CSIRO

What comes to mind when you imagine fast charging? Smartphones going from zero to 100% in minutes? Or perhaps, EVs gaining 60 miles worth of charge in under an hour? Scientists have created a proof-of-concept quantum battery that charges one million times faster than it discharges … using a laser.

Individuals, corporations, and even governments are under threat from digital deception to defraud dollars and destabilize democracies. The new RAIS system could help stop such fraud, by sniffing out AI voice emulators.

With a chemical formula nearly identical to fictional kryptonite, unique mineral jadarite has the potential to power a million electric vehicles each year. But it remains underground, beneath a Serbian valley, more than 20 years after it was found.

Researchers at Australia's national science agency have developed an efficient method to produce green hydrogen for energy-hungry, high-temperature industrial processes – and it starts with concentrated sunshine.

Various groups are now growing baby corals for transplantation into the world's disappearing reefs, but they need a hand. A new robotic hand has been created to help, by carefully transferring the li'l corals between tanks as they grow up.

While metal detectors are useful for detecting land mines, they can be fooled by buried metallic debris … plus some mines don't contain any metal. A new system is claimed to work better, by reading the molecular signature of explosives used in mines.

The UniWave sea platform is an artificial blowhole that harvests energy from ocean waves. Independent analysis now predicts it'll create some of the cheapest renewable energy on the market – and some of the most reliable and predictable, as well.

Australian scientists have discovered strangely folded diamonds in rare meteorite samples. In investigating how they came to form, the team found evidence that they were forged in a cataclysm on an ancient dwarf planet.

Australian company Strategic Elements says it's made a step-change breakthrough in self-charging battery technology that harvests electrical energy from humidity in the air to directly power devices without ever needing to plug them in.

While copper does kill bacteria on contact, it typically takes at least an hour to do the job thoroughly. Such is not the case with a new type of copper, however, which is said to eradicate almost 100 percent of harmful bacteria in just two minutes.

A new prototype Companion Collar smart collar is being developed by the CSIRO's digital specialist arm, Data61, and agtech company Ceres Tag that will allow pet owners to track their animal across both long and short distances.

​Australian cattle stations (aka ranches) can be huge, so checking on all the cows is a big task. With that in mind, the CSIRO national science agency has teamed up with agtech startup Ceres Tag to develop an ear tag that not only tracks the animals' whereabouts, but also detects unusual activity.