Australian researchers have created what may be one of the most thermally stable materials ever discovered. This new zero thermal expansion (ZTE) material made of scandium, aluminum, tungsten and oxygen did not change in volume at temperatures ranging from 4 to 1400 Kelvin (-269 … | Continue reading
A subatomic particle has been found to switch between matter and antimatter, according to Oxford physicists analyzing data from the Large Hadron Collider. It turns out that an unfathomably tiny weight difference between two particles could have saved the universe from annihilatio … | Continue reading
Small fans, all things considered, deliver thrust less efficiently than big ones. Lilium might have the best-looking aircraft in the eVTOL game, but it uses 36 tiny fans where competitors use 6-8 larger ones, and that's got the odd chin wagging: is Lilium shooting itself in the f … | Continue reading
With the rise of the lithium-based battery, demand for this soft, silvery-white metal – the lightest solid element in the periodic table – has exploded. With the race to zero carbon by 2050 gathering steam, forcing the electrification of transport, lithium will be an even more va … | Continue reading
A quantum internet could one day allow quantum computers to team up and tackle some gigantic problems. Now the world is a step closer to that reality, as researchers at Toshiba have demonstrated quantum communications sent over a record-breaking 600 km (373 miles) of optical fibe … | Continue reading
Engineers at MIT have developed a device that generates electricity using a completely new mechanism. “Particles” made of carbon nanotubes are dunked in an organic solvent, which induces a current to potentially power small robots or drive chemical reactions. | Continue reading
Traditionally, the technology that goes into laser hardware for surveying and 3D modeling has been the plaything of architects, surveyors and engineers. But now, with a view to expanding into the consumer market, Virginia-based IkeGPS wants to bring this functionality to the main … | Continue reading
Engineers have designed a computer processor that thwarts hackers by randomly changing its microarchitecture every few milliseconds. Known as Morpheus, the puzzling processor has now aced its first major tests, repelling hundreds of professional hackers in a DARPA security challe … | Continue reading
A promising new report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has found less than 1,000 cases of COVID-19 needing hospitalization out of more than 100 million fully vaccinated people. The CDC admits it is probably undercounting positive COVID-19 cases, howev … | Continue reading
A new study tracking testosterone levels in hospitalized COVID-19 patients has found a link between low levels of the hormone in men and severe disease outcomes. The research offers important clues as to why men seem to be at greater risk of death from coronavirus compared to wom … | Continue reading
Checking your bike's tire pressure can be a fiddly process, which is why there are now valve stem attachments that let you check it with your smartphone. The just-announced PSIcle sensor makes things even easier, as it doesn't require a battery. | Continue reading
Albert Einstein is the world’s most recognizable, best known and universally loved scientist. He embodies the essence of genius and although he passed away 66 years ago, he is still among the top earning dead celebrities, right up there with the world’s best known actors and rock … | Continue reading
Getting drugs into the brain is no easy feat, but the nose is emerging as one of the most direct routes. Now, researchers in the UK have developed a hydrogel that can be administered as a nasal spray, lining the tissue and delivering a common Parkinson’s drug straight to the brai … | Continue reading
In a glimpse into the battlefield of the future, the Estonian Defence Force has carried out a live-fire exercise where two Milrem Robotics THeMIS combat robots provided troops with situational awareness, support fire, and casualty evacuation. | Continue reading
A new article in the journal Nature Communications is reporting successful results from preclinical tests for a unique asthma vaccine. The results indicate the vaccine generates antibodies against the inflammatory molecules known to cause severe asthma and the researchers are now … | Continue reading
Australian company Graphene Manufacturing Group (GMG) has announced exciting performance test results for a new type of aluminum-ion battery that can charge 10X faster than today's lithium-ion units, while lasting much longer and needing no cooling. | Continue reading
New results from a clinical trial testing a novel ultrasound therapy for hypertension show the experimental treatment can deliver clinically meaningful reductions in blood pressure. The treatment is based on an old hypothesis that disrupting signals from overactive renal nerves c … | Continue reading
Magnets, typically using rare earth metals like neodymium, are found at the heart of most electric vehicle motors. It's nice to have a permanent source of powerful rare earth magnetism in your rotor, because using powered coils instead means you have to somehow transfer electrici … | Continue reading
Israeli/American company Eviation is preparing for the first test flights of its gorgeous Alice, an all-electric 11-seat luxury plane with an impressive 506-mile (814-km) range from a single charge of its huge 820-kWh battery pack. | Continue reading
UCF researchers say they've trapped a sustained explosive detonation, fixed in place, for the first time, channeling its enormous power into thrust in a new oblique wave detonation engine that could propel an aircraft up to 17 times the speed of sound, potentially beating the scr … | Continue reading
Unexpected new findings from researchers at Johns Hopkins University are indicating the world’s most commonly used herbicide appears to weaken the immune systems of insects. One experiment with mosquitos known to spread malaria suggests the chemical can increase the insect’s susc … | Continue reading
A new study from a pair of European researchers has found a covert CIA plot to capture Osama Bin Laden in early 2011 led to significant drops in vaccination rates in Pakistan. The plot, using a fake vaccination campaign to capture children’s DNA samples in order to locate Bin Lad … | Continue reading
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has reclassified food coloring E171 (titanium dioxide) after an expert panel concluded it “can no longer be considered safe as a food additive.” The announcement comes after years of research suggesting the additive may be unsafe. | Continue reading
With psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy on the cusp of broad clinical approval in the United States, there is a new pressing need to understand exactly which patients may be best suited to this novel treatment and which patients are most at risk of adverse reactions. | Continue reading
A fascinating new study from a team of US researchers has used machine learning techniques to develop algorithms that can analyze naturalistic driving data and detect mild cognitive impairment and dementia in a driver. The work is still in the preliminary stages, however, the res … | Continue reading
The first results from Phase 3 trials testing MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have been announced. The extremely promising data are the first Phase 3 results to be revealed for any psychedelic-based therapy, paving the way for a landmark US F … | Continue reading
One thing nearly all air taxi concepts share in common is fast-spinning propellers or ducted fans somewhere outside the aircraft's fuselage, pushing air to develop thrust whichever way they're pointed. | Continue reading
In a breakthrough new study, scientists have created human-monkey chimera embryos for the first time. These chimeras pave the way for more accurate models of human biology and disease, which could open up a range of new medical benefits. But of course they also raise some complic … | Continue reading
All walking animals have something in common – their preferred walking speed is largely determined by what's known as "resonance." Bearing this in mind, Dutch scientists have calculated what may have been the default walking speed of Tyrannosaurus rex. | Continue reading
Long-haul aviation, like everything else in the human world, needs to be totally decarbonized, and in the race to zero emissions for international airliners, liquid-hydrogen powertrains look like one of the only viable possibilities. | Continue reading
New research from a team of Dutch scientists is offering novel insights into the relationship between diet, gut bacteria, and intestinal inflammation. The study, tracking nearly 1,500 people, found consistent associations between pro-inflammatory bacterial species and diets high … | Continue reading
The materials we coat our buildings with can have a big influence on their ability to reflect heat from the Sun and overall energy efficiency. Engineers at Purdue University have been at the cutting edge of this field of research for some time, and have just produced the whitest … | Continue reading
Controversy has shrouded the once-common plasticizer BPA since studies started to highlight its links to a whole range of adverse health effects in humans, but recent research has also shown that its substitutes mightn't be all that safe either. A new study has investigated how t … | Continue reading
In 2014, no less an authority than NASA proclaimed in peer-reviewed papers that it was getting mysterious thrust from the EmDrive, a strange, brassy trumpet of a thing that its creators claimed could produce thrust with no propellant. NASA's findings replicated 2009 experiments i … | Continue reading
A striking new study testing a number of over-the-counter weight loss and sports supplements has found they contain many combinations of stimulants that have either previously been prohibited by the FDA or never approved for human consumption. | Continue reading
In a move that would please the fictional Star Trek engineer Mr. Scott, CERN is working on ways to store and transport antimatter. Sorry, this isn't to power any starships secretly under construction, but as a way to better study antiprotons to learn more about them and the natur … | Continue reading
By investigating the genetic underpinnings behind tooth formation in early human development, a team of scientists in Japan has uncovered clues about how they might be regenerated in adults suffering from congenital conditions. The discovery hinges on a new understanding of the w … | Continue reading
A team from Georgia Tech has just announced a world-first: a 3D-printed rectifying antenna the size of a playing card that can harvest electromagnetic energy from 5G signals and use it to power devices, turning 5G networks into wireless power grids. | Continue reading
It's a sad fact that many of the people who most need water filters are those who are least able to afford them. A newly demonstrated MIT technology could help, in that it uses locally sourced wood to inexpensively purify contaminated water. | Continue reading
A new study led by researchers from Carnegie Mellon University is challenging the common assumption that video conferencing is better than audio-only communication for collaborative group activities. The findings suggest video cues may in fact lower a group’s collective intellige … | Continue reading
From electric planes that can only fly for so long to electric cars that need to pull over for a recharge every few hundred miles, heavy, bulky batteries are a huge, limiting factor in how far these types of vehicles can travel. Scientists at Chalmers University of Technology hav … | Continue reading
An advanced tire technology developed by NASA for use on planetary rovers could be coming to a bike lane near you, with startup the Smart Tire Company leveraging the technology to introduce an airless alloy tire to the world of cycling. With the elasticity of rubber and the stren … | Continue reading
Driven by advances in artificial intelligence, doctored video content known as deepfakes present a serious and growing danger when it comes to the spread of misinformation. As these altered clips become more and more convincing, there is a pressing need for tools that can help di … | Continue reading
Several effective COVID-19 vaccines have been developed in rapid time, but that may have been the easy part. Are intellectual property protections and for-profit pharmaceutical companies now getting in the way of vaccinating the world's population? | Continue reading
It has been known for some time that dragonfly wings possess antimicrobial properties, but attempts to gain a greater insight into the mechanism responsible for this have been hampered by the fragility of the wings, which can be easily damaged under the light of a powerful micros … | Continue reading
Faster-than-light (FTL) travel is a staple of sci-fi, hand-waving away multi-millennia journeys between stars. Such a technology would of course be incredibly handy to us in the real world, and while these “warp drives” have been considered theoretically possible, they usually in … | Continue reading
New research from an international team of scientists has demonstrated how odors evoke memories in the brain, in ways stronger than other senses. Using neuroimaging and intracranial electrophysiology, the research shows how olfactory pathways communicate directly with the hippoca … | Continue reading
Wind, solar, geothermal, hydro, wave energy ... Renewable sources are a crucial pillar of any plan to decarbonize the world's energy generation industries and eliminate fossil fuel use. But for many reasons – intermittency, location dependency, land requirements, and others – the … | Continue reading