Science

The world's largest and most advanced tokamak fusion reactor has gone online as the EU/Japanese 370-tonne JT-60SA reactor was fired up for the first time during an inauguration ceremony in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan.

Google has announced that its innovative advanced geothermal plant in Nevada is now operational and connected to the grid, pioneering an approach that promises to unlock clean, always-on geothermal energy across a much larger range of locations.

A Dutch startup spun out of the Delft University of Technology has launched the Kitepower Hawk, a wind energy storage solution that's designed to replace diesel generators for small island communities, on construction sites or in agriculture.

Researchers have revealed how regular ketamine use produces divergent changes in parts of the brain that produce the ‘feel-good’ neurotransmitter, dopamine. The discovery could have significant implications for the treatment of mental illness.

A groundbreaking study has mapped dopamine, deep inside the brain, in real time. Surprising researchers, the "pleasure neurotransmitter" is more complex than earlier thought, shaping our brain to make better decisions based on prior experience.

A study has found that placing older adults in a simulated high-altitude environment for a week before major surgery greatly improved their hemoglobin levels, addressing a common preoperative problem, anemia, that can lead to surgical complications.

Phosphorus – a key ingredient for life as we know it – was thought to be relatively rare in space. But now, astronomers have detected a surprising amount of the stuff on the fringes of the galaxy, suggesting life may be more common in the cosmos.

France and Italy are teaming up to build a habitat for future moon bases with Franco-Italian technology company Thales Alenia Space and the Italian Space Agency (ASI) signing a contract to develop the Multi-Purpose Habitat for NASA's Artemis project.

ESA's next-generation Ariane 6 heavy rocket came another step closer to flight on November 23, 2023 as it completed a long-duration hot-fire test of the stacked booster's Vulcain 2.1 engine at Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.

3D-printed concrete structures are claimed to be faster and cheaper to build than their traditional counterparts, but they're not always as strong. That problem may soon be solved by adding a pinch of graphene oxide, which could also be used to detect cracks.

The microscopic structure of the feathers of the eastern bluebird, a type of North American thrush, has inspired the creation of a simple-to-produce, scalable and robust novel synthetic material that could be used in batteries and water filters.

Prepare for a radical acceleration in technological development. A Google Deepmind AI has achieved "an order-of-magnitude expansion in stable materials known to humanity," finding about 800 years' worth of new materials with revolutionary potential.

Already armed with an impressive sonar system, new research reveals that dolphins have an extra ability that evolves as they mature in the area where their baby whiskers once were. The super sense may help them navigate and find hidden food sources.

CRISPR systems are powerful tools for genetic engineering, but they have their limitations. Now, scientists have discovered almost 200 new CRISPR systems in bacteria, and found that some can edit human cells even more precisely than existing ones.

If you overindulge in sugary treats, the good news is that your sweet tooth will be silenced. The bad news, though, is that this triggers a hormonal call out for fatty foods. And even worse news, too much fat will then switch sugar cravings back on.

A study has found that plastic additives might be stopping the reproductive habits of a shrimp-like species that is key to the marine food chain. The findings provide a different perspective on the potential damage caused by specific pollutants.

Although various uses for post-harvest rice husk waste are being explored, the stuff is still usually incinerated, dumped in landfills, or composted. Soon, however, rice husks may be combined with discarded newspapers to form eco-friendly insulation.

A team of conservationists have rediscovered a species of golden mole that hasn’t been seen in almost 90 years. The scientists tracked it to its home in the sand dunes of South Africa using environmental DNA (eDNA) and sniffer dogs.

A unified Theory Of Everything is the holy grail of physics, but gravity refuses to play ball. A newly proposed theory attempts to unify Einstein’s theory of gravity with quantum mechanics – and importantly, outlines a way to test it experimentally.

One of the biggest cosmological mysteries centers on a discrepancy in how fast the universe is expanding. A new study comes to an intriguing solution by applying a modified theory of gravity and an unsettling “supervoid” that our galaxy resides in.

The USA has only two accelerators that can produce 10 billion electron-volt particle beams, and they're each about 1.9 miles long. "We can now reach those energies in 10 cm," said the CEO of TAU Systems, which has built an ultra-compact accelerator.

Scientists have found that a “superatomic” material is the fastest and most efficient semiconductor ever. Taking advantage of a tortoise-and-hare mechanism, the new material can transport energy much faster than silicon.

With regular felt pens, users are limited to the colors of the pens in a set. As you might have guessed, though, the Colorpik Pen is different – it can reproduce 16 million colors, which are scanned from the user's environment.

Sony gave us a sneak peek of PlayStation’s first dedicated Remote Play device, then called Project Q, back in May. It's now provided more details and announced that the device, renamed Portal, will launch later this year.

Researchers are claiming a breakthrough in quantum communications, thanks to a new diamond-stretching technique they say greatly increases the temperatures at which qubits remain entangled, while also making them microwave-controllable.

Random numbers are critical to encryption algorithms, but they're nigh-on impossible for computers to generate. Now, Swedish researchers say they've created a new, super-secure quantum random number generator using cheap perovskite LEDs.

Three teams of scientists have achieved a major milestone in quantum computing. All three groups demonstrated better than 99 percent accuracy in silicon-based quantum devices, paving the way for practical, scalable, error-free quantum computers.