Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog

Category: innovation

Double-layer electrode design powers next-gen silicon-based batteries for faster charging and longer range EVs

New research, led by Queen Mary University of London, demonstrates that a double-layer electrode design, guided by fundamental science through operando imaging, shows remarkable improvements in the cyclic stability and fast-charging performance of automotive batteries, with strong potential to reduce costs by 20–30%.

The research, published today in Nature Nanotechnology, was led by Dr. Xuekun Lu, Senior Lecturer in Green Energy at Queen Mary University of London.

In the study, the researchers introduce an evidence-guided double-layer design for silicon-based composite electrodes to tackle key challenges in the Si-based — a breakthrough with strong potential for next-generation high-performance batteries.

Bacterial motility helps uncover how self-propelled particles distribute in active matter systems

A collaborative team of physicists and microbiologists from UNIST and Stanford University has, for the first time, uncovered the fundamental laws governing the distribution of self-propelled particles, such as bacteria.

Published in Physical Review Letters, this breakthrough has been jointly led by Professor Joonwoo Jeong in the UNIST Department of Physics, Professor Robert J. Mitchell in the UNIST Department of Biological Sciences, and Professor Sho C. Takatori at Stanford University.

The study reveals that the distribution of living bacteria is governed by a delicate balance between their motility and their affinity for specific liquid environments. Interestingly, the findings highlight a phenomenon consistent with the like-attracts-like principle.

Balancing innovation and safety in FLASH radiotherapy

FLASH radiotherapy delivers a cancer treatment dose in less than a second, reducing side effects while maintaining tumour control. This Review explores technological advances, safety considerations and future directions needed to bring this promising ultra-fast radiotherapy approach into clinical practice.

First-ever detection of ‘heavy water’ in a planet-forming disk

The discovery of ancient water in a planet-forming disk reveals that some of the water found in comets—and maybe even Earth—is older than the disk’s star itself, offering breakthrough insights into the history of water in our solar system.

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have made a first-ever detection of doubly deuterated water (D₂O, or “heavy water”) in a planet-forming disk around V883 Ori, a young star. This means that the water in this disk, and by extension the water in comets that form here, predates the birth of the star itself, having journeyed through space from ancient molecular clouds long before this solar system formed.

The research is published in the journal Nature Astronomy.

‘Spirit of American innovation’: Melania Trump launches nationwide AI contest for students

Students who sign up for the project will be guided by educators. They will work in teams to understand how AI technologies can be used to address challenges in their communities.

The project is aimed at bringing students and educators together “to solve real-world problems in their communities using AI-powered solutions with an opportunity to showcase their solutions at a national level.” According to the White House website, the initiative focuses on empowering the next generation “to explore and innovate within this rapidly evolving field.”

All students who take part in the competition will recieve a certificate, while the national winners will be awarded cash prizes, cloud credits and an invitation to showcase their work at the White House.

Scientists create a new form of light matter in a quasicrystal

Researchers have for the first time created a reconfigurable polariton 2D quasicrystal. The team from the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech), in collaboration with colleagues from the University of Iceland, the University of Warsaw, and the Institute of Spectroscopy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, demonstrated that this unique state of matter exhibits long-range order and a novel type of phase synchronization, opening new pathways for research into exotic phenomena such as supersolids and superfluidity in aperiodic settings.

The breakthrough, published in Science Advances, was achieved using exciton-polaritons—hybrid quasiparticles that are part light and part matter. By arranging these polaritons in a Penrose tiling, a famous aperiodic pattern with five-fold symmetry, the team observed the emergence of a macroscopic coherent state where the individual nodes synchronized in a nontrivial way, unlike anything seen in conventional periodic crystals.

[News] Chinese Scientists Developed a Novel Chip, Crossing a Century-Old Hurdle

According to the Institute for Artificial Intelligence at Peking University, a research team led by Researcher Sun Zhong and his collaborators has recently published a paper in the international journal Nature Electronics, reporting a major breakthrough in novel computing architectures.

The team successfully developed a high-precision and scalable analog matrix computing chip based on resistive random-access memory (RRAM). For the first time, the chip achieves analog computation accuracy rival to that of digital systems, improving the precision of traditional analog computing by an astonishing five orders of magnitude.

Performance evaluations show that when solving large-scale MIMO signal detection and other key scientific problems, the chip’s computational throughput and energy efficiency are hundreds to thousands of times higher than those of today’s top-tier digital processors (GPU).

US company makes major breakthrough with large-scale laser test: ‘Allow America to end its dangerous dependency’

A North Carolina–based company may have just given the U.S. a major boost toward energy independence and a cleaner future. Interesting Engineering reports that Global Laser Enrichment (GLE) has completed a large-scale test of its groundbreaking SILEX laser uranium enrichment process, marking what could be a new era for domestic nuclear fuel production.

The demonstration, held at GLE’s Test Loop facility in Wilmington, produced hundreds of pounds of low-enriched uranium (LEU) and confirmed the technology’s ability to operate at a commercial scale. The company plans to continue testing through 2025 while expanding its manufacturing base to support full-scale operations.

Developed in partnership with Australia’s Silex Systems, the SILEX — short for Separation of Isotopes by Laser EXcitation — process uses precisely tuned lasers to separate uranium isotopes selectively. The technology is designed to be far more efficient than existing gas centrifuge systems, which have dominated enrichment since the 20th century.

MIT’s “stealth” immune cells could change cancer treatment forever

Engineered “stealth” immune cells from MIT and Harvard show promise for fast, safe, and powerful cancer treatment. Scientists have created a new and more advanced form of immune-based cancer therapy using engineered cells known as CAR-NK (natural killer) cells. Like CAR-T cells, these modified immune cells can be programmed to recognize and attack cancer, but they rely on a different type of immune cell that naturally targets abnormal or infected cells.

A team from MIT and Harvard Medical School has now developed a more effective way to engineer CAR-NK cells that dramatically reduces the chance of the body’s immune system rejecting them. Immune rejection has been one of the biggest limitations of cell-based therapies, often weakening their effectiveness.

This innovation could also make it possible to produce “off-the-shelf” CAR-NK treatments that are available immediately after diagnosis, rather than waiting weeks for custom-engineered cells. Traditional CAR-NK and CAR-T manufacturing methods typically require several weeks to complete before patients can begin treatment.

Next-gen coil interface for non-contact peripheral nerve stimulation could improve treatment for chronic pain

A research team has successfully developed a next-generation coil interface capable of efficiently and safely stimulating peripheral nerves. This breakthrough is significant in that it greatly enhances the efficiency and feasibility of non-contact nerve stimulation technology, enabling stimulation through magnetic fields without the need for direct contact between electrodes and nerves.

The findings are published in the journal IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering. The team was led by Professor Sanghoon Lee from the Department of Robotics and Mechatronics Engineering at DGIST.

In recent years, there has been a growing demand for non-invasive (non-surgical, non-contact) approaches to treat peripheral nerve dysfunctions such as chronic pain, , , and facial nerve paralysis.

/* */