Fossilized tree resin, commonly known as amber, has offered paleontologists extraordinary insights into ancient ecosystems. The latest golden time capsule discovery comes from Oregon State University researchers who have identified a completely new, previously unknown genus and s … | Continue reading
Despite the challenges posed worldwide by the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020 has been a bumper year when it comes to space exploration, marked by some incredible firsts and some sad farewells. It was a year of remarkable emerging technologies, a line up of ambitious new interplanetary m … | Continue reading
DEET may be an effective mosquito repellent, but it's toxic, and has to be reapplied every few hours. Scientists are working on a more innocuous, longer-laster alternative, that involves introducing genetically engineered bacteria to people's skin. | Continue reading
While harnessing the power of the Sun has progressed in leaps and bounds in recent years, harnessing the process that powers the Sun is proving a tough nut to crack. However, progress continues to be made on the various approaches to practical nuclear fusion being pursued, of whi … | Continue reading
The US Department of Energy (DOE) is backing five projects to develop advanced nuclear reactor designs to be built in the United States by private industry. Under the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP), the DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy's US$30 million initial funding … | Continue reading
Almost three years after revealing its autonomous delivery vehicle, robotics startup Nuro has been given the green light for commercial operations in California. Initially, service needs will be met by fully autonomous Prius vehicles, but the R2 delivery pods won't be far behind. | Continue reading
Interactive 3D images that appear to float in the air, above a table that a group of people can stand around without needing any special headsets or glasses: that's what South Australian company Voxon Photonics has built with its US$10,000 VX1 table. | Continue reading
Continuous monitoring of changes in patients' blood would be a profoundly transformative advance for doctors and a team of Stanford bioengineers has brought us one step closer to that reality. New research in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering describes a novel device with … | Continue reading
Raytheon is recruiting glowing microbes to help search for buried explosives. Being developed under a DARPA contract, the company is working with Worcester Polytechnic Institute to use synthetic biology techniques to produce two new strains of bacteria – one to seek out hidden ex … | Continue reading
Killing cancer cells isn’t particularly hard – the tricky part is doing so without harming healthy cells. Researchers at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU) have developed nanoparticles that selectively release drugs inside tumors, while keeping them safely locked away w … | Continue reading
Dark matter is currently the most widely accepted hypothesis for explaining some of the weirdness we see in the cosmos – but it’s not the only possibility. Now, a team of astronomers has discovered evidence in over 150 galaxies for a long-standing alternative model of “modified g … | Continue reading
Mitochondria are structures inside cells that produce chemical energy – and since cancer cells are particularly energy-hungry, this could be a potential weakness to target. Now, researchers have developed an experimental drug that blocks mitochondrial metabolism, starving cancer … | Continue reading
A new piece of open source software can radically speed up the process of DNA sequencing, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University. Using a portable sequencer, the UNCALLED software can reduce a 15-day operation down to three days, or even one. | Continue reading
Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine (WUSM) in St. Louis have spent some years investigating the links between circadian rhythm and Alzheimer’s, and have recently been making some real inroads. Following a 2018 study demonstrating how disrupted sleep can acceler … | Continue reading
Connecticut-based company LiquidPiston is developing a portable generator for the US Army that uses its X-Engine, a fresh and extremely powerful take on the rotary engine that'll deliver as much power as the Army's current-gen-set at one-fifth the size. | Continue reading
Monitoring blood glucose levels for sufferers of type 1 diabetes typically involves frequent finger pricks and analysis, but there are technologies on the horizon that promise to make things less invasive and more convenient. An imaginative example of this is a student-designed e … | Continue reading
California's QuantumScape has announced stunning performance figures for what may be the first commercially viable solid-state lithium-metal battery. It's claimed to add as much as 80 percent to the range of an electric car, and charge from 0-80 percent in just 15 minutes. | Continue reading
In the late 1970s and early 1980s MDMA was often utilized to help facilitate positive results in couples counseling. A few dozen pioneering psychotherapists in the United States explored the drug’s therapeutic uses until the US government declared MDMA a Schedule 1 controlled sub … | Continue reading
The majority of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) patients suffer from frequent traumatic nightmares that can deeply disrupt sleep patterns and have been linked with significantly higher rates of suicide. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has now approved a platform … | Continue reading
Scientists investigating an experimental battery chemistry have wound up with a flexible device they say offers up to 10 times the energy density of current lithium-ion solutions, making it an ideal fit for a number of applications. The technique also allows for easier manufactur … | Continue reading
An extremely odd project is planning to hold a remote-controlled car race next October ... On the surface of the Moon. What's more, the two racecars will be partially designed by high school kids, and McLaren P1 designer Frank Stephenson is involved. | Continue reading
Engineers at the University of Texas have created one of the smallest memory storage devices ever, made out of a two-dimensional material measuring one nanometer square. Dubbed an “atomristor,” the device works on the movements of single atoms, which could pave the way for much s … | Continue reading
A first-of-its-kind exploratory study, led by researchers from Yale School of Medicine, has found a single dose of the psychedelic psilocybin can reduce migraine frequency by 50 percent for a least two weeks. The preliminary trial was small, with follow-up work necessary to valid … | Continue reading
Florida's Undefined Technologies claims it has managed to increase the thrust levels of ion propulsion systems to "unprecedented levels" with its "Air Tantrum" technology, enabling near-silent drones with no moving parts, that look like flying pallets. | Continue reading
New research, led by a team from UC San Francisco, has shown how immune cells produced in the gut play a protective role during multiple sclerosis (MS) flare-ups. For the first time, scientists have shown how these immune cells travel up to the brain and potentially help shift a … | Continue reading
While traditional diamonds are formed over billions of years deep in the Earth where extreme pressures and temperatures provide just the right conditions to crystalize carbon, scientists are working on more expedient ways of forging the precious stones. An international team of r … | Continue reading
Although foldable phones have only just made their way onto the smartphone scene, manufacturers are already exploring the next innovation: handsets with rollable displays. One of the first to break cover is the Oppo X 2021, a concept phone shown off as part of a Oppo's annual fut … | Continue reading
It's easy to forget that Kawasaki is much more than a motorcycle company. While its famously crazy motorcycles are certainly the most visible part of the brand outside Japan, Kawasaki Heavy Industries is a 124-year-old industrial colossus that brought in US$15 billion in revenues … | Continue reading
Superconductors – materials in which electricity flows without any resistance whatsoever – could be extremely useful for future electronics. Now, engineers at the University of Tokyo have managed to create a superconductor out of a state of matter called a Bose-Einstein condensat … | Continue reading
When natural ocean shoreline is replaced by an artificial seawall, a lot of precious intertidal habitat is lost. A new study, however, indicates that by covering those walls with specially designed tiles, a substitute habitat can be created. | Continue reading
Human trials for a first-of-a-kind device designed to treat the brain via electrical stimulation have brought some very promising results. Called Stentrode, the implant has the potential to treat a wide range of neurological conditions, but in these very first trials, has brought … | Continue reading
Antimatter is a tricky substance to store and transport, mostly because of its habit of annihilating any container you try to put it in. Now, researchers at the BASE collaboration at CERN have outlined a new antimatter trap designed to safely carry the volatile stuff to new facil … | Continue reading
A new study is presenting the first published data from preliminary human trials investigating the effect of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy to treat major depressive disorder (MDD). The incredibly positive results have been described as just a “taste of things to come” with la … | Continue reading
Many industries use heat-intensive processes that generally require the burning of fossil fuels, but a surprising green fuel alternative is emerging in the form of metal powders. Ground very fine, cheap iron powder burns readily at high temperatures, releasing energy as it oxidiz … | Continue reading
Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have created a device known as a PoNS, that shows promise for the treatment of traumatic brain injuries, strokes, or the effects of diseases such as Parkinson’s and multiple sclerosis. Researchers at the U.S. Army Medical Research … | Continue reading
Malaria is responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths each year, with testing for the disease involving blood sampling and then trained medical professionals to reach a result. Engineers at Rice University have designed a new bandage-like microneedle device that could greatl … | Continue reading
Remember the Aeromobil flying car that hit Top Marques Monaco back in 2017? The Aeromobil's original inventor and designer Stefan Klein left that company in 2016, and has been working on another design with a new company called Klein Vision, also based in Slovakia. | Continue reading
America's Shelby Supercars has more or less abandoned its world's fastest car claim after eagle-eyed YouTubers pointed out a number of embarrassing, possibly costly discrepancies in its video of the SSC Tuatara making a claimed 316-mph two-way run. | Continue reading
Seattle-based Ultra Safe Nuclear Technologies (USNC-Tech) has developed a concept for a new Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (NTP) engine and delivered it to NASA. Claimed to be safer and more reliable than previous NTP designs and with far greater efficiency than a chemical rocket, th … | Continue reading
A growing body of research is beginning to suggest severe apathy in older adults is an early sign of dementia. New research from the University of California, San Francisco, with support from the National Institute on Aging, is now offering one of the first longitudinal studies t … | Continue reading
For over a century, steel rebar has been the go-to material to reinforce concrete but a new approach promises to make the common building material stronger and more environmentally friendly. Scientists have leveraged 3D printing to produce a polymer lattice structure that can act … | Continue reading
The idea of using sails to power a boat is not exactly a new one; indeed, the earliest known depiction of a ship under sail appears on a painted disc found in Kuwait, dated back to somewhere between 5,000-5,500 BCE. Boats themselves, interestingly, appear to be closer to a millio … | Continue reading
Battery researchers are continually experimenting with alternative materials in an effort to boost performance, and a group from Stanford University and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory is claiming to have landed on a winner. The team has redesigned the current collector comp … | Continue reading
Dopamine and serotonin are brain chemicals implicated in a range of neurological disorders including Parkinson’s and depression, so understanding how they work could be key to the development of more effective treatments for these conditions. A new tool is offering an unprecedent … | Continue reading
The humble air compressor is a staple of the modern workshop, underpinning everything from tire inflation to air tools, factory equipment, research gear and paint sprayers. But there's always a better way to do things, and one California company believes it's come up with a desig … | Continue reading
When we first encountered REE's ultra-modular EV chassis, we struggled to know what to make of it. Speaking to CEO Daniel Barel, we couldn't seem to pin down any specifics. What is it? A flat, modular vehicle chassis in which all steering, suspension, motor, gearbox and braking f … | Continue reading
Hydropower plants that leverage the force of falling water to generate electricity are already an important part of the global energy mix, but a new study suggests they may have much more to offer. Scientists have carried out an analysis of the energy potential of combining these … | Continue reading
French company Nawa technologies says it's already in production on a new electrode design that can radically boost the performance of existing and future battery chemistries, delivering up to 3x the energy density, 10x the power, vastly faster charging and battery lifespans up t … | Continue reading