Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

If you're gonna be inserting an object into one of your orifices anyways, why not have it check up on you while it's in there? That's exactly what the OpenEarable 2.0 earphones do, using integrated sensors to measure over 30 physiological parameters.

Lots of glass surfaces can brighten up a room, but it also lets in too much heat as well as neighbors’ prying eyes. A new metamaterial is not only more transparent to light, but adds privacy, cools the room inside, and automatically cleans itself.

While forklifts do work well for lifting and moving heavy loads indoors, they're bulky (in close quarters), expensive, and can't lift loads over a certain footprint size. That's where the FORMIC robotic transportation system is designed to come in.

If you want to maximize the number of trains that can operate on one line simultaneously, it's crucial that you know the exact location of each train at all times. A new system is designed to help, by analyzing the magnetic properties of the rails.

While it would be great if teachers could spend lots of time with each of their students, the fact is that children often end up doing most of their handwriting exercises unsupervised. A new system may help address that problem, using a "smart" pen.

A team in Germany has just taken an important step forward in energy storage research, demonstrating a lithium-metal battery with a remarkable energy density of 560 Wh/kg and an ability to retain its performance across hundreds of cycles.

Estonia's Skeleton Technologies and Germany's Karlsruhe Institute of Technology have partnered up to complete development on what they're calling the SuperBattery for EVs – "a groundbreaking graphene battery with a 15-second charging time."

Bacteria that produce their own electricity could be useful in batteries, but so far, attempts have been inefficient. A new “biohybrid” system is built around a hydrogel and can support the microbes while effectively collecting their energy.

While large 3D-printed objects such as buildings may get a lot of attention, the technology is also used to produce tiny, intricate objects. The latter could soon be whipped up faster and in more detail than ever, thanks to a new printing system.

With an ability to stiffen up under a certain type of light and go soft in the dark, a new dynamic material shows particular promise for the world of 3D printing, where it could be used as a temporary support for complex structures that melts away when the job is done.

It's not enough to just reduce our carbon dioxide emissions now – we need to remove some of what’s already in the atmosphere. Now, researchers at KIT have developed a simple way to turn the troublesome gas into a useful resource: by converting it into the “wonder” material graphene.

​They've been used as a rubber additive, a carbon-capture medium and a bioplastic ingredient. Now, discarded eggshells may have yet another use. Scientists have determined that they could be utilized in an eco-friendly and inexpensive form of energy storage.