Queensland researchers have reached a milestone in powering Australia's critical minerals refining industry, successfully delivering the nation's first grid-connected sodium-sulfur (NaS) battery energy storage system enabled by Queensland-made DC-DC converters.

Researchers at the Department of Energy's (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have developed a computational method that could help electric grid operators and data center developers manage power more efficiently as artificial intelligence drives unprecedented growth in electricity demand.

The animals may help reveal the causes of brain disease in people and point the way to treatments. But researchers already are calling for new ethical guidelines.

Deicing technologies often rely on heat to melt ice. But University of Texas at Dallas researchers have found that, under extreme cold, making ice even colder can weaken its grip on surfaces.

Storing energy as heat is a proven pathway to address the challenge solar power faces when it's dark or cloudy outside by enabling the capture, storage and on-demand release of thermal energy. The process, called high-temperature thermal energy storage (TES), however, can be prohibitively expensive.

A Maine lobster can end up in a roll, a bisque or a butter bath. At the University of Maine, what's left of it can now end up under a golf ball. Researchers at UMaine are making golf tees from discarded lobster shells. The project builds on more than a decade of UMaine research into new uses for an underutilized byproduct of Maine's lobster industry.

The Smart Materials research unit, coordinated by Athanassia Athanassiou, deputy scientific director of the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT-Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia) in Genoa, Italy, has developed a new method to make wood flexible in a controlled way and therefore easier to shape. Unlike current approaches, which are more energy-intensive or less sustainable, IIT's treatment could offer a green alternative.

Researchers at The University of Manchester, Shandong Jiaotong University and Harbin Engineering University have developed a machine learning framework that enables rapid predictions of how protected steel beams respond during a fire, offering engineers a faster way to assess fire safety performance in industrial structures.

Western University engineers have taken a major step toward solving a long-standing challenge in nuclear power. Their study, published in Nature Communications, describes for the first time how hydrogen can combine with zirconium to form tiny, brittle structures that create intense stresses in CANDU reactor pressure tubes. These stresses may cause the surrounding metal to deform and even crack.