Today on R&D World
NIH awarded more new grants in fiscal 2026, even as total awards fell
DOE’s BattMan brings four national labs together to de-risk battery scale-up
The day after Google reveals its frontier AI model Gemini 4 Carbon, Wall Street hands Alphabet its worst stock day ever.
DOE packages national lab know-how as 35 skills for Claude Code, Codex and Gemini CLI
HEMCO offers UniFlow fume hoods with application-specific liners
SpaceX commits to $40B NVIDIA GPU lease for terrestrial AI buildout
DOE will end single-investigator grants in accelerator basic research
Google’s Gemini 4 Carbon takes benchmark lead with access limited to cyber defenders
Twist adds cell-free antibody screening for AI-designed candidates
OpenAI says its AI models produced major proofs in mathematics, computer science and physics
Anthropic acquires a one-person biotech that used Claude to coordinate 11 labs
Fall 2026 Issue: This year’s R&D 100 Awards
Jellyfish: Claude Code bills hit $252 a month per developer as software factories automate code production among early adopters
Nearly 9 in 10 organizational comments opposed OMB’s grant overhaul, analysis finds
Physics See More >
OpenAI says its AI models produced major proofs in mathematics, computer science and physics
OpenAI says its models refuted the Exponential Time Hypothesis and proved results in math and physics; Anthropic posted its own ETH refutation hours later.
Northwestern and Western Digital demonstrate a new way to write magnetic memory
How a Duke-led HPC method brought cell-scale cancer simulation to a single cloud node
Princeton researchers uncover hidden mathematical link between origami and structural design
NTT Research taps Tetsuomi Sogawa to lead PHI Lab as optical-computing work advances
Sponsored Content See More >
Operational discipline is a critical determinant of clinical utility for neurologic monoclonal antibodies
By Bill Holt, DO, Vice President, Neuroscience Therapeutic Area, ICON For neurologic monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), the scientific hurdle is no longer the primary barrier to success. Increasingly, operational execution—not efficacy—determines whether these therapies reach patients at scale. From multiple sclerosis (MS) to neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD) to early Alzheimer’s disease, mAbs have moved from…
Life Science See More >
NIH awarded more new grants in fiscal 2026, even as total awards fell
NIH made 13,686 new awards in fiscal 2026, up 21% from 2025, while total grants fell as annual payments on existing projects declined.
Nanotechnology See More >
Researchers developed quantum nanosensors that can measure the temperature of a single cell
Researchers have developed molecular quantum nanosensors (MoQNs) designed to operate in the cytoplasm and nuclei of living cancer cells to map radical-generation processes and thermal dynamics that are linked to cancer-associated cellular physiology. The sensors use molecular-level uniformity to achieve a threefold enhancement in spectral resolution and superior thermometric specificity. The platform enables absolute temperature…
Energy See More >
DOE’s BattMan brings four national labs together to de-risk battery scale-up
PNNL leads DOE’s BattMan consortium, combining four national labs’ manufacturing expertise, machine learning and digital twins to reduce battery scale-up risks.
INL’s $60 million nuclear AI project will spend the first year testing where AI agents can help and where they might hurt
One SwRI R&D 100 winner turns buckled fiberglass into a spacecraft truss. The other models freight rail with 900 hours of BNSF field data
Inside the Lab: NETL’s Oil and Gas Center of Excellence focuses on technologies to enhance production
Inside S&C Electric’s and Argonne National Lab’s CRADA partnership
Chemistry See More >
CAS AI leader on bringing agents into scientific workflows, with a Microsoft assist
CAS AI leader Andrea Jacobs on bringing CAS data and its Newton agent into Microsoft Copilot through MCP, and on connecting AI agents to lab instruments.
150 years of CAS chemistry data comes to Microsoft Copilot
AI is wreaking havoc on math and coding. Where could it have the biggest impact next?
R&D 100 Researcher of the Year Parans Paranthaman on superconducting tape, oilfield lithium and getting discoveries into production
PNNL scientists used ultrafast X-ray spectroscopy to capture PCET reaction in new detail
Material Science See More >
Northwestern and Western Digital demonstrate a new way to write magnetic memory
Northwestern and Western Digital wrote and read antiferromagnetic tunnel junctions with an electrical current at room temperature, reaching 363% TMR.
Eggshell-inspired shield cut projectile speed by 65% in simulation, but light-gas gun testing has not confirmed it
One SwRI R&D 100 winner turns buckled fiberglass into a spacecraft truss. The other models freight rail with 900 hours of BNSF field data
Researchers develop sawdust-based foam as polystyrene bans force industry to adapt
Researchers develop compostable PLA that potentially could be used for biomedical applications
Semiconductors See More >
Northwestern and Western Digital demonstrate a new way to write magnetic memory
Northwestern and Western Digital wrote and read antiferromagnetic tunnel junctions with an electrical current at room temperature, reaching 363% TMR.
Google teases Synaptics edge AI chip ahead of Oct. 20 launch
Materials startup Thintronics takes aim at Ajinomoto’s chip packaging film, with surging AI demand widening the opening
OpenAI and Synopsys plan a specialized model for chip design
Startup Architect Labs says its AI-designed chip beats NVIDIA’s Jetson Orin Nano
Aerospace See More >
The UAE’s new space probe will crash into the asteroid it’s designed to study
The Technology Innovation Institute (TII) calls its new probe “asteroid-landing,” but its engineers don’t expect it to survive hitting 269 Justitia, a 58-km-wide asteroid in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter that the United Arab Emirates’ newly announced mission will study. Anton Ivanov, executive director of TII’s Propulsion and Space Research Center, said the…
Semiconductors, biomanufacturing and dual-use tech fill ISS National Lab’s startup cohort
Eggshell-inspired shield cut projectile speed by 65% in simulation, but light-gas gun testing has not confirmed it
The 100 most innovative companies of 2026: from NVIDIA and OpenAI to Eli Lilly and SpaceX
