by Iliyah Maddox | Mar 4, 2026 | engineering and tech, physical sciences
Hydrogen is often presented as one of the most promising tools we have for cutting carbon emissions, especially in parts of the economy where clean alternatives are limited. Heavy industry, long-distance transport, and chemical manufacturing all need large amounts of energy that cannot easily be supplied by batteries alone. Green hydrogen, produced using renewable electricity, could fill that gap. Governments are investing billions to make this happen, but there is a catch. The technology depends on rare materials that could become a bottleneck just as demand takes off. New research led by Jonathan Ruiz Esquius, and conducted by chemist Sara Riera, at the Carbon Science and Technology Institute in Spain, shows how smarter catalyst design could help remove that barrier.
by Iliyah Maddox | Nov 4, 2025 | earth and environment, physical sciences
West Africa’s climate is constantly being shaped by interactions between the ground and the lower atmosphere, where instabilities can give rise to unpredictable turbulence. Guided by extensive weather observations, a team led by Dr. Ossénatou Mamadou at the University of Abomey-Calavi, Benin, has gained important insights into when and how these instabilities occur, and how well they can be predicted by existing theories. Their findings could help climatologists improve weather forecasts in the region and better understand how West Africa might respond to a changing climate.
by Iliyah Maddox | Oct 17, 2025 | physical sciences
The way molecules arrange themselves into crystals can affect the stability, safety, and effectiveness of medicines and advanced materials. Dr Ivo Rietveld at the University of Rouen Normandy and his collaborators are developing new benchmark data that help scientists to accurately predict the stability of crystal structures of molecules, helping to reduce risks in drug development and enabling the design of better materials.
by Iliyah Maddox | Sep 25, 2025 | physical sciences
When they design mechanical systems, engineers first need to understand how they will behave using mathematical modelling tools that can simulate their movements. In recent years, they have increasingly explored the possibilities of ‘compliant’ mechanisms: highly flexible systems which are now being applied across numerous leading fields of technology. However, because their motions are often incredibly complex, engineers have so far found it difficult to recreate their behaviours in the mathematical tools needed to design them. Because they involve complex, nonlinear behaviour, designing compliant mechanisms has posed a long-standing challenge for engineers. While several advanced synthesis methods are now available, they’re often computationally intensive and can’t readily cope with the inevitable uncertainties in a system’s operating variables. In their latest research, Ahmed Alhindi and Dr. Meng-Sang Chew at Lehigh University, Pennsylvania, propose a novel approach that directly accounts for uncertainty in the design process. By reformulating widely used equations, their ‘dimensional synthesis’ method offers a streamlined yet powerful way to design compliant mechanisms under real-world, uncertain conditions.
by Iliyah Maddox | Sep 22, 2025 | physical sciences
Between 1982 and 2012, the 150-foot solar tower at Mount Wilson Observatory collected a vast archive of observations of the Sun’s surface. In a series of recent studies, Professor Roger Ulrich, together with colleagues Dr. Tham Tran and Dr. John Boyden at UCLA, have revisited these data, running a thorough recalibration of the findings. Their results led them to a crucial discovery: two properties of the Sun’s plasma which were once thought to be separate are actually two faces of the same underlying effect, which plays a fundamental role in shaping the Sun’s magnetic field throughout the solar cycle.
by Iliyah Maddox | Sep 16, 2025 | physical sciences
Building the next generation of particle accelerators depends on solving surprisingly small but stubborn material-related problems. Dr Jerzy Lorkiewicz and his collaborators of the National Centre for Nuclear Research in Poland tackled one of the toughest challenges: how to make lead films stick firmly to niobium, to realise his vision of a fully superconducting electron injector. By implanting lead ions into the niobium before adding a lead layer, his team created a smoother, more durable bond that resisted peeling. This innovation brings us closer to more efficient electron injectors for powerful particle accelerators.
