The idea of deploying enzymes to break down plastic waste is gaining momentum through a string of breakthroughs demonstrating how they can do so with increasing efficiency, and even reduce the material to simple molecules. A new study marks yet another step forward, with scientis … | Continue reading
We've already seen camera-equipped glasses that tell blind wearers what they're looking at. Well, Voicee is a bit different, in that it's a microphone-equipped set of glasses which display the text of what other people are saying. | Continue reading
The West Japan Rail Company has released video of its new humanoid heavy equipment robot. Mounted on the end of a crane, this gundam-style robot torso mimics the arm and head motions of a human pilot, who sees through the robot's eyes via VR goggles. | Continue reading
Researchers in Japan have developed a new method for making 5-cm (2-in) wafers of diamond that could be used for quantum memory. The ultra-high purity of the diamond allows it to store a staggering amount of data – the equivalent of one billion Blu-Ray discs. | Continue reading
Direct air carbon capture is currently far too costly – but this London company says it can do it at enormous scale for a tenth the price, using engineered algal blooms in ponds located near desert coastlines. Oh, and it'll de-acidify the ocean, too. | Continue reading
Fusion Processing has announced that an autonomous public transport project will start on-road testing this week, en route to beginning a new 14-mile pilot service ferrying passengers across a long-span suspension bridge in Scotland later this year. | Continue reading
For some time now, it's been known that the application of electricity can help heal wounds. The experimental new ePatch bandage takes that approach, plus it boosts the healing process by killing bacteria. | Continue reading
A revolutionary cryogenic tank design promises to radically boost the range of hydrogen-powered aircraft – to the point where clean, fuel-cell airliners could fly up to four times farther than comparable planes running on today's dirty jet fuel. | Continue reading
In what it describes as the most significant demonstration of its kind in half a century, the US Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) beamed 1.6 kW of power over a kilometer (3,280 ft) using a microwave beam at the US Army Research Field in Maryland. | Continue reading
Rockets are expensive, complex, bad for the environment and prone to occasionally exploding – so alternative launch technologies are popping up to reduce their use. We wrote about SpinLaunch's remarkable kinetic launch system earlier this week, which spins a rocket up to incredib … | Continue reading
NASA has signed up to test SpinLaunch's extraordinary whirl 'n' hurl space launch technology, which accelerates a launch vehicle to hypersonic speeds using an electric centrifuge instead of a rocket, hurling it skyward like a space discus. | Continue reading
Preliminary data presented at the American Association of Cancer Research Annual Meeting has provided promising signs for a new cancer treatment that combines immunotherapy with an mRNA vaccine. The first reports from the Phase 1 human trial indicate the experimental treatment is … | Continue reading
Promising new research has raised the possibility of treating type 2 diabetes without drugs. Across three different animal models researchers have demonstrated how short bursts of ultrasound targeted at specific clusters of nerves in the liver can effectively lower insulin and gl … | Continue reading
Modern cities produce an absolute avalanche of data every second of every day, from cameras and sensors belonging to dozens of separate systems. In such a smart world, it's amazing that so many traffic lights are still so dumb. A new project beginning in Melbourne, Australia aims … | Continue reading
Oxytocin is a hormone found in most animals. In humans it plays a fundamental role in childbirth, and has been informally referred to as the "love hormone" because it influences social bonding, particularly between a mother and child. | Continue reading
HB11 is approaching nuclear fusion from an entirely new angle, using high power, high precision lasers instead of hundred-million-degree temperatures to start the reaction. Its first demo has produced 10 times more fusion reactions than expected, and the company says it's now "th … | Continue reading
One of the first products made using a novel animal-free egg white is now available in the United States. The unique macarons are the first to be made with an egg white protein that comes from engineered yeast, designed to be indistinguishable from what is found in chicken eggs. | Continue reading
Lead-contaminated tap water is still a problem in much of the world, where conventional lead removal filters may be too expensive for most households. An inexpensive new filter could help – and it was designed by a group of high school students. | Continue reading
If you've ever eaten okra, then you'll know that the stuff can be pretty … gooey. According to new research, that quality could allow a compound from the plant to be used in a less toxic method of removing microplastics from drinking water. | Continue reading
A team of European researchers has suggested that the Moon’s orbit could be used as a gigantic detector for gravitational waves – ripples in the very fabric of spacetime itself. These waves, much smaller than those that existing detectors can pick up, could originate from the ear … | Continue reading
Over the years we've looked at many interesting studies and research prototypes demonstrating how contact lenses could one day be used for much more than correcting vision, and the delivery of medication is one of the more promising possibilities. A new approval from the FDA has … | Continue reading
A kilogram of hydrogen holds 39.4 kWh of energy, but typically costs around 52.5 kWh of energy to create via current commercial electrolyzers. Australian company Hysata says its new capillary-fed electrolyzer cell slashes that energy cost to 41.5 kWh, smashing efficiency records … | Continue reading
Modern medicine has provided many cancer drugs with life-saving capabilities, but often toxic effects on healthy cells and resulting side effects stop them from reaching their full potential. Modifications to an existing drug promise to overcome this problem for a common and dead … | Continue reading
Puerto Rican startup Lift has introduced its third-generation eFoil, offering customers a cheaper point of entry to the young but burgeoning watersport, and a smoother ride at the same time. The company has redesigned its board from the ground up for improved stability, while a n … | Continue reading
As with most things, nature’s data storage system, DNA, far surpasses anything we’ve created. Now, researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have doubled its already incredible storage capacity by adding extra letters to its “alphabet,” and developed a new way to … | Continue reading
The CRISPR gene-editing system is a powerful tool that could revolutionize medicine and other sciences, but unfortunately it has a tendency to make edits to the wrong sections of DNA. Now, researchers at the University of Texas at Austin have identified a previously unknown struc … | Continue reading
Among the many challenges in treating tumors is the difficulty in getting anti-cancer drugs to the right locations, and in the right amounts. A new type of implant developed at Rice University tackles both these issues, carrying the cellular machinery needed to produce and delive … | Continue reading
Australian mining company Fortescue is working to clean up its own operations by 2030, while developing green solutions it can sell to others. It's forking out into green tech through a subsidiary called Fortescue Future Industries, which has recently acquired Williams Advanced E … | Continue reading
Weight is often a key consideration for scientists pushing the boundaries of bullet-proof materials, imagining armor that keeps the wearer safe while also improving their mobility. Engineers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison have now forged a new type of ultralight armor mat … | Continue reading
A new kind of milk will soon hit US shelves but it isn’t some plant-based product designed to resemble dairy milk. Instead it is made from whey proteins produced by microflora engineered to spit out exactly the same proteins found in milk from a cow. | Continue reading
Multicopters would be able to lift heavier loads and stay in the air longer if they could use a high-density power source like gasoline instead of low-density lithium batteries. But gasoline engines, with their weird, peaky torque curves, aren't nearly responsive enough to keep a … | Continue reading
“My whole life flashed before my eyes” is a phrase we often hear regarding near-death experiences – and there just might be some truth to it. Scientists have recorded the activity of a dying human brain for the first time ever, revealing brain wave patterns related to processes l … | Continue reading
Regrowing or replacing bone lost to disease is tricky and often painful. In a new study Australian researchers have found a relatively simple way to induce stem cells to turn into bone cells quickly and efficiently, using high-frequency sound waves. | Continue reading
Desalination is being explored as a way to solve the shortages of drinking water that plague much of the world, but it has a few issues to iron out. A new design for a solar-powered desalination device prevents the build-up of salt, making for an efficient and affordable system. … | Continue reading
City University of Hong Kong researchers have accidentally discovered a first-of-its-kind alloy that retains its stiffness instead of softening as the temperature rises. Indeed, high-entropy Elinvar appears to get stiffer and springier as temperatures approach 1,000 K (727°C, 1,3 … | Continue reading
Described by his PR team as "like Russia's Elon Musk," serial entrepreneur Mikhail Korkorich says his new company Destinus is building a hydrogen-powered, zero-emissions, transcontinental cargo drone capable of hypersonic Mach 15 cruise speeds. | Continue reading
As electric vehicles continue to grow in popularity, scientists see great potential in lithium-sulfur batteries as a more environmentally friendly way to power them. This is because they don't rely on the same expensive and difficult-to-source raw materials, such as cobalt, but o … | Continue reading
Last year, Netherlands solar electric vehicle developer Lightyear took its validation prototype to the track and managed to roll for 710 km on a single charge of its 60-kWh battery. That milestone was achieved at 85 km/h, but more recently the company has undertaken some high-spe … | Continue reading
A new player has entered the hair loss scene promising a new form of treatment that takes a more efficient approach to regenerating lost follicles. Like many solutions in the space, dNovo's technology uses hair stem cells to replace cells lost through aging and male pattern baldn … | Continue reading
Ordinarily, traffic lights change color in response to predetermined rules and induction loop sensors embedded in the road. According to new research, however, making those lights artificially intelligent may keep traffic flowing faster and smoother. | Continue reading
Many of the all-too-familiar symptoms of aging can be attributed to a build-up of senescent cells, those which have stopped dividing. In a new study, researchers in Japan have identified a protein specific to these cells and developed a vaccine that can clear them away, with test … | Continue reading
Is there microbial life floating around in the clouds of Venus? Scientists have long pondered this question and soon we may get some answers. A new report outlines the Venus Life Finder Missions, starting with a cloud-skimming mission in 2023 to search for signs of life. | Continue reading
With the decision on the replacement of the US Army's UH-60 Black Hawk fleet coming down to the wire, the partners behind the Lockheed Martin Sikorsky-Boeing SB>1 Defiant have announced that their candidate advanced rotorcraft has completed its first mission profile test flights. | Continue reading
A new COVID-19 vaccine, developed by researchers from the Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine, is being offered patent-free to vaccine manufacturers across the world. Human trials have shown the vaccine to be safe and effective, with India already authorizing … | Continue reading
When it comes to taking high-res aerial photographs, we generally look to satellites, drones or full-size aircraft. Colorado-based Urban Sky's new Microballoon system, however, is claimed to deliver higher-resolution images at a much lower cost. | Continue reading
Energy storage devices that bend, flex and can be worked into fabrics could have a big part to play in the future of wearable electronics, and MIT engineers have just produced one with some unique properties. The rechargeable lithium-ion battery is only a few hundred microns thic … | Continue reading
The switch has been flicked on a wind farm off the shore of the UK of unprecedented scale, with Danish energy firm Orsted announcing that Hornsea 2 has produced its first power. It is expected to become fully operational next year as the world's biggest offshore wind farm, and pr … | Continue reading
California startup H2 Clipper wants to bring back hydrogen-filled airships, claiming they can unlock completely green intercontinental cargo operations carrying 8-10 times the payload of any cargo plane over 6,000 miles, at a quarter of the price. | Continue reading