Category: TRENDS IN HI-TECH SCIENCE

Physicists working on hot fusion, which seeks to unleash limitless energy by fusing hydrogen atoms together in chambers heated to the temperature of the surface of the Sun, have struggled for decades to make their technology work, despite billions of private and taxpayer dollars invested and serial claims of “breakthroughs.” (See “Nuclear Fusion,” Trends Journal,...

Research scientists have discovered that your microbiome—the complex ecosystem of microbes that live in your intestinal tract—controls not only a range of aspects about your physical health, but also your state of mind. Now a team working from University College Cork in Ireland has shown that what goes on down there also could reverse key...

With demand for rare earth metals and other components for electric vehicle (EV) batteries exploding and supplies shrinking, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has tested one possible solution. It created an automated disassembly line for used EV batteries. Even though EVs make up a sliver of the world’s vehicle fleet, there’s a growing backlog of...

Of about 320,000 known plant species, roughly 700 are known as “superaccumulators”—plants that pull metals such as cobalt, nickel, and zinc out of the soil at high rates. At a time when demand for metals is rising along with the world’s hunger for more and more electronic appliances, what has come to be called “phytomining”...

Australia’s wide-open spaces get a lot of sun and Aussies are capturing it to fuel what have been dubbed “virtual power plants.” Utility companies and state governments are cooperating to link rooftop solar panels and in-home batteries in local networks connected to the grid. Grids can call on the networks’ energy at times of peak...

For the first time, courts have ruled that a patent can name an artificial intelligence as an inventor. The honor went to the “device for the autonomous bootstrapping of unified sentience” (DABUS), an artificial intelligence (AI) created by Stephen Thaler, CEO of the research and consulting firm Imagination Engines and a pioneer in AI since...

The electronics in every outdated smartphone, discarded computer, or broken-down toaster oven are a hodgepodge of pollution and toxins: cadmium, lead, mercury, polyvinyl chloride, and others.   Recycling electronics can be a laborious process of breaking open the cases, often by hand, and then melting components or using harsh chemicals to reclaim the valuable minerals and...

Thermoelectric devices can turn heat wafting off of engines, industrial boilers, and similar sources into electricity. However, they’re too expensive to install under the hood of your car or next to your kitchen oven. At least, they have been. Now scientists at Northwestern University have figured out how to make a thermoelectric compound from abundant...