Tiny pieces of plastic are an increasingly big problem. Known as microplastics, they originate from clothing, kitchen utensils, personal care products, and countless other everyday objects. Their durability makes them persistent in the environment – including in human bodies.
Not only are many people on Earth already contaminated by microplastics, but we’re also still being exposed every day, as there is minimal regulation of these insidious specks.
According to a new literature review, a significant portion of our microplastic exposure may come from drinking water, as wastewater treatment plants are still not effectively removing microplastics.
Converting sunlight into electricity is the task of photovoltaic solar cells, but nearly half the light that reaches a flat silicon solar cell surface is lost to reflection. While traditional antireflective coatings help, they only work within a narrow range of light frequency and incidence angles. A new study may have overcome this limit.
As reported in Advanced Photonics Nexus, researchers have proposed a new type of antireflective coating using a single, ultrathin layer of polycrystalline silicon nanostructures (a.k.a. a metasurface). Achieving minimal reflection across certain wavelengths and angles, the metasurface was reportedly developed by combining forward and inverse design techniques, enhanced by artificial intelligence (AI).
The result is a coating that sharply reduces sunlight reflection across a wide range of wavelengths and angles, setting a new benchmark for performance with minimal material complexity.
Over the past decades, many countries worldwide have been trying to gradually transform their energy systems, with the aim of reducing carbon emissions and mitigating the adverse effects of climate change. Hydrogen and carbon dioxide (CO2) transport networks, infrastructures designed to transport hydrogen gas and captured CO2, could support the shift towards climate-neutral energy systems.
Researchers at Technical University Berlin carried out a study aimed at better understanding the extent to which hydrogen and CO2transport networks could contribute to the future de-carbonization of the European energy system. Their paper, published in Nature Energy, suggests that both these types of networks could play a key role in establishing a sustainable and clean European energy system.
“In our view, we are envisioning a climate-friendly economy which relies as little as possible on fossil fuels and respects socio-economic considerations,” Fabian Hofmann, first author of the paper, told Tech Xplore.
Aluminum alloys are well-known for their low weight and corrosion resistance, making them ideal candidates for applications in a low-carbon economy—from lightweight automobiles to tanks for storing green hydrogen. However, their widespread application is limited by a key challenge: they suffer from embrittlement leading to cracking and failure when exposed to hydrogen. Until now, alloys resistant to hydrogen embrittlement were rather soft, limiting their application in hydrogen-related technologies that require high strength.
Now, researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Sustainable Materials (MPI-SusMat) in Germany, together with partners from China and Japan, have developed a new alloy design strategy that overcomes this dilemma. Their approach enables both exceptional strength and superior resistance to hydrogen embrittlement (HE), paving the way for safer and more efficient aluminum components in the hydrogen economy. They have published their results in the journal Nature.
To combat climate change and achieve a climate-neutral industry, carbon emissions must be drastically reduced. A key part of this transition is replacing carbon-based energy carriers with electricity, particularly in transport and industrial applications. However, this shift heavily depends on nickel, a critical material used in batteries and stainless steel.
Recently, a research team achieved real-time tracking of electronic/magnetic structure evolution in Li-rich Mn-based materials during the initial cycling through the self-developed operando magnetism characterization device.
Their study, published in Advanced Materials, elucidated the critical mechanism underlying the oxygen redox reaction. The research team was led by Prof. Zhao Bangchuan from the Institute of Solid State Physics, the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with Prof. Zhong Guohua from the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology and Prof. Li Qiang from Qingdao University.
With the rise of electric vehicles and the low-altitude economy, the demand for high-energy-density batteries is growing. Li-rich Mn-based materials stand out due to their high capacity, wide voltage range, and cost-effectiveness.
As global demand for electric vehicles and renewable energy storage surges, so does the need for affordable and sustainable battery technologies. A new study has introduced an innovative solution that could impact electrochemical energy storage technologies.
The research is published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials. The work was led by researchers from the Department of Materials Science and NanoEngineering at Rice University, along with collaborators from Baylor University and the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Thiruvananthapuram.
Using an oil and gas industry’s byproduct, the team worked with uniquely shaped carbon materials —tiny cones and discs—with a pure graphitic structure. These unusual forms produced via scalable pyrolysis of hydrocarbons could help address a long-standing challenge for anodes in battery research: how to store energy with elements like sodium and potassium, which are far cheaper and more widely available than lithium.
Japanese scientists have created all-organic solar cells made of carbon-based materials with a record efficiency of 8.7% for this type of cell.
It is noted that the amount of solar energy that reaches the Earth every day is 10 times higher than all the existing needs of humanity. Over the past 6 years, there has been a rapid development of cells for solar panels. However, there are still a number of challenges to their widespread use, including high production costs, efficiency, and environmental impact.
Silicon is currently the most widely used material in solar cells. However, such cells often also contain potentially hazardous materials that are difficult to dispose of in an environmentally friendly manner.
*Apply to join Foresight Intelligent Cooperation program:* https://foresight.org/intelligent-cooperation/ A group of scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs in computer science, ML, cryptocommerce, and related fields who leverage those technologies to improve voluntary cooperation across humans, and ultimately AIs.
*Maarten Boudry | Will Humanity Be Subjugated by Superintelligent AIs?* Abstract: Some people are worried that if we ever create superintelligent AIs, they might turn against us—trying to subjugate humanity, wrest control, and grab resources, much like living creatures shaped by evolution. Dan Hendrycks from the Center for AI Safety has argued that AI systems are already undergoing a form of natural selection, facing ruthless market competition in the current AI race. Will this endow them with the instinctive drives for self-preservation and dominance typical of evolved creatures? In this talk, I push back against this evolutionary doom scenario, using the framework of “Darwinian spaces” by Peter Godfrey-Smith. A better analogy for AI evolution might be the domestication of animals. Just as humans have bred dogs to be friendly and obedient, we might shape AIs in similar ways, selecting for desirable traits like helpfulness and non-aggression. Even in a highly competitive AI race, AIs are unlikely to become selfish or power-hungry. That said, we do agree with the AI doomers on one point: if we allow AIs to “go feral” and be subjected to truly blind evolution—like wild animals competing in nature—that could become very dangerous.
Bio: Dr. Maarten Boudry is a philosopher of science and first holder of the Etienne Vermeersch Chair of Critical Thinking at Ghent University. He published over 50 academic papers and two edited volumes: Science Unlimited? (2018) and Philosophy of Pseudoscience (2013). He wrote six trade books in Dutch on science and philosophy, the latest one being The Betrayal of Enlightenment (Het verraad aan de verlichting, 2025). He’s also a Roots of Progress fellow and a regular contributor to Quillette, The Conversation, The Independent and Human Progress. Substack for English writings: maartenboudry.substack.com.
Bio: Simon Friederich is an associate professor of philosophy of science at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. He is currently focused on the philosophy of quantum theory, trying to solve the quantum measurement problem along the lines envisioned by Einstein before advanced AI makes his efforts redundant. He has also worked on the philosophy of technology, notably on nuclear energy, sustainability, and advanced AI. His thoughts on these topics have been featured in German and Dutch media. With his wife and five kids he lives in a village in the North of the Netherlands.
Leading health experts have warned that the US is staring down the barrel of another pandemic as bird flu spirals out of control on US farms.
So far, the H5N1 outbreak has affected nearly 1,000 dairy cow herds and resulted in more than 70 human cases, including the first confirmed death.
The US poultry industry is at significant risk, say experts from the Global Virus Network (GVN), particularly in areas with high-density farming and where personal protective practices may be lacking.
