Science

Microbial fuel cells are a promising new way to generate electricity, but so far they’re plagued by inefficiency. Researchers at UCLA have now found a way to wring more energy out of them, by feeding the bacteria silver to make them more conductive.

Scientists in Australia have come up with a new design for lithium sulfur batteries that involves adding a sugar to address inherent stability issues, a move that keeps the experimental cells ticking across more than 1,000 cycles.

An ambitious startup called Climeworks is looking to eat into the world's carbon emissions and has just taken its biggest bite yet, flicking the switch on the largest direct air capture and CO2 storage plant on the planet.

Sometimes, viruses can help us. According to a new study, a combination of antibiotics and a bacteria-killing virus eradicates harmful bacteria better than either one is capable of doing on its own.

Lab-grown replicas of the pancreas have been developed by scientists at MIT, with the team hopeful the technology behind them can not just help develop new drugs for cancers afflicting the organ, but other particularly deadly types as well.

Chronic wounds such as skin ulcers can be difficult to treat, partially because of antibiotic-resistant "biofilms" that form over the affected tissue. A new type of microneedle patch, however, has been shown to deliver medication through such films.

The Inspiration4 mission has lifted off atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mission differs from any previous crewed mission in that it is the first conducted entirely as a private venture.

Astronomers have detected a strange radio source from near the center of the Milky Way. The signal repeats seemingly at random and can’t be attributed to any known astronomical object, leading the team to consider that it may be something brand new.

NASA has finally set a date for the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). If all goes to plan, the long-awaited flagship mission will blast into orbit on December 18, 2021, from French Guiana onboard an Ariane 5 rocket.

Though you can make objects smarter by adding sensors to them, a team of MIT engineers has managed to 3D print metamaterial structures with electrodes directly integrated into them to allow objects to sense user interaction.

By casting one eye to a past where ancient buildings were held together with animal blood, and one eye to a future where humans use Martian soil for on-site construction, scientists have cooked up a new recipe for cost effective "cosmic concrete."

Imagine if there was protective clothing that usually stayed soft and comfortable, but that could instantly harden when needed. Such technology may someday be possible, thanks to a new understanding of a tiny animal's shell.

Fresh analysis of 54-million-year-old fossils has revealed the oldest known example of cavities among mammals, with prehistoric primates by the name of Microsyops latidens found to suffer from them with increasing regularity.

Because both bats and moths are nocturnal, bats use echolocation to zero in on the insects when hunting them in the dark. A new study, however, suggests that some moths have evolved special wingtips to avoid becoming a meal.

Lab-grown mini-brains can help us crack the puzzle of our own minds. Scientists have made a major breakthrough by growing mini-brains with the pathological features of Parkinson’s disease for the first time, paving the way towards better treatments.

While we may think of blue jeans as kind of earthy, basic clothing, the process by which they're dyed is definitely not eco-friendly. That may soon no longer be the case, however, thanks to the development of a new coloration technique.

Agriculture is a huge environmental issue in many ways, but one that’s often overlooked is livestock urination. Researchers from Germany and New Zealand have now demonstrated a potential way to reduce that problem – by toilet-training cows.

Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere attracts most of the attention in environmental concerns, but much of that ends up in oceans, making them more acidic. Now scientists have created nanojars that can easily capture this and other pollutants from water.

Last year, physicists reported that an experimental dark matter detector picked up a strange signal. A new Cambridge study suggests it could be the first direct detection of dark energy, the mysterious force accelerating the expansion of the universe.

Quantum computers could one day outperform traditional machines, but hurdles remain. Now physicists have successfully entangled three silicon quantum dots for the first time, in a breakthrough that could help make quantum computers more practical.

German physicists have recorded the coldest temperature ever – 38 trillionths of a degree above absolute zero. The experiment involved dropping quantum gas and switching a magnetic field on and off to bring its atoms to an almost complete standstill.

Infrared spectrometers are expensive and powerful instruments scientists use to analyze the chemical makeup of a sample, and a new research project has made a breakthrough that miniaturizes this technology so much it can be packed into a smartphone.

Rice University researchers have produced a "smart" shirt that uses interwoven carbon nanotube fibers to provide steady electrical contact with the skin, allowing for ongoing gathering of data on heart activity.

Widespread wireless charging could one day keep our devices juiced up indefinitely. A new breakthrough has been made in that direction, as researchers in Japan have developed a system that can turn a whole room into a wireless charger.

A quantum internet could one day allow quantum computers to team up and tackle some gigantic problems. Researchers at Toshiba are a step closer, demonstrating quantum communications sent over a record-breaking 600 km (373 miles) of optic fiber.

Progress on quantum computers may soon stall. Cosmic rays streaming to Earth can interfere with the integrity of information in quantum computers, and now an MIT team has shown just how vulnerable they are and what it might take to protect them.

Current-gen quantum computing "qubits" need to be kept incredibly cold – below 0.1 Kelvin (-273.05 °C/-459.5 °F). But new "hot qubits" developed at UNSW can work 15 times hotter, opening the door to radically smaller, cheaper quantum computers.