supplied unmanned aerial systems. According to the company, the event marked the first time the system was tested against military-provided targets.

Laser tested against army drones

The California-based defense firm said Archimedes successfully neutralized the simulated aerial threats during the demonstration.

The result, it said, validated the system’s readiness as a counter-drone tool at a time when small unmanned aircraft are becoming a growing concern for military bases, frontline units, and critical infrastructure.

The live test also showed the system’s ability to autonomously detect, identify, track, and defeat drone threats without relying on traditional missile-based interceptors.

“Archimedes proved that autonomous directed energy systems are ready to play a meaningful role in modern air defense operations,” said Michael LaFramboise, CEO of Aurelius Systems.

Built for Group 1 and 2 UAS

Archimedes is designed to counter Group 1 and Group 2 unmanned aerial systems.

These include smaller drones and UAS platforms weighing up to 1,320 pounds (599 kilograms), with speeds of up to 250 knots, or around 288 miles per hour (463 kilometers per hour).

The system combines high-energy laser output with advanced sensing technology, allowing it to repeatedly engage targets at ranges beyond 1,000 meters, or about 3,281 feet.

Unlike missile interceptors, which can be expensive and limited by magazine depth, directed-energy systems offer a different approach.

They use concentrated energy to disable or destroy threats and can potentially deliver multiple shots at a much lower cost per engagement.

That cost advantage is becoming increasingly important as relatively cheap drones are being used in large numbers across modern battlefields.

Low-cost air defense option

Aurelius Systems has positioned Archimedes as a compact, scalable counter-UAS system that can support force protection missions.

The company says the platform offers low size, weight, power, and cost characteristics, making it easier to deploy than larger air defense systems.

“The ability to autonomously acquire, identify, track, and defeat aerial threats in a compact, [low size, weight, power, and cost] platform at a significantly lower cost than traditional systems provides America with a powerful new option for protecting military forces,” La Framboise said.

The demonstration comes as the Pentagon continues to search for faster, cheaper, and more sustainable ways to defeat drones.

Small UAS threats can be difficult to detect and expensive to counter with conventional weapons, especially when launched in swarms or used repeatedly.

With its latest live test, Archimedes has now shown that it can operate against both commercial-style quadcopters and Army-supplied targets, giving Aurelius Systems a stronger case for the laser weapon’s role in future layered air defense.

Electric cars and hydrogen cars are often compared as rival technologies. However, both are electric at the wheel. The main difference is how they store and deliver energy.

Battery-electric vehicles, or BEVs, store electricity directly in a battery pack. Hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles, or FCEVs, store energy as hydrogen and convert it into electricity inside the vehicle.

Both offer zero tailpipe emissions, but they differ sharply in efficiency, infrastructure, cost, and likely use cases.

Over the next two decades, battery EVs are expected to dominate passenger cars. Hydrogen vehicles are more likely to serve specific transport sectors such as long-haul trucks, buses, coaches, and high-use commercial fleets.

How the technologies work

A battery EV is charged by plugging into the electricity grid. The electricity is stored in a lithium-ion battery and then sent to an electric motor that drives the wheels. Because the process is direct, BEVs are highly efficient. Their electricity-to-wheel efficiency is often above 70 percent.

Hydrogen vehicles use a more complex chain. Hydrogen is produced elsewhere, compressed, stored, transported, and then refuelled into the vehicle. Inside the vehicle, a fuel cell combines hydrogen with oxygen to produce electricity. That electricity powers the motor.

The fuel-cell stack itself is usually below 70 percent efficient. When the full green hydrogen chain is included, from electricity generation to hydrogen production, compression, transport, and conversion, the final well-to-wheel efficiency can fall closer to 20–30 percent.

This means hydrogen vehicles use much more primary energy than battery EVs when both are powered by the same renewable electricity. This efficiency gap is one of the strongest arguments in favor of battery EVs for regular passenger transport.

Efficiency, range, and cost

Battery EVs have a clear advantage in energy use and running costs. Since fewer conversion steps are involved, more of the original electricity reaches the wheels. This usually makes BEVs cheaper to operate per kilometer.

Hydrogen vehicles have an advantage in refueling time and potential range. Many FCEVs can be refueled in about 5 minutes, and some models offer 300–400 miles of range or more. 

This makes hydrogen attractive for vehicles that need long range and cannot afford long charging breaks.

For private cars, this advantage is less decisive. Most daily driving distances are short enough for modern battery EVs. Home charging, workplace charging, and public fast charging can cover most passenger vehicle use cases.

For commercial transport, the calculation changes. Trucks, buses, and fleet vehicles often run for long hours and need quick turnaround. In these cases, refueling speed, payload, and route flexibility can matter more than maximum energy efficiency.

Infrastructure challenge

Infrastructure is another major difference.

Battery EVs can use the existing electricity network. Charging infrastructure still needs major expansion, and power grids will require upgrades, but the basic system already exists. EVs can be charged at homes, offices, depots, highways, and public charging stations.

Hydrogen needs a new supply chain. It requires clean hydrogen production, compression, storage, transport, and dedicated refueling stations. This makes deployment slower and more expensive.

There is also the emissions issue. Hydrogen cars produce no tailpipe emissions, but most hydrogen today is still produced using fossil fuels, especially natural gas.

Low-emissions hydrogen accounted for less than 1 percent of global production in 2024/2025. For hydrogen vehicles to deliver major climate benefits, the fuel must increasingly come from low-emission or renewable sources.

Market outlook

The market already shows a major lead for battery EVs. Global electric car sales exceeded 20 million in 2025, reaching about 25 percent of total car sales. The IEA expects sales to grow to 23 million in 2026, representing around 28 percent of total car sales.

Hydrogen vehicles are growing from a much smaller base. One estimate values the hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle market at about $0.2 billion in 2024, rising to around $2.1 billion by 2030. That shows rapid growth in percentage terms, but the market remains tiny compared with battery EVs.

Some forecasts suggest fuel-cell vehicles may account for only around 4 percent of zero-emission vehicles by 2044. However, hydrogen could have a stronger role in heavy transport, especially in long-distance trucks and high-use commercial fleets.

Final verdict

Battery EVs are likely to go further in mainstream adoption. They are more efficient, easier to scale, cheaper to run, and already supported by a fast-growing charging network.

Hydrogen is unlikely to replace battery EVs in normal passenger cars. Its future is more specialized. It can be useful in sectors where battery technology is limited, including long-haul trucking, intercity coaches, industrial fleets, shipping, and possibly aviation.

The future is not a simple electric-versus-hydrogen battle. Battery EVs are set to dominate everyday road transport, while hydrogen will compete in the harder-to-electrify parts of the transport system.

Long before humans built cities, made tools, or even appeared on Earth, the planet was already leaving behind clues to its earliest history. Some are tiny crystals almost as old as Earth itself.

Others are fossils, ancient rocks, mountain ranges, and tools that reveal when life began, how early humans evolved, and how our world changed over billions of years. These seven discoveries are among the oldest things ever found on Earth.

1. UR 501 jawbone

Wikimedia Commons

The UR 501 jawbone is considered one of the oldest known human fossils. Found in Malawi, it is estimated to be around 2.5 to 2.3 million years old. The fossil belongs to the Homo rudolfensis group, an early human relative.

Its discovery was important because early Homo fossils had not been found in Central Africa before. The jawbone suggests that early humans or their close relatives may have moved through the East African rift system, offering clues about how early Homo spread across the continent.

2. Lomekwi stone tools

The Lomekwi stone tools, discovered in West Turkana, Kenya, are around 3.3 million years old. They are considered the oldest known tools ever found. Archaeologists uncovered anvils, cores, and flakes at the site.

What makes these tools remarkable is that they are older than the earliest known humans by about 500,000 years.

This means they may have been made by early human relatives such as Australopithecus or Kenyanthropus. Their discovery changed the idea that toolmaking was only a human trait.

3. Lake Zaysan

Wikimedia Commons

Lake Zaysan in Kazakhstan is believed to be around 65 million years old. While Lake Baikal is often called the world’s oldest lake, Lake Zaysan may be even older.

The lake is thought to have formed during the Cretaceous period, though its exact age is difficult to confirm. Today, it is located near artificial reservoirs and the Bukhtarma dam. The dam raised the lake’s water level, increasing its area and causing some sources to group it with nearby reservoirs.

4. Makhonjwa Mountains

The Makhonjwa Mountains, located in South Africa and Eswatini, are about 3.6 billion years old. They are widely known as the oldest mountain range in the world.

The mountains are part of the Barberton Greenstone Belt, one of Earth’s oldest geological structures. They also contain some of the oldest known signs of life and ancient gold deposits. In 2018, the Makhonjwa Mountains were added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List.

5. Stromatolites

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Stromatolites are layered rock structures formed by ancient cyanobacteria. Some of the oldest stromatolites are about 3.5 billion years old, making them among the earliest visible evidence of life on Earth.

These organisms once existed in large numbers around the planet. Although they became less common in the fossil record about a billion years ago, stromatolites still grow in some places today. They remain one of the clearest records of early life.

6. Hematite tubes

Hematite tubes found in Quebec, Canada, may be between 3.7 and 4.2 billion years old. Researchers have suggested that these tiny structures could be some of the oldest fossils ever discovered.

The tubes resemble structures made by modern microbes near hydrothermal vents. They also contain chemical signs often linked with life, including carbon and phosphorus.

However, some scientists remain cautious, arguing that the structures may have been misread or may not be as old as claimed.

7. Jack Hills zircon

Wikimedia Commons

The Jack Hills zircon crystals from Australia are believed to be the oldest known material found on Earth. They have been dated to about 4.375 billion years old.

These tiny crystals formed only around 165 million years after Earth itself. Their chemistry suggests that early Earth may have cooled quickly enough to have surface water and continental-type rocks. That means the young planet may not have been as hostile as once believed.

Natural disasters are usually remembered for the destruction they leave behind. But some disasters do more than destroy cities, villages, or coastlines. They change the direction of history.

Across centuries, earthquakes, floods, eruptions, and storms have weakened empires, stopped invasions, changed belief systems, and forced societies to rethink how they build and survive.

Here are five of the deadliest natural disasters that changed human civilization.

1. The Minoan eruption

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Around 1600 B.C., a massive volcanic eruption struck Thera, now known as Santorini in Greece.

The eruption was one of the most powerful volcanic events of the ancient world. It sent ash into the sky, buried settlements, and triggered tsunamis across the Aegean Sea. One of the societies most affected was the Minoan civilization, based on Crete.

The Minoans were among the most advanced people in the ancient Mediterranean. They had large palaces, strong trade routes, and a powerful seafaring culture. But the eruption disrupted their economy and weakened their influence.

The disaster did not destroy the Minoans in one moment. However, it likely accelerated their decline and helped shift power toward the Mycenaeans. Some scholars have also linked the event to later stories about Atlantis, the lost island civilization described by Plato.

2. The typhoons that stopped the Mongols

In the 13th century, the Mongol Empire was one of the most powerful forces in the world. After conquering large parts of Asia and Europe, the Mongols turned toward Japan.

They launched two major invasions, first in 1274 and again in 1281. Both campaigns involved large naval fleets carrying troops across the sea.

But both invasions were struck by massive typhoons. The storms destroyed many Mongol ships and scattered the invading forces before they could take control.

In Japan, these storms became known as kamikaze, or “divine winds.” They helped preserve Japan’s independence and stopped Mongol expansion further east.

The storms also became an important part of Japanese memory, reinforcing the belief that the country was protected by divine forces.

3. The 1556 Shaanxi earthquake

The 1556 Shaanxi earthquake remains the deadliest earthquake in recorded history.

It struck China during the Ming Dynasty and killed an estimated 830,000 people. The death toll was so high partly because many people lived in cave dwellings carved into soft loess soil. When the earthquake hit, these homes collapsed almost instantly.

The disaster destroyed villages, farmland, roads, and local administrative systems. Entire communities were wiped out.

The earthquake showed that the impact of a disaster depends not only on nature’s force but also on how people live. It pushed later discussions around safer buildings, better settlement planning, and disaster response.

4. The 1755 Lisbon earthquake

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On November 1, 1755, a massive earthquake struck Lisbon, Portugal. It happened on All Saints’ Day, when many people were inside churches.

The earthquake was followed by a tsunami and fires that destroyed much of the city. Tens of thousands were killed, with some estimates reaching up to 100,000.

But the disaster did not only reshape Lisbon. It changed European thinking.

At the time, many people saw disasters mainly as acts of divine punishment. Lisbon’s destruction forced philosophers, scientists, and leaders to ask new questions. Could earthquakes be studied? Could cities be built to survive them?

The event influenced Enlightenment thinkers such as Voltaire and helped push early ideas in seismology. Lisbon was later rebuilt with stronger planning and more resilient design.

5. The 1931 China floods

Wikimedia Commons

The 1931 China floods are among the deadliest natural disasters in human history.

They were caused by heavy snowmelt, extreme rainfall, and overflowing rivers, including the Yangtze and Huai. Vast areas of China were submerged.

The disaster killed an estimated 1 million to 4 million people through drowning, famine, disease, and the collapse of basic services. Crops were destroyed, communities were displaced, and cities and villages remained underwater for long periods.

The floods forced China to rethink flood-control policies, river management, urban planning, and agriculture. They showed how deadly extreme weather can be when it meets densely populated areas and weak infrastructure.

Conclusion

History shows that natural disasters are never just moments of destruction. Their impact depends on how societies prepare, respond, rebuild, and learn from what went wrong.

In many cases, the real legacy of a disaster is not the damage it causes, but the changes it forces into the future.

A Unitree G1 humanoid robot is being prepared for a planned Mount Everest expedition later this year after taking part in a high-altitude test on Mount Chimborazo in Ecuador.

The robot, named Pemba, was provided by Eastworlds Labs, the AI robotics initiative of Virtuals Protocol. It was part of a Geologic Dome expedition that placed the robot at 20,312 feet on June 5, 2026.

The Chimborazo mission is being treated as an early test before the planned Everest trek in the fall. Mount Chimborazo is known for a unique geographical fact. Its summit is the farthest point from Earth’s center and the closest point to the Sun on Earth.

Eastworlds Labs said the expedition supports its larger goal of bringing autonomous AI agents into the physical world.

The team also documented the mission and plans to create a trailer for the Everest expedition. The project is working with the production crew behind Netflix’s 14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible.

Everest is the next challenge

The planned Mount Everest trek will take the project into one of the world’s most difficult mountain environments.

For Eastworlds Labs and Geologic Dome, the aim is not only to place a robot in extreme terrain.

The larger goal is to test whether humanoid robots can support conservation, research, and monitoring in places that are hard or dangerous for people to reach often.

According to Eastworlds Labs, the Unitree G1 robot will be donated to the local Sherpa community for the Everest expedition. The company said this will connect the project’s legacy to the region where the next mission will take place.

The Everest plan follows the Chimborazo expedition, where Pemba was the only humanoid robot used. The Unitree G1 weighs 77 pounds (35 kg) and can fold down to 690 mm, which made it easier to transport through difficult terrain.

During the Ecuador mission, the team disassembled the robot and carried it between camps. It was then reassembled at different stages of the journey.

Chimborazo test pushed the robot

Mount Chimborazo gave the team a difficult test before Everest.

Temperatures on the mountain can fall to 5 degree Fahrenheit (-15°C), while wind gusts can reach 55 miles per hour (90 km/h). To help the robot handle these conditions, the Unitree G1 was fitted with custom cold-weather jackets, gated enclosures, and composite feet.

The robot’s autonomy system was trained in NVIDIA Isaac Sim at 1,620 times real-time speed. Eastworlds Labs said the system achieved 85 percent sim-to-real transfer on uneven terrain.

The robot was also pretrained to respond to wind turbulence and recover its balance on technical alpine terrain.

Communication during the expedition was supported by a proprietary mesh relay across camps. Satellite internet at each camp delivered 25 ms latency. This stayed below the 50 ms limit needed for live teleoperation with Reflex’s latency software.

Conservation goal behind the mission

The Everest plan is part of Geologic Dome’s broader conservation work.

The organization is building autonomous infrastructure for conservation zones. This includes communication relays, AI-powered ecological monitoring, and energy-independent robotic platforms.

Eastworlds Labs said it sponsored the Chimborazo expedition and is also contributing funding toward Geologic Dome’s nature conservation work.

Geologic Dome is currently testing its approach across three sites. These include equatorial forest in the Democratic Republic of Congo, montane cloud forests in Ecuador, and the full Himalayan altitude gradient in Nepal.

Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory have developed a new tool called the Prelim Attention Score, or PAS, to help detect when a vision-language model’s output is grounded in the image and when it may be relying too heavily on its own generated text.

The system is being viewed as a means to enhance vision-language model safety and trustworthiness.

“The PAS is a real-time, plug-and-play metric that acts as an internal monitor for the AI,” said Manish Bhattarai, a Los Alamos computer scientist.

“The system works with major existing vision-language models and requires minimal additional computational overhead, making it an efficient way to detect potential hallucinations. PAS achieves state-of-the-art accuracy in catching hallucinations, offering developers a practical path toward safer and more trustworthy multimodal AI systems,” he added.

Tracking where the model gets its answer

Most commonly used vision-language models are autoregressive. They generate each new token, or word, partly by relying on the words they have already produced.

While this process helps the model form coherent responses, it can also cause the system to lean too strongly on its own previous output rather than the image itself.

PAS monitors a vision-language model’s prediction of each token. By doing so, it helps identify where the model is drawing information from and where hallucinations are likely to occur. The tool then presents a score that alerts users to the possible presence of hallucinations in the output.

A low-overhead hallucination detector

Many autoregressive vision-language models are based on transformer architectures, a class of deep-learning neural networks that use attention patterns to weigh information as they generate an output.

The Los Alamos team studied how these models attend to the image, the text prompt and the model’s own preliminary generated words.

When PAS is integrated into a vision-language model workflow, it can run alongside the model as it handles a request.

For object mentions in the response to an image and text input, PAS computes an attention-based score showing how strongly the model relied on its own previously generated words.

The closer the PAS score is to zero, the less likely it is that the model has produced a hallucination.

“By understanding the way a vision-language model pays attention to preliminary information, PAS can help identify the exact instance where a model begins to over-rely on its own words,” said Xuan Nhat Hoang, Los Alamos intern.

“Our tool reads signals the AI is already producing, representing a low-overhead way to help ensure that information is reliable and useful,” he added.

Reliability checks for visual workflows

PAS could be used in applications where images, documents, diagrams and text are analyzed by vision-language models.

The researchers say it could eventually support reliability checks in areas such as medical imaging, scientific document analysis, engineering diagrams, remote sensing and other visual workflows where unsupported claims could affect downstream decisions.

The Los Alamos team is presenting PAS at the Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition 2026 conference, sponsored by the IEEE and Computer Vision Foundation, in Denver this month.

The work was supported by the Laboratory Directed Research and Development program at Los Alamos.

A long-shuttered US nuclear reactor has moved closer to a planned 2027 restart after securing two important regulatory boosts from federal agencies.

The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has approved Constellation’s request to transfer 760 MW of capacity interconnection rights from another Pennsylvania power plant to the former Three Mile Island unit 1.

The reactor, now called the Crane Clean Energy Center, is being prepared for a return to service in 2027.

Separately, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued for public comment its draft finding that restarting operations at the site would have no significant environmental impact.

Constellation announced in 2024 that it planned to restart the pressurized water reactor, which was shut down in 2019.

The company later filed an interconnection request with regional grid operator PJM to allow Crane to add 835 MW of emissions-free electricity to the grid.

The rights that could support return

To help support the 2027 restart schedule, Constellation filed a waiver request with FERC on March 31. The request sought permission to transfer capacity rights from Eddystone, a six-unit, dual-fuelled plant in Pennsylvania.

Two 380 MW units at Eddystone, known as Eddystone 3 and 4, had been scheduled to close last year.

However, they have remained online beyond their planned retirement date to support grid reliability under emergency orders issued by US Energy Secretary Chris Wright.

FERC has now granted the waiver, allowing Constellation to remove the Eddystone units from Capacity Resource status and make their capacity interconnection rights available for transfer. The decision was issued by FERC on June 1.

NRC opens restart review for public comment

The second regulatory boost came from the NRC. On June 8, the agency issued a draft environmental assessment and draft finding of no significant impact, or FONSI, for public comment.

The review evaluated the reasonably foreseeable environmental effects of allowing power operations to resume at Three Mile Island unit 1. At the time of its closure in 2019, the reactor had a renewed operating license valid until 2034.

Constellation has asked the NRC to approve one exemption request and three license amendment requests to support the resumption of power operations through the previous license expiration date.

The company has also said it plans to seek an extension that would allow Crane Clean Energy Center to operate beyond that, to 2054.

The NRC’s draft assessment concluded that restarting operations would not require a full environmental impact statement.

The Commission said in a Federal Register notice that “the NRC staff has made the preliminary determination that the proposed actions will not have a significant effect on the quality of the human environment. Therefore, the NRC staff has made the preliminary determination that it will not prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) for the proposed actions and that a FONSI is warranted.”

The NRC will make its final decision after reviewing comments received during the 30-day public comment period, which runs until July 8.

A Finnish deep-tech energy startup is moving to industrialize a renewable supercapacitor made from waste wood and agro residues, offering a fast-response power storage layer for grids and industrial operations.

Granarium Technologies, which originated from VTT, is developing a patented nanocellulose-based energy storage technology that upcycles waste materials into 100% renewable supercapacitors.

The technology uses a nanocellulose-based material platform that binds biocarbon structures for power storage, creating systems the company says are safe, scalable, and locally producible.

The system is designed to complement batteries, not replace them. It targets short-duration power needs such as grid balancing, frequency response, peak load management, distributed power generation, and industrial power quality.

Fast-response storage for unstable grids

The shift to renewable energy and electrification is increasing pressure on power networks, especially as grid volatility rises across Europe and EU requirements around grid codes and resilience frameworks tighten.

Granarium’s technology aims to provide a fast-response layer within energy systems, helping grids and industrial facilities respond quickly to fluctuations in power supply and demand.

“A key structural shift is that storage is no longer just `backup power’ – it is becoming core grid infrastructure. Granarium is the perfect addition to our portfolio because the company is solving a massive global challenge in a safe and scalable way,” said Jana Budkovskaja, Partner at BSV Ventures.

“We were also impressed with the company’s technology and experience, as well as the capacity to use local raw materials to make the production process sustainable and inexpensive,” he said.

According to the company, the technology can enable up to 80% lower production capital expenditure compared with large-scale battery manufacturing investments.

Built from local renewable carbon

Granarium’s approach is based on renewable carbon sources instead of finite critical raw materials. By using waste wood and agro residues, the company says its devices can be produced using locally sourced materials, reducing reliance on complex logistics chains.

The underlying technology and intellectual property have been transferred from VTT to the newly established company, giving Granarium a route to turn advanced bio-based material research into commercial energy storage systems.

“Granarium demonstrates how successful technology transfer can turn advanced bio-based materials into real industrial solutions for secure and resilient energy storage,” said Atte Virtanen, Vice President, Advanced bio-based materials at VTT.

Pilots planned within six months

Granarium has secured pilot customers and key value chain partners and is preparing to launch its first pilots within six months.

The initial deployments will focus on process industries and continuously running production operations, where power quality and stability are critical.

Initial commercial production will begin at a small industrial scale, with capacity to deliver up to 50 units per year.

The company plans to use this phase as the basis for rapid scale-up through industrial partnerships and international market expansion.

“We are not just improving existing solutions but redefining how power storage can be built and utilized,” said Otto-Ville Kaukoniemi, CTO at Granarium.

“Compared to lithium-based energy storage devices that utilise finite resources, our devices are far more environmentally sustainable as they derive from local and self-sufficient renewable carbon sources, and lower in cost to produce compared to battery gigafactory investments,” he added.

Some science experiments last a few minutes. Some take years. And then there is the Pitch Drop Experiment, which has been running for nearly a century and is still not finished.

The Pitch Drop Experiment, housed at the University of Queensland in Australia, is widely known as the world’s longest-running laboratory experiment.

A liquid that looks solid

The material at the center of the experiment is called pitch. Pitch is a black, tar-like substance that was once commonly used for waterproofing boats.

At room temperature, it looks, and feels solid. You can hit it with a hammer and it may shatter like glass. But scientifically, pitch is not a true solid. It is an extremely viscous liquid, meaning it can flow — just very, very slowly.

To prove this, Parnell heated some pitch and poured it into a glass funnel. He then let it settle for several years.

In 1930, the stem of the funnel was cut, allowing the pitch to begin its slow journey downward. Since then, the experiment has consisted of waiting for drops of pitch to fall from the funnel into a beaker below.

Why one drop takes years

That is where the experiment becomes famous. Since it began, only nine drops have fallen. The ninth drop separated in April 2014 during an operation to replace the beaker beneath it. The tenth drop is still forming.

The reason it takes so long is viscosity. Viscosity is a measure of how resistant a fluid is to flowing. Water has low viscosity, so it pours quickly. Honey has higher viscosity, so it flows more slowly. Pitch is on another level entirely.

The University of Queensland describes pitch as the world’s thickest known fluid, and Guinness World Records notes that the experiment has shown pitch to be about 100 billion times more viscous than water.

This is why the Pitch Drop Experiment is so useful as a teaching tool. It challenges our everyday idea of what solids and liquids are. We usually judge materials based on what we can see over a short time. If something does not move in front of us, we call it solid.

But science often works on timescales far beyond human patience. A mountain may seem permanent, but it can erode.

Glass may look rigid, but materials can behave differently under different conditions. Pitch shows that some substances can appear solid in daily life while still flowing over long periods.

A century-long lesson in patience

The experiment is also famous because of its strange history of near-misses. For decades, no one actually saw a drop fall in person. Drops fell at inconvenient moments, or cameras failed to capture them.

The eighth drop fell in 2000, and the ninth separated in 2014. Today, the experiment can be watched online, turning one of the slowest events in science into a kind of global waiting game.

What makes the experiment remarkable is not technological complexity. It is actually very simple: pitch, a funnel, a beaker, and time. But that simplicity is exactly why it works.

It makes an invisible idea visible. It turns viscosity from a textbook term into something you can understand with one image: a drop that takes years to fall.

The Pitch Drop Experiment is not about speed, spectacle, or instant results. It is a reminder that nature does not always move at the pace humans expect. Some truths reveal themselves only when someone is patient enough to keep watching.

Nearly 100 years after it began, the experiment continues. And somewhere inside that glass funnel, the next drop is slowly making its way down.

Buildings are often judged by height, beauty, engineering complexity, or cultural importance. But there is another way to measure ambition: cost.

The world’s most expensive buildings are not just oversized construction projects. They are statements of religion, tourism, technology, sport, luxury, and national identity.

Some were built to host millions of pilgrims. Others were designed to redefine entertainment, corporate campuses, or stadium architecture.

From Mecca to Singapore, California, and Macau, these seven buildings show how far architecture can go when budgets stretch into billions of dollars.

1. Al-Masjid al-Haram, Saudi Arabia

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Price: $100 billion

The most expensive building in the world is not a skyscraper or a casino. It is Al-Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

The mosque has been expanded repeatedly over centuries, but its modern expansion projects have turned it into one of the largest religious complexes ever built.

Today, it covers around 356,800 square meters and can hold up to 820,000 worshippers. Ongoing expansion work aims to increase that area to about 456,000 square meters and raise capacity to around 1.2 million people.

2. Abraj Al Bait Towers, Saudi Arabia

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Price: $19.5 billion

Standing next to the Grand Mosque, the Abraj Al Bait Towers form one of the most recognizable skylines in Mecca.

The complex is best known for the Mecca Royal Clock Tower Hotel, a central skyscraper that rises over 1968 feet (600 meters). Its giant clock faces are among the largest in the world, each measuring around 141 feet (43 meters) in diameter and lit by more than two million LEDs.

But the project is not just about height or spectacle. It was built to support the huge number of pilgrims who travel to Mecca every year for Hajj and Umrah.

The hotel complex can accommodate more than 30,000 people and includes over one million square meters of floor space.

3. Marina Bay Sands, Singapore

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Price: $7.8 billion

Marina Bay Sands is one of those buildings that became a global icon almost instantly.

Located in Singapore, the complex includes a hotel, casino, shopping mall, exhibition center, theaters, restaurants, bars, and the ArtScience Museum. But its most famous feature is the massive rooftop SkyPark that stretches across three 55-story towers.

The roof garden sits nearly 623 feet (190 meters) above the ground and includes one of the world’s most famous infinity pools.

Designed by architect Moshe Safdie, the structure was reportedly inspired by stacked playing cards, which explains its dramatic, almost impossible-looking form.

4. SoFi Stadium, United States

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Price: $5.5 billion

SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, is the most expensive stadium ever built.

Opened in 2020, it is home to the Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers. The stadium can seat more than 70,000 people and can be expanded to over 100,000 for major events.

But the cost is not just about seating capacity. SoFi Stadium features a huge translucent roof, a 360-degree video board, premium hospitality spaces, and a futuristic design built for NFL games, concerts, Super Bowls, and other global events.

5. Apple Park, United States

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Price: $5 billion

Apple Park in Cupertino, California, is one of the most famous corporate headquarters in the world.

Often called “the spaceship,” its ring-shaped main building measures around 1,509 feet (460 meters) in diameter and contains about 260,000 square meters of office space. It was designed to reflect Apple’s obsession with simplicity, precision, and product-like architecture.

The building uses large curved glass panels, open workspaces, landscaped surroundings, and energy-efficient design. The campus is home to more than 12,000 employees and is surrounded by thousands of trees.

6. Resorts World Sentosa, Singapore

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Price: $4.9 billion

Singapore appears again on the list with Resorts World Sentosa, a massive integrated resort on Sentosa Island.

The complex includes luxury hotels, restaurants, event spaces, shopping areas, two casinos, a water park, Universal Studios Singapore, and the S.E.A. Aquarium, which houses more than 100,000 marine animals.

Unlike a single tower or stadium, Resorts World Sentosa is more like an entire entertainment district packed into one destination. It was designed to attract tourists, families, business travelers, and casino visitors at the same time.

7. Wynn Palace, Macau

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Price: $4.2 billion

Wynn Palace in Macau completes the top seven with an estimated construction cost of $4.2 billion.

Located in the Cotai district, often compared to the Las Vegas Strip, Wynn Palace is a luxury resort built around high-end hospitality, gaming, retail, and entertainment.

The complex includes more than 1,700 rooms and suites, a casino, luxury boutiques, restaurants, a spa, and an artificial lake.

One of its standout attractions is a performance lake with fountains, light, and music, along with a cable car system that adds to the theatrical experience.

More than buildings

The seven most expensive buildings in the world are very different from one another. But they all have one thing in common: they were built to do more than occupy space.

They were built to create identity, attract people, support economies, and project ambition at an enormous scale. Their price tags are huge, but so are the purposes behind them.

In that sense, the most expensive buildings in the world are not just examples of lavish spending. They are monuments to what societies, companies, and cities choose to value most.

Aviation is entering a strange but exciting phase.

For decades, most passenger aircraft have followed the same basic design: a long tube, two wings, and engines under the wings. But that may not remain the case forever.

A new generation of aircraft is progressing at different speeds, ranging from early research concepts to full-scale flight demonstrators. Some are focused on cutting fuel burn. Others are built around electric propulsion, hydrogen, or completely new aircraft shapes.

Not all of them will enter service quickly. Some may arrive by the late 2020s, while others may take until the 2030s or even later. But all of them show where the future of aviation could be heading.

1. Boeing X-66A Truss-Braced Wing

Boeing’s X-66A is not a normal passenger plane. It is a NASA-backed demonstrator designed to test a new wing concept.

The aircraft uses an ultra-long, thin wing supported by diagonal trusses. This design is called the Transonic Truss-Braced Wing. The idea is simple: longer and thinner wings can reduce drag, but they need extra support to remain strong.

NASA and Boeing expect the design to cut fuel burn by around 8–10% compared with the best single-aisle jets available today. The first flight is planned for 2028.

If the technology works, it could influence the next generation of 130- to 210-seat aircraft in the early-to-mid 2030s.

2. Heart Aerospace ES-30

The Heart Aerospace ES-30 is one of the more practical aircraft on this list.

It is a 30-seat hybrid-electric regional aircraft designed for short routes. On battery power alone, it can fly up to 124 miles (200 kilometers) with zero emissions.

In hybrid mode, its range can increase to around 249 miles (400 kilometers) with a full passenger load, or up to 497 miles (800 kilometers) with fewer passengers and reserves.

This makes it useful for short regional flights where fully electric aircraft may still struggle because of battery limitations.

Heart Aerospace is targeting entry into service around 2028. Airlines such as Air Canada, United, and Mesa have already shown interest through orders.

3. JetZero Pathfinder / Z4

JetZero is developing one of the most radical aircraft designs on this list.

The California-based startup is working on a blended-wing-body aircraft, where the wings and fuselage are merged into one large lifting surface. Instead of looking like a traditional tube-and-wing airliner, the aircraft has a much wider, flatter shape.

The main advantage is efficiency. Since more of the aircraft helps generate lift, the design can reduce drag and burn less fuel. JetZero claims its Z4 aircraft could cut fuel burn and emissions by up to 50% compared with similar aircraft flying today.

The 250-passenger Z4 is expected to have a range of roughly 5,754 miles (9,260 kilometers).

4. Airbus ZEROe Hydrogen Aircraft

Airbus’s ZEROe program is one of the biggest attempts to bring hydrogen-powered aircraft into commercial aviation.

The original goal was to introduce a hydrogen aircraft around 2035, but the timeline now appears more likely to move toward the late 2030s or around 2040.

Early concepts included hydrogen turbofan aircraft, turboprops, and even a blended-wing-body design. Airbus has since focused more on fuel-cell-driven electric propulsion, where hydrogen is used to generate electricity for propellers.

If successful, ZEROe could become one of the world’s first large zero-emission commercial aircraft.

5. Bombardier EcoJet

Bombardier’s EcoJet is a futuristic business jet research project.

Like JetZero’s aircraft, it uses a blended-wing-body design to improve efficiency. Bombardier says the project could help cut emissions by as much as 50% compared with today’s business jets.

The company has already been testing an autonomous demonstrator with an 18-foot wingspan. The goal is to study aerodynamics, structures, and systems before applying the lessons to future aircraft.

There is no firm service date yet, but Bombardier sees EcoJet as a step toward the future of low-carbon business aviation.

6. Flying-V Long-Haul Concept

The Flying-V is one of the strangest-looking aircraft concepts in development.

Created by KLM and TU Delft, the aircraft has a V-shaped design where passengers, cargo, and fuel are all placed inside the wings. It is designed to carry about the same number of passengers as an Airbus A350 while using around 20% less fuel.

A small-scale model has already completed its first flight. However, this is still a long-term project. Researchers believe a commercial Flying-V would not carry passengers before around 2040 at the earliest.

7. Eviation Alice Electric Commuter

Eviation’s Alice is a fully electric commuter aircraft designed to carry nine passengers.

It completed its maiden flight in 2022 and showed how quiet, clean short-range electric aviation could look.

However, battery limitations have made the project difficult. Its expected range has been reduced to around 288 miles (463 kilometers), and entry into service has been delayed several times.

The project was also paused in 2025. Still, if the company can solve its funding and technology challenges, Alice, or an aircraft inspired by it, could become one of the first fully electric commuter planes to enter commercial service.

Taken together, these seven projects show that the future of flight is not a single silver bullet, but a portfolio of electric, hybrid, hydrogen, and radically aerodynamic designs converging on the same goal – drastically lower emissions and noise without giving up speed or range.

Earth is filled with places and phenomena so spectacular that they seem almost unreal.

From glowing skies to giant reefs, massive canyons, towering mountains, and roaring waterfalls, the planet’s greatest natural wonders show just how powerful and diverse nature can be.

While different lists exist, these seven natural wonders are unanimously celebrated for their scale, beauty, and uniqueness.

1. Aurora Borealis

The Aurora Borealis, or northern lights, is one of the most magical sights on Earth. It appears when charged particles from the sun collide with gases in Earth’s upper atmosphere, creating glowing waves of green, pink, violet, and sometimes red light.

The display is never exactly the same twice, which makes it feel alive and unpredictable. Seen in polar regions on clear dark nights, it is one of the few natural wonders that can turn the sky itself into a spectacle.

2. Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon in Arizona, USA, is one of the world’s most famous geological landmarks. Carved by the Colorado River over millions of years, it reveals layer after layer of rock that tells the story of Earth’s ancient past.

Its vast scale, steep cliffs, and shifting colors make it look different throughout the day. At sunrise and sunset, the canyon becomes especially dramatic, with light and shadow deepening its immense depth.

3. Great Barrier Reef

The Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Australia is the largest coral reef system on the planet. Stretching over an enormous area, it is made up of thousands of reefs, islands, and cays.

Beneath the surface lies a thriving world of coral, fish, turtles, sharks, and countless other species. It is not only beautiful but also ecologically vital, serving as one of the richest marine habitats on Earth. Its scale and biodiversity make it a true natural treasure.

4. Harbor of Rio de Janeiro

The Harbor of Rio de Janeiro is famous for its stunning setting, where the sea meets steep mountains and rocky peaks. Sugarloaf Mountain and the surrounding coastline create a natural amphitheater around the city.

The combination of water, stone, and urban life gives Rio one of the most dramatic landscapes anywhere in the world. It is a place where geography and beauty come together in a way that feels almost cinematic.

5. Mount Everest

Mount Everest is the highest mountain above sea level on Earth and one of the most iconic peaks in human history. Rising from the Himalayas, it stands as a symbol of endurance, adventure, and extreme natural grandeur.

Its snowy summit and harsh conditions make it both beautiful and formidable. For climbers, it represents one of the greatest challenges imaginable; for everyone else, it remains a breathtaking reminder of how high and powerful the Earth can be.

6. Parícutin

Parícutin, in Mexico, is one of the rarest natural wonders because people actually witnessed its birth. In 1943, a volcano erupted suddenly in a farmer’s field and began growing rapidly from the ground.

Within a short time, it had formed a new volcanic cone and reshaped the surrounding landscape. Unlike ancient mountains or reefs, Parícutin is a modern geological event, making it a unique example of nature creating something new before human eyes.

7. Victoria Falls

Victoria Falls, on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe, is one of the largest and most powerful waterfalls in the world. The Zambezi River plunges into a deep gorge, creating a massive curtain of water and a cloud of mist that can rise high into the air.

The local name, “The Smoke That Thunders,” captures the sound and force perfectly. Victoria Falls is unforgettable because it combines raw power with extraordinary beauty in one dramatic scene.

Taken together, these seven wonders highlight the many forms greatness can take in nature. Some are visible in the sky, some carved into stone, some hidden beneath the sea, and others formed by fire or water.

What they all share is the ability to inspire awe. They remind us that Earth is not only our home, but also a planet full of extraordinary wonders waiting to be seen.

Researchers at MIT and elsewhere have developed a chipmaking technique that could help future wireless systems become faster, more powerful, and more energy-efficient.

The team embedded gallium nitride transistors into an ultrathin diamond layer, enabling the diamond to act as a heat spreader within the chip. 

The approach helps normalize temperature across the device, letting the transistors approach peak performance without reducing reliability.

A promising alternative

Gallium nitride, or GaN, is seen as a promising alternative to silicon for demanding wireless applications such as 6G and satellite communications.

Silicon, which forms the foundation of most computer chips, has fundamental limits in how much power it can manage. GaN can handle higher speeds and energy levels, but heat remains a major obstacle.

As more GaN transistors are packed into smaller areas on silicon chips, localized hot spots can degrade reliability and hamper performance. The new diamond-based method is designed to address that bottleneck.

“No single material can do everything well in a wireless device, so these 3D heterogeneously integrated systems are here to stay,” said Pradyot Yadav, a lead author of a paper on this advance.

“The key challenge left has been reliability and thermal management, and we might have now unlocked the final step we need to make these systems operate at scale and high volume,” he added.

A multimaterial chip design for faster wireless systems

The work builds on heterogeneously integrated systems, where multiple materials are stacked into one package to use the strengths of each.

MIT researchers had previously stacked GaN on silicon and glass to create higher-performance chips.

However, each material in such a chip can operate at a different temperature, which can affect reliability.

The researchers used a lab-grown, jewelry-grade diamond. Diamond has the highest thermal conductivity of any known material, and advances in single-crystal diamond wafer growth have made its use in chips more feasible.

Earlier work involved growing ultrathin diamond layers on top of GaN transistors. But that process is difficult to scale and can introduce unwanted capacitances that slow circuit operations.

Instead, the MIT-led team embedded tiny GaN transistors, called dielets, into an ultrathin single-crystal diamond interposer.

Embedding transistors into the diamond

“By putting these GaN transistors into a diamond interposer, we are actually able to improve the performance of the device, as opposed to degrading it. We can get the best of both worlds,” Yadav said.

The process begins with a femtosecond laser cutting GaN dielets from a wafer and drilling precise cavities into the diamond substrate. A 20-micron die attach film is placed at the bottom of each cavity before the dielet is added.

New benchmark for GaN chips

The team then stacked dielectric and metal layers on top of the GaN and diamond to create a working circuit. Using the method, the researchers built a power amplifier for wireless communications.

The amplifier achieved higher output power, efficiency, and gain than any similar device the researchers found in the literature, including one they designed in prior work.

The results show that the technique could support demanding applications such as high-power radars, space communications, and industrial drones.

Hong Kong is preparing to open its first convenience store operated by a humanoid robot, marking a new step in the city’s push to bring artificial intelligence into everyday public life.

The 24-hour outlet will be located on the Hung Hom waterfront and is expected to serve both residents and visitors in multiple languages.

Financial Secretary Paul Chan revealed the plan in his weekly blog, framing the project as part of Hong Kong’s broader effort to boost public understanding of artificial intelligence and support practical, people-facing applications of the technology.

The shop is being developed by a mainland Chinese firm specializing in embodied AI.

Its Hong Kong launch will be the company’s first venture outside the mainland, a move Chan described as an endorsement of the city’s open market and its role as a showcase for global innovation.

A humanoid robot behind the counter

The store will be powered by a humanoid robot nicknamed “Xiao Gai”, designed to interact directly with customers as they approach the outlet.

The robot can initiate friendly conversations, encourage browsing, and support purchases inside the compact retail space.

The store itself will use a nine-square-meter capsule format that can be configured for different product categories. According to the provided details, it can sell snacks, creative merchandise, and even over-the-counter medicines.

The model follows the company’s earlier “Galaxy Space Capsule” store in Beijing’s Haidian district.

That outlet was billed as the world’s first retail store routinely operated by a humanoid robot and has reportedly served around 1,000 customers daily since early August.

For Hong Kong, the waterfront capsule is positioned not just as a retail experiment, but also as a public-facing demonstration of how embodied AI could be integrated into ordinary city environments.

Embodied AI moves into public retail

Embodied AI refers to artificial intelligence placed inside physical systems, including robots and autonomous vehicles. These systems use sensors to read their surroundings, make instant decisions, and interact with the real world.

In the case of the humanoid robot convenience store, that means AI is not limited to a screen or chatbot interface. Instead, it becomes part of a physical service environment where customers can interact with a robot in person.

The company says the capsule format can help attract customers and create a high-tech service image for host cities. It claims nearby customer traffic can rise by 30–40 per cent after installation.

The firm is planning a wider rollout of 100 such capsules across 10 cities in the coming months.

Hong Kong pushes AI adoption

The robot-run store comes as Hong Kong looks to strengthen its position in embodied intelligence, talent, and innovation.

Chan also disclosed that a high-level government committee on AI development has been established in the city. The committee is expected to hold its first meeting this month.

The move signals that the administration is looking beyond long-term AI policy planning and toward practical deployments that residents and visitors can experience directly.

A Danish engineering called Danfloss has developed a new digital hydraulic system designed specifically for electric construction equipment, claiming it can reduce energy consumption from a machine’s battery by 35% and improve runtime by more than 50%.

The breakthrough could prove significant for heavy-duty machinery, where electrification has often faced a major challenge: battery-powered machines must deliver enough runtime and productivity to match the demands of construction and mining work.

The project began with a Develon DX300LC-7 crawler excavator, which was converted into a fully electric machine.

The excavator was fitted with a Danfoss Editron EM-PMI375 drive motor, EC-C1200 inverter, and MC050 motor controller, along with three 140-kWh batteries.

The key change, however, came in the hydraulic system. Engineers replaced the excavator’s conventional swashplate hydraulic pump with a newly developed DDP180D pump motor designed to service the boom, arm, bucket, and swing functions.

Digital hydraulics cut battery demand

Unlike a conventional hydraulic setup that supplies constant power and pressure throughout the system, the new unit uses ten individually controllable outlets. These outlets provide hydraulic force only where it is needed, instead of continuously feeding the whole system at a peak-load level.

This allows designers to build around the machine’s average workload rather than its peak load. The result is a more efficient electric excavator that can perform significantly more work using the same amount of stored battery energy.

By reducing unnecessary hydraulic losses, the system cuts battery energy consumption by 35%.

In practical terms, this gives the machine more than 50% additional runtime, a major improvement for electric construction equipment that must operate for long work cycles in demanding environments.

“We are extremely encouraged by these results, but there is more work to do,” said Alasdair Robertson, senior director, Digital Displacement, Danfoss Power Solutions.

“Further gains are possible, and we will continue optimizing the system to maximize the energy savings and value for our customers,” he continued.

UK grant supports red diesel alternatives

The electrification project was partly funded through a grant from the UK’s Red Diesel Replacement Phase 2 Competition.

The program is designed to advance the development of lower-emission alternatives to red diesel used in the construction and mining industries.

Red diesel has long powered off-highway equipment, but industries that rely on heavy-duty machinery are increasingly looking for cleaner alternatives.

Electrification is one route, but battery size, runtime, and total cost of ownership remain central concerns.

Longer runtime could accelerate adoption

For electric construction machines, performance is not just about emissions. Operators also need smooth control, productivity, and cost advantages before battery-electric machines can be adopted more widely.

“Electric excavators offer excellent responsiveness, smooth control, a quiet cab environment and zero-emission operation,” added Robertson.

“With Dextreme Max, they can also deliver the runtime, productivity and total cost of ownership advantages required for wider adoption, thereby accelerating the decarbonization of heavy-duty machinery,” he said.

If the system can be scaled successfully, it could help make electric excavators and other heavy-duty machines more practical for real-world construction and mining operations.

By extending runtime while lowering battery energy demand, the technology could remove one of the biggest barriers facing off-highway electric vehicles.

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory are pushing materials design closer to the atomic scale by showing how MXenes can be tailored almost atom-by-atom for advanced technologies.

In two recent publications, researchers demonstrated new ways to control the types of atoms in MXenes, where those atoms sit, and what chemical groups attach to their atom-thin surfaces.

MXenes, pronounced “max-eens,” are a family of two-dimensional materials often just a few atoms thick. They are mainly made from transition metals, such as titanium, vanadium, or molybdenum, bonded to carbon and/or nitrogen.

Expanding the MXene material family

MXenes begin as layered solids called MAX phases. When researchers chemically remove one type of layer from a MAX phase, the remaining sheets can be separated into thin, flat MXene layers.

“I like to imagine MAX phases as a textbook with all the pages glued shut and MXenes as a single page you want to extract,” explained Brian Wyatt, a Maria Goeppert Mayer Fellow at Argonne.

“You have to dissolve the glue and coax that page out. The glue and pages represent different chemical environments, so atoms prefer to be near certain layers,” he added.

In work published in Science, Argonne scientists created 40 different MAX phases, each containing at least two metals and, in some cases, as many as nine metals in a single structure.

The achievement nearly doubled the known chemical space that can be used to make MXenes.

When atomic order breaks down

The researchers found that atomic ordering can continue when a material contains up to six different metals. But when seven or more metals are added, the pattern breaks down and the atoms become truly disordered.

“This is where entropy, the natural tendency toward randomness, wins,” Wyatt said. “Nature likes some kinds of order, but once we add enough different ingredients, it becomes too hard for the atoms to stay organized,” he added.

Using secondary ion mass spectrometry, or SIMS, the team measured the material layer by layer to see where different atoms were located.

Designer materials for future technologies

“We like to say that these are like designer materials,” Wyatt said. “If I want a certain application, I use these compositions; if I want something different, I use others. The class is so big, we can design for what we need.”

One promising use is electromagnetic interference shielding, where MXenes can block unwanted signals even in nanometer-thick coatings.

Researchers are also studying them for catalysis, where their exposed 2D surfaces could reduce the need for costly materials such as platinum.

“The tunability of MXenes is key for catalysis,” Muhoza said.

“Sometimes you need specific metals as active sites, but only a small area of bulk material is actually active. With MXenes, you can put those metals on a 2D structure, so they’re all exposed,” he added.

The next challenge is scaling these materials for manufacturing and industry adoption. Artificial intelligence and machine learning may help researchers identify which element combinations are most worth testing.

Researchers at the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) have designed and tested a key component for rotating detonation engines (RDEs), an emerging combustion technology that could help make next-generation gas turbines more efficient, less fuel-intensive, and cleaner.

The work focuses on pressure gain combustion, a long-sought advancement in turbine technology.

Unlike conventional gas turbine combustion, which typically loses pressure during the combustion process, pressure gain combustion can increase pressure as fuel is burned.

This could significantly improve turbine performance while reducing fuel use and lowering nitrogen oxides emissions.

Detonation waves instead of conventional combustion

Rotating detonation engines operate in a fundamentally different way from today’s turbine combustors. Instead of relying on conventional flame-based combustion, RDEs use rapidly moving detonation waves inside a chamber.

These waves release energy quickly and generate high-pressure pulses that can potentially improve overall engine efficiency.

“We could achieve pressure gain combustion with RDEs because they operate using detonation waves rather than conventional combustion used in today’s gas turbines,” said NETL’s Justin Weber, who leads this project with his colleagues in the Lab’s Advanced Turbines research team.

“Detonations release energy more rapidly, forming a high-pressure pulse and shock wave. But transitioning this concept into reliable hardware has long posed scientific and engineering challenges — particularly in ensuring stable, repeatable detonation under varying operating conditions,” he continued.

That challenge has been one of the major barriers to turning RDEs from a promising laboratory concept into practical hardware for turbine-scale systems.

Computer modeling guides injector redesign

To address the issue, NETL researchers used high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics simulations to redesign the injector that delivers fuel and air into the detonation chamber.

Earlier injector concepts suffered from startup instabilities, making it difficult to reliably generate and sustain the detonation waves needed for RDE operation.

The team used CFD modeling to examine how injector geometry, flow distribution, and fuel-mixing behavior affected wave formation.

This approach helped researchers develop a novel-aero strut injector configuration. According to NETL, the new design can sustain detonation waves while producing a lower pressure drop across the injector, improving performance.

The research demonstrates how advanced modeling can accelerate hardware development by reducing reliance on trial-and-error testing. It also gives researchers a deeper understanding of how combustion dynamics change under extreme operating conditions.

Stable waves confirmed in testing

NETL then tested the redesigned injector using its water-cooled RDE test platform, a research rig built to withstand extreme thermal loads during high-pressure detonation.

“To validate the new design, we integrated the injector into NETL’s water-cooled RDE test platform — an advanced research rig designed to withstand extreme thermal loads during high-pressure detonation,” Weber said.

The result directly supports NETL’s Advanced Turbines Program, which is focused on maturing pressure gain combustion and reducing technical risks for next-generation gas turbines.

A stable injector is considered a critical building block for practical RDE-based systems. By demonstrating consistent detonation behavior across multiple conditions, NETL has moved the technology closer to real-world deployment.

Researchers now plan to continue refining RDE components and exploring integration with turbine hardware, with the goal of eventually bringing pressure gain combustion from the laboratory into commercial energy infrastructure.

Teledyne Technologies Incorporated has announced that Teledyne FLIR Defense has secured an $11.2 million contract from the U.S. Army’s Capability Program Executive for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense to deliver more than 45 advanced CBRN unmanned aerial system kits.

The award is centered on equipping frontline units with unmanned systems that can detect, map, and assess hazardous environments without putting soldiers directly in danger.

The kits are based on Teledyne FLIR’s R80D SkyRaider unmanned aerial system and will include modular chemical, biological, and radiological detection payloads, along with resilient communications technologies.

“Safe-guarding soldiers from weapons of mass destruction is at the core of our mission,” said Dr. JihFen Lei, President of Teledyne Defense and Aerospace Group and Senior Vice President of Teledyne Technologies.

“These SkyRaider-based sensor kits dramatically improve how units can detect and map CBRN hazards without exposing warfighters to dangerous environments,” he added.

Drone kits built for CBRN threat detection

The kits were developed under the U.S. Army’s Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Sensor Integration on Robotic Platforms program, known as CSIRP.

The program is focused on rapidly prototyping and fielding modular sensor solutions that can enhance drones and unmanned ground vehicles.

According to the announcement, CSIRP brings together advanced sensing, artificial intelligence, machine learning, autonomy, and communications technologies to improve robotic platforms used in hazardous environments.

For this contract, the R80D SkyRaider drone has been specially configured with semi-autonomous CBRN search and survey capabilities developed under the CSIRP program.

Once deployed, the drone can autonomously locate and characterize CBRN threats, giving operators a safer way to understand the risks present in contaminated areas.

Using detection payloads mounted on the drone, operators can view real-time hazard data through mapping, targeting, and communications tools.

This allows dismounted frontline units to rapidly assess contaminated environments while keeping personnel out of harm’s way.

Carrying modular payloads

Each kit includes the R80D SkyRaider drone carrying a selection of chemical, biological, and radiological detection payloads. The payload suite includes the Teledyne FLIR MUVE B330 biological sensor and features autonomous operation.

The modular nature of the system is a key part of the Army’s CSIRP effort, which aims to field sensor solutions that can be integrated onto robotic platforms for different operational needs.

In this case, the SkyRaider-based kit gives units a mobile aerial platform that can support CBRN search, survey, and hazard characterization missions.

The technology is intended to strengthen how frontline units respond to environments where chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear hazards may be present.

Instead of sending soldiers directly into contaminated zones, operators can use the drone to gather hazard data remotely and in real time.

Deliveries expected in 2026

The sensor kits will be built at Teledyne FLIR Defense facilities in Elkridge, Maryland, and West Lafayette, Indiana. Additional engineering work will be performed in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

Deliveries under the $11.2 million contract are expected to begin in the second quarter of 2026.

For Teledyne FLIR Defense, the award adds to its work in integrated CBRN detection solutions and unmanned sensing systems.

For the Army, the SkyRaider-based kits represent another step toward using robotic platforms to help soldiers detect, map, and respond to dangerous battlefield hazards from a safer distance.