In a breakthrough for rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have identified manganese as a promising alternative to traditional materials used in battery cathodes. Smartphones, electric vehicles, and energy storage systems have spurred demand for lithium-ion batteries, but essential elements such as nickel and cobalt pose challenges to procure. However,…

It’s long been a fact of life: Procurement tasks are a persistent burden for researchers, often demanding hours of manual effort each week and prone to errors. To counter that, the research-oriented procurement software company Labviva is launching an AI-enabled Inventory Management System (IMS) designed to automate tasks such as reordering and real-time stock monitoring.…

Researchers are exploring the potential of the International Space Station’s microgravity environment to improve the sensitivity of biosensors used for cancer detection, leading them to investigate a compelling possibility: Could the key to earlier cancer detection lie in the behavior of bubbles in space? Studies on the ISS are showing that it just might, as…

The University of California (UC) has selected Labviva, an AI-powered procurement platform, to enhance its life science research and procurement operations across all ten campuses. Initially deployed at UC San Diego in 2022, the platform went live at UC Merced in September 2024. This collaboration aims to streamline procurement processes for faculty, researchers, and staff,…

Physicists at MIT have directly imaged the frictionless flow of atoms along the edges of a material, confirming long-held theories about electron behavior in the quantum Hall effect. By recreating the effect’s conditions with ultracold atoms, the team observed these particles effortlessly navigating around obstacles, defying everyday experience with friction. In the everyday world, friction is…

The Mars Ocean Theory suggests that about one-fifth to one-third of the planet’s surface was covered by a primordial sea approximately 4 billion years ago, according to NASA. Now, scientists are delving into the details of this water loss using data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission.…

Researchers from Peking University and the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology have developed a novel method to generate multiple vortex beams of light simultaneously, potentially benefitting terahertz communication devices. The research, published in the journal Light: Advanced Manufacturing, introduces a new approach using metasurfaces to create “orbital angular momentum (OAM) combs” in the…

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy have announced the manipulation of quantum properties of graphene, the single-atom-thick layer of carbon that has captivated researchers for about two decades. In their research, scientists constructed quantum electronic devices using a bespoke configuration of graphene layers: a twisted monolayer–bilayer graphene structure. This setup consists of a single…

A new approach for near-infrared (NIR) hyperspectral imaging collects both spectral and spatial information to create detailed 3D datasets. Published in Nature’s Light | Science & Applications imprint, the method uses self-assembled colloidal quantum dot (CQD) color filters with tunable absorption properties and a digital micromirror device (DMD) to encode spectral and spatial data. The…

Scientists at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico, have announced that they are pioneering an environmentally friendly method to purify rare-earth elements for an array modern technologies. This research follows other recent announcements from Sandia, including a new computer simulation tool designed to accelerate scientific discovery. Exploiting metal-organic frameworks The crux of the new…

Sandia National Laboratories and Brown University researchers have developed a new method to accelerate computer simulations, significantly speeding up research across various scientific fields. It was recently published in the journal npj Computational Materials and presents a universal approach to enhancing the performance of virtually any type of simulation —  from researching drugs to sending…

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, planned for launch by NASA, could significantly advance our understanding of galactic formation history through its ability to combine high-resolution infrared imaging and with an expansive field of view. This field allows Roman to efficiently survey vast portions of the sky, capturing billions of galaxies across cosmic history. The…

The STAR Collaboration, an international team of scientists using the STAR detector at Brookhaven National Laboratory’s Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), has announced the first observation of an antimatter hypernucleus, antihyperhydrogen-4. Published in Nature, the research describes the hypernucleus, the heaviest antimatter hypernucleus found to date. It is composed of an antiproton, two antineutrons, and…

Imec, a research and innovation hub in nanoelectronics and digital technologies, has announced significant progress in the development of 300 mm silicon-based quantum dot spin qubit processing. The devices demonstrated an average charge noise of 0.6 µeV/√Hz at 1 Hz, the lowest values achieved on a 300 mm fab-compatible platform to date. These results are…

In this issue: 2023 R&D 100 Winners 2023 R&D 100 Special Recognition 2023 R&D 100 Finalists 2023 R&D 100 Professional Winners

An R&D 100 history lesson This has been a big year for the R&D 100 Awards. The program, often referred to as “The Oscars of Innovation,” is celebrating its 60th year — truly an incredible accomplishment. Each year, this renowned program celebrates the technology that is poised to change the world for the better. Submissions…

Ready for a banner year in 2022 This is the time of the year when submissions for our awards program, the R&D 100 Awards, begin to come in at a rapid clip. This year is a very special one for us, it being the 60th Anniversary of these esteemed awards, which are often referred to…

On being a better leader Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to sit down with Dr. Dan Arvizu, the Chancellor of New Mexico State University. Arvizu also sits on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and was the fi rst Hispanic to lead a DOE National Laboratory. One of the things…

Innovation in your car — or while walking the dog For almost six decades, the R&D 100 Awards have celebrated innovation across multiple industries, promoting new technologies that we feel are changing the world in a positive way. I’ve been involved in running the program for two years now — meaning everything from answering questions…

A new type of diversity on R&D teams? Late last year, I attended an excellent CDX conference at Georgia Tech that was focused on digital transformation. There were speakers from all sorts of well-known organizations, from Accenture to Verizon. But all of these months later, I’m still struck by the intriguing talk from Rajesh Anandan…

Refeyn Ltd., a spinout from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Oxford, has been recognized by two prestigious science and innovation awards for its revolutionary mass photometry technology. Refeyn’s first instrument, the Refeyn OneMP, enables users to measure the mass of single molecules in solution – quickly, simply and accurately. The company’s proprietary…

Animal model operations to be transferred to Envigo ownership Divestment in line with Horizon’s corporate strategy to focus on its core markets Envigo, a leading global research model supplier, enters the gene-edited research model field with the addition of Horizon’s business Horizon and Envigo to collaborate on providing CRISPR screening services Horizon Discovery Group plc (LSE:…

Founder Mike Wenger to Join Staff as Vice President of Patient Engagement TrialScope, the global leader in transparency and disclosure compliance solutions, has acquired Clinical Trial Connect, a platform used by disease foundations and advocacy groups that connects their community members to relevant clinical trials. As part of the acquisition, founder Mike Wenger will share…

By: Dr. Michelle R. Stem Three-dimensional visible light photonic control is accomplished via the newly identified property of coherent poly propagation (CPP). This property is exhibited by a special silicate that is a rare form of a gemstone found in nature – opal. Dr. Michelle R. Stem discovered and examined several specimens of this material.…

A team of scientists from DESY and the University of Hamburg has achieved an important milestone in the quest for a new type of compact particle accelerator. Using ultra-powerful pulses of laser light, they were able to produce particularly high-energy flashes of radiation in the terahertz range having a sharply defined wavelength (colour). Terahertz radiation…