A team of physicists from the University at Albany has proposed scientifically rigorous methods for documenting and analyzing Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) building upon the work of numerous past and present researchers in the field.

The team tested their methods in the field for the first time and reported their findings in Progress in Aerospace Sciences.

UAP is the term used by government agencies like NASA to refer to “observations of events in the sky that cannot be identified as aircraft or known natural phenomena.”

British firm the RML Group has been granted Conformity of Production (CoP) approval for its new VarEVolt battery, ticking a crucial box as it prepares to pitch the pack to major car makers.

It has been verified as building products compliant with safety standard UN ECE Regulation 100, a requirement for many larger OEMs and car manufacturers.

“Performance is a key part of what RML offers,” said James Arkell, RML’s head of powertrain. “Doing this safely, reliably and repeatably is key to our success, and this certification solidifies that message to the industry.”

I saw how the e-commerce giant manufactures its warehouse robots during a recent visit to Amazon Robotics.

Researchers from the University of Rochester and University of California, Santa Barbara, engineered a laser device smaller than a penny that they say could power everything from the LiDAR systems used in self-driving vehicles to gravitational wave detection, one of the most delicate experiments in existence to observe and understand our universe.

Laser-based measurement techniques, known as optical metrology, can be used to study the physical properties of objects and materials. But current optical metrology requires bulky and expensive equipment to achieve delicate laser-wave control, creating a bottleneck for deploying streamlined, cost-effective systems.

The new chip-scale laser, described in a paper published in Light: Science & Applications, can conduct extremely fast and accurate measurements by very precisely changing its color across a broad spectrum of light at very fast rates—about 10 quintillion times per second.

Sodium–air fuel cells could unlock electric flight and clean transit, capturing CO₂ and outperforming lithium batteries.

In a world racing towards electrification—from cars to villages—one thing remains crucial: affordabl

Lightweight, powerful lithium-ion batteries are crucial for the transition to electric vehicles, and global demand for lithium is set to grow rapidly over the next 25 years. A new analysis from the University of California, Davis, published May 29 in Nature Sustainability, looks at how new mining operations and battery recycling could meet that demand. Recycling could play a big role in easing supply constraints, the researchers found.

“Batteries are an enormous new source of demand for lithium,” said Alissa Kendall, the Ray B. Krone endowed professor of Environmental Engineering at UC Davis and senior author on the paper.

Lithium is a relatively common mineral and up to about 10 years ago demand was relatively small and steady, with a small number of mines providing the world’s supply, Kendall said. Global demand for lithium has risen dramatically—by 30% between 2022 and 2023 alone—as adoption of electric vehicles continues.

Batteries are nearing their limits in terms of how much power they can store for a given weight. That’s a serious obstacle for energy innovation and the search for new ways to power airplanes, trains, and ships. Now, researchers at MIT and elsewhere have come up with a solution that could help electrify these transportation systems.

Instead of a battery, the new concept is a kind of fuel cell which is similar to a battery but can be quickly refueled rather than recharged. In this case, the fuel is liquid sodium metal, an inexpensive and widely available commodity.

The other side of the cell is just ordinary air, which serves as a source of oxygen atoms. In between, a layer of solid ceramic material serves as the electrolyte, allowing sodium ions to pass freely through, and a porous air-facing electrode helps the sodium to chemically react with oxygen and produce electricity.

Fuel cells that run on hydrogen are efficient and emit water vapor instead of exhaust. But so far, the technology is still expensive and therefore not competitive with the electric motor alternative.

Norwegian researchers have now figured out how they can accelerate competitiveness by reducing two critical components. This could make fuel cells both cheaper and more environmentally friendly.

The technology has great potential to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the transportation sectors, especially in heavy transport, the maritime sector and—in a somewhat longer timeframe—also in aviation.

With the ever advancing movement towards a totally sustainable transportation future, hydrogen has risen as a very viable alternative to batteries.