“The ability to resolve the Gulf Stream and its dynamics properly, has been an open challenge for many years in oceanography,” said Dr. Ashesh Chattopadhyay.
How can AI be used to predict ocean forecasting? This is what a recent study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research Machine Learning and Computation hopes to address as a team of researchers investigated how AI can be used to predict short-and long-term trends in ocean dynamics. This study has the potential to help scientists and the public better understand new methods estimating long-term ocean forecasting, specifically with climate change increasing ocean temperatures.
For the study, the researchers presented a new AI-based modeling tool for predicting ocean dynamics for the Gulf of Mexico, which is a major trade route between the United States and Mexico. The goal of the tool is to build upon longstanding physics-based models that have traditionally been used for predicting ocean dynamics, including temperature and changes in temperature.
In the end, the researchers found that this new model demonstrates improved performance in predicting ocean dynamics, specifically for short-term intervals of 30 days, along with long-term intervals of 10 years. The team aspires to use this new tool for modeling ocean dynamics worldwide.
Using state-of-the-art equipment, researchers in the Thermophysical Properties of Materials group from the University of the Basque Country (EHU) have analyzed the capacity of ultra-black copper cobaltate nanoneedles to effectively absorb solar energy. They showed that the new nanoneedles have excellent thermal and optical properties and are particularly suited to absorbing energy. This will pave the way toward concentrated solar power in the field of renewable energies.
The tests were carried out in a specialized lab that has the capacity to undertake high temperature research. The results were published in the journal Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells.
Renewable energy of the future is concentrated solar power because it can be easily used to store thermal energy. Despite the fact that, historically, it is more expensive and complex than photovoltaic power, in recent years huge advances have taken place in this technology, and concentrated solar power plants are spreading across more and more countries as a resource for a sustainable future.
Halide perovskites—already a focus of major research into efficient, low-cost solar cells—have been shown to handle light faster than most semiconductors on the market.
A new paper, published in Nature Nanotechnology, reports quantum transients on the scale of ~2 picoseconds at low temperature in bulk formamidinium lead iodide films grown by scalable solution or vapor methods. That ultrafast timescale indicates use in very fast light sources and other photonic components. Crucially, these effects appear in films made by scalable processing rather than specialized growth in lab settings—suggesting a practical and affordable route to explore ultrafast quantum technology.
“Perovskites continue to surprise us,” said Professor Sam Stranks, who led the study. “This discovery shows how their intriguing nanoscale structure gives rise to intrinsic quantum properties that could be harnessed for future photonic technologies.”
While most solar cells on the market today are based on silicon, energy engineers have recently been assessing the performance of alternative cells based on other photovoltaic (PV) materials. These alternative options include so-called organic solar cells (OSCs), lightweight and flexible cells that are based on organic semiconducting materials.
The operation of OSCs relies on a so-called active layer, a structure made of two different types of materials, referred to as donor and acceptor materials. Both materials absorb sunlight and generate excitons which dissociate into electrons and holes at the interface between donor and acceptor materials. Then holes are transported in donor materials, while the acceptors transport electrons and facilitate their flow through the device to generate electricity.
Compared to conventional silicon-based solar cells, OSCs could be more flexible, lighter, more affordable and easier to tailor for specific applications, for instance by changing their color or transparency. Nonetheless, the efficiency with which they convert solar energy into electricity remains significantly lower than that of commercially available photovoltaics (PVs).
Conventional lithium-ion batteries are known to present a fire risk, and can even cause explosions in certain cases. The widespread usage of lithium-ion batteries, in everything from electric vehicles to electric toothbrushes, makes lithium-ion battery fire risk mitigation a major priority. There is a great need for lithium-ion battery designs that balance long cycle life, high voltage, and safety.
The fire risk arises when lithium-ion batteries undergo some kind of physical damage, are overcharged or even when they have manufacturing defects. This causes thermal runaway when anions—or negatively charged ions—break their bonds with lithium and release heat. Conventional lithium-ion batteries can undergo a temperature change of over 500°C when this occurs.
However, researchers in China have now found a way to drastically reduce the heat released when lithium-ion batteries are damaged. Their study, published in Nature Energy, details the new design and the experimental results of nail penetration tests, in which the temperature rise was only around 3.5°C.
Researchers from UNIST, Seoul National University (SNU), and POSTECH have made a significant breakthrough in understanding the degradation mechanisms of all-solid-state batteries (ASSBs), a promising technology for next-generation electric vehicles and large-scale energy storage.
Jointly led by Professor Donghyuk Kim at UNIST’s School of Energy and Chemical Engineering, Professor Sung-Kyun Jung at SNU’s School of Transdisciplinary Innovations, and Professor Jihyun Hong from POSTECH, their study reveals that interfacial chemical reactions play a critical role in structural damage and performance decline in sulfide-based ASSBs. The findings are published in Nature Communications.
Unlike conventional lithium-ion batteries that rely on flammable liquid electrolytes, ASSBs use non-flammable solid electrolytes, offering enhanced safety and higher energy density. However, challenges such as interface instability and microstructural deterioration have impeded their commercialization. Until now, the detailed understanding of how these phenomena occur has remained limited.
Mushrooms are known for their toughness and unusual biological properties, qualities that make them attractive for bioelectronics. This emerging field blends biology and technology to design innovative, sustainable materials for future computing systems.
Turning Mushrooms Into Living Memory Devices
Researchers at The Ohio State University recently discovered that edible fungi, such as shiitake mushrooms, can be cultivated and guided to function as organic memristors. These components act like memory cells that retain information about previous electrical states.