Science

Scientists have found a way to produce quantum states in ordinary, everyday electronics without exotic materials or equipment. This raises the possibility that quantum information technologies can be created using current devices.

ESA has commissioned the world's first mission to recover a piece of space debris in orbit. At the end of November, the Ministerial Council consortium awarded a service contract to a consortium for the ClearSpace-1 mission to launch in 2025.

A new study tracked the effects of extreme isolation on the brains of crew members living on a research station in Antartica. It presents some of the first evidence showing how social isolation can cause tangible structural changes in a human brain.

Graphene is already known for being incredibly strong, so how can it be made even stronger? By turning it into sheets of diamond, of course. Researchers in South Korea have developed a new method to convert graphene into ultrathin diamond films.

Many people don't like the limited range of EVs. If their batteries could be recharged quicker, though, that range might not be so off-putting. That's where GBatteries' new tech comes in – it may one day be capable of recharging an EV within minutes.

In order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and harvest useful byproducts, scientists are increasingly investigating methods of capturing the CO2 emitted by smokestacks. A new material may make doing so easier and more efficient than ever before.

Researchers from ETH Zurich have created 3D rabbit models embedded with synthetic DNA that contained their own blueprints. That allows them to effectively "clone" the models, printing copies by clipping small pieces off the original.

This year offered a little something for everybody with an interest in battery development, bringing us devices that could charge electric vehicles in 10 minutes and others that suck CO2 out of the air. Here are the biggest breakthroughs of 2019.

A once-promising anti-Alzheimer’s drug failed in final clinical trials early in 2019, but now the company producing it is claiming it analyzed the data incorrectly. The drug actually works, it says, and all eyes are now on the FDA’s approval process.

The Montreal Protocol in the 1980s has allowed the ozone layer to recover, and now scientists have found that it had another benefit – it’s already slowed climate change effects by up to 25 percent, giving hope we could meet the ongoing challenge.

Researchers have found that installing LED lights on top of floating gillnets reduces the accidental catch of unwanted species dramatically. In recent tests, the bycatch of sea turtles and dolphins was cut by 70 and 66 percent, respectively.

Astronomers from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics and at the University Observatory Munich have found the largest black hole using direct mass measurements so far. It has a mass 40 billion times that of the Sun.