Heating

For anyone who's always eating on the go, you now have another option to manage hot meals while commuting without requiring the use of a microwave oven. The HeatWave Go is a self-heating lunch box that uses infrared technology to warm up meals.

Metallic theta-phase tantalum nitride exhibits an ultra-high thermal conductivity like no other material. This could be a desirable alternative to copper for computers and AI hardware, and even aerospace systems that need to run cool.

There's a lot of tech that solves problems that don't exist – however this isn't that. This mug from Feppo is one of those little products that makes things easier – especially if you get interrupted right when you've made yourself a coffee or tea.

Ever since Xiaomi was founded, it's expanded from making smartphones to AR glasses, robots, and even cars. And just when you think the firm has created everything imaginable, it's introduced a smart blanket with voice control that also fights mites.

The Thermal Master P3 has emerged as one of the most promising compact heat-seeking cameras of 2025, managing to pack professional-level performance into a thumb-sized device for a third of the price of other imagers. There's a reason for the praise.

Finland has inaugurated a giant sand battery this week in the southern town of Pornainen, where it'll take over heating duties from an old woodchip power plant. It's set to reduce carbon emissions from the local heating network by 70%.

How's this for a set of promises? Flint Engineering claims its new, flat, thermal-transfer "IsoMat" can power entire homes, cut refrigerator energy consumption by 30%, and radically speed up EV charging while also extending battery life.

Imagine having a picture on your wall that completely changes when the room gets too warm. Engineers at MIT have created a new printing technology called Thermochromorph to make full-color images that switch in response to temperature.

Cranking up the air conditioner keeps buildings cool, but it guzzles energy. Passive materials can regulate temperatures more efficiently, and now scientists have developed a new coating that keeps glass much cooler, while still being transparent.

Scientists in Japan have developed a new organic device that can harvest energy from heat. Unlike other thermoelectric generators, this one works at room temperature without a heat gradient.

Supercritical geothermal power holds the promise of meeting humanity's energy needs for millions of years, but how practical is it? A new analysis by Karthik Subramanian of Lux Research suggests that it may lie somewhere between improbable and impossible.

Water can hold a huge amount of thermal energy, and a new system to tap into this is being trialed in Scotland. A startup called SeaWarm uses heat stored in bodies of water for buildings, pulling four times more heat out than electricity used.