A Chinese professor has unveiled a bold plasma jet engine that converts electricity directly into thrust — no fuel, no combustion. Known as the “Tang Jet,” this prototype mimics lightning by superheating air into plasma to generate clean, powerful propulsion. While it’s not ready to lift a jetliner yet, this breakthrough could one day redefine zero-emission flight.
A study co-led by ICN2 reveals that ice is a flexoelectric material, meaning it can produce electricity when unevenly deformed. Published in Nature Physics, this discovery could have major technological implications while also shedding light on natural phenomena such as lightning.
Frozen water is one of the most abundant substances on Earth. It is found in glaciers, on mountain peaks and in polar ice caps. Although it is a well-known material, studying its properties continues to yield fascinating results.
An international study involving ICN2, at the UAB campus, Xi’an Jiaotong University (Xi’an) and Stony Brook University (New York), has shown for the first time that ordinary ice is a flexoelectric material.
One of Earth’s most unique geological formations is volcanoes, as they can be located either on land or underwater. They are even found on other planets. These formations come in all shapes and sizes, varying from shields to composites and cinder cones. When they erupt, they spew lava. As more and more of the world’s volcanoes are waking, they are also erupting pure technology. That’s right, within these unique geological formations, there are valuable elements that could revolutionize the renewable industry.
The world is gradually transitioning to renewable energy sources as alternatives to burning fossil fuels. This transition forms part of a greater goal to reduce the total greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change. Unfortunately, the renewable technologies that we rely on to harness energy from renewable sources are not as environmentally friendly as we want to believe.
According to the SPIE Digital Library, renewable energy technology needs particular elements for production, and obtaining these elements has proven to be challenging. Without these elements, we cannot address other challenges that these technologies face, which are intermittency and storage. For example, solar panels and wind turbines are both dependent on specific weather conditions, which result in intermittency in power supply.
Wind alone does not account for all hurricane-related fatalities. Storm surge and rainfall do as well. Yet the current warning system—the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale—measures a storm’s strength solely by wind speed.
A new research paper published in Nature Scientific Reports and co-authored by Jennifer Collins, a hurricane researcher and University of South Florida geosciences professor, argues that in order to keep people safe, it’s time for a change. The authors propose replacing the SSHWS with the Tropical Cyclone Severity Scale, which incorporates storm surge and rainfall in addition to wind.
“Frequently, people use the storm’s category to decide whether to evacuate,” Collins said. “That’s incredibly dangerous because if they hear it’s only a tropical storm or Category 1, too often no alarm bells go off, and they see no cause for concern.”
Scientists have found a very rare mineral, which they call a dodecagonal quasicrystal, which probably formed when lightning struck near a fallen power line in a sandy region of the United States. The discovery is surprising, because until now experts doubted that such structures could form on Earth in natural conditions.
Quasicrystals are made of atoms arranged in an ordered fashion, but without the periodic repetition of a simple geometric form that is found in normal crystals. They only form in extreme temperature and pressure conditions. Because of their structure, they have magnetic and electric properties that are not found in either crystals or amorphous solids and could prove useful for many applications.
A rock discovered in Nebraska proves that a strong electrical discharge can form these exotic materials that are rarely seen in nature.
For decades, scientists puzzled over why Uranus seemed colder than expected. Now, an international research team led by the University of Houston has solved the mystery: Uranus emits more heat than it gets from the Sun, meaning it still carries internal warmth from its ancient formation. This revelation rewrites what scientists know about the ice giant’s history, strengthens the case for NASA’s upcoming mission, and offers fresh insight into the forces shaping not only other planets, but also Earth’s future climate.
A new study led by University of Houston researchers, in collaboration with planetary scientists worldwide, suggests Uranus does have its own internal heat — an advance that not only informs NASA’s future missions but also deepens scientists’ understanding of planetary systems, including processes that influence Earth’s climate and atmospheric evolution.
The discovery resolves a long-standing scientific mystery about the giant planet, because observational analyses from Voyager 2 in 1986 didn’t suggest the presence of significant internal heat — contradicting scientists’ understanding of how giant planets form and evolve.
Find out how organisations like tobacco and fossil fuel companies sell doubt about science, in order to undermine public trust.
You can watch Naomi’s recent talk about the origin of the plate tectonics theory here: • Rethinking the origin of plate tectonics -… and if you sign up as one of our Science Supporters, see the full Q&A here: • Q&A: Rethinking the origin of plate tecton…
Buy Naomi’s book ‘Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming’ here: https://geni.us/orTZL9D
00:00 Introduction.
0:41 Why do bad actors work to create mistrust in science?
2:26 How do bad actors create mistrust in science?
3:24 How does the fossil fuel industry create mistrust?
5:04 How can we rebuild trust in science and government?
7:50 Does it matter who funds science?
11:52 What role does government regulation play in science?
14:01 How does the concept of freedom affect the climate debate?
Naomi Oreskes is Professor of the History of Science and Affiliated Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University. She has worked on studies of geophysics, climate change and the history of science. She sits on the board of US based not-for-profit organisations the National Center for Science Education and Climate Science Legal Defense Fund. She is a distinguished speaker and has published 10 books, including Science on a Mission and The Big Myth.
The Ri is on Twitter: / ri_science.
Half of the sun’s radiant energy falls outside of the visible spectrum. On a cold day, this extra infrared light provides additional warmth to residential and commercial buildings. On a warm day, it leads to unwanted heating that must be dealt with through energy-intensive climate control methods such as air-conditioning. Visibly transparent “smart windows” that can modulate the transmission of near infrared light offer one potential cost- and energy-saving measure for modern infrastructure. To work towards solving this technological challenge, a multidisciplinary team of researchers at