University of Maryland

​In some parts of the world, one of the main ways of obtaining drinking water involves using the heat of the sun to boil salty or tainted water. That process, known as "solar steam generation," may soon be made simpler and less expensive … using burnt wood.

​​Back in 2015, a team of scientists made a battery breakthrough by using salty water as an electrolyte to offer a potentially safer and greener alternative to commercial lithium-ion batteries, The same team has now powered up its design to a point where it could be used in household appliances.

​Asteroid 2012 TC4 hasn’t been seen since its last brush with our planet 5 years ago, but astronomers knew it would return in October 2017. Right on cue, the building-sized rock has now emerged from the darkness of space, and its trajectory has been calculated.

When it comes to fighting malaria, researchers not only need to stop the killer cold in its tracks, but they also have to ensure their solutions harm only disease-carrying mosquitos and not the rest of the environment. A new turbocharged fungus promises to do exactly that.

​Don't be surprised if in a few years television commercials for skin cream start touting that they are "now formulated with methylene blue." That's because research out of the University of Maryland (UMD) has shown that the common antioxidant can reverse the effects of aging on our skin.

What if, like computers, the immune system could be reprogrammed to restore the body’s functions? Scientists at the University of Maryland have done just that with paralyzed mice, using an experimental treatment that might one day reverse the effects of autoimmune diseases in humans.​​

Researchers from the University of Maryland have created an electrogenetic “switching” system in bacterial cells that influences the way the single-celled organisms behave, linking organic and electronic systems together.

Several years ago, students from the University of Maryland achieved the world's longest human-powered helicopter flight. In 2014, a new team took over and began converting the aircraft to solar-electric power. It made its first purely sun-powered flight late last month.​

​​While there are already ways of controlling bleeding from external wounds, surgery is typically the only option when it comes to stopping internal bleeding. That could be about to change, however, thanks to injectable nanoparticles that speed the clotting of blood.​

Using their recently developed transparent wood as a window for a model home, scientists have found that not only does it let in a similar amount of light to glass, but it is much better at keeping the interior cool.

A team at the University of Maryland has discovered “blue whirls”, a type of fire tornado which could be harnessed as a clean energy source and even for cleaning up oil spills on the surface of water, by burning it away with reduced airborne emissions.

Single-molecule imaging has revealed that synapses – the tiny junctions that allow neurons to communicate with each other – transmit information across precisely-aligned nanocolumns. The discovery could unlock new secrets to how our brains work and it may improve our understanding of brain diseases.