Julia Rock-Torcivia

Near-field optical trapping allows for contact-free control of objects, including nanoparticles and living cells. This is traditionally done using whispering-gallery-mode and waveguide-based platforms that rely on evanescent fields that only penetrate about 100 nanometers into the surrounding medium. This shallow interaction restricts trapping efficiency and makes the system highly sensitive to perturbations, limiting the practical…

Researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and Meta have created an open dataset of atomistic polymer chemistry. The dataset includes millions of quantum-accurate simulations designed to help AI model the complex behavior of plastics, films, batteries and other materials.  The dataset, called Open Polymers 2026 (OPoly26), enables AI to learn patterns from millions of…

Researchers at the Korea Institute of Materials Science (KIMS) have developed a ceramic membrane manufacturing process that operates effectively at 2 bar, five times lower pressure than conventional nanofiltration systems, while achieving 99.8% dye removal with selective salt permeability. This technology combines novel mutual doping and co-sintering techniques to address the limitations of conventional water-treatment…

Researchers from Harbin Institute of Technology and Stanford University have discovered that the cockroach Blaptica dubia can degrade polystyrene microplastics at rates an order of magnitude higher than previously known insect species, and they’ve decoded the metabolic mechanism that makes it possible. The findings, published February 25 in Environmental Science and Ecotechnology, reveal a sophisticated…

Changan Automobile and Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) have developed a mass-production passenger vehicle equipped with sodium-ion batteries (SIBs), the companies announced last month. The vehicle is set to reach the market in mid-2026, marking a shift towards a dual-chemistry ecosystem in which sodium-ion and lithium-ion batteries complement each other.  CATL’s Naxtra sodium-ion battery has an…

In most batteries, the electrolyte is a flammable liquid. So-called solid-state batteries use a solid substance as an electrolyte instead. This not only makes them safer, but the solid electrolyte also allows the use of alternative materials for the electrodes, such as pure lithium metal for the anode. As a result, solid-state batteries can potentially…

Trump signed the NIH’s budget into law on Feb. 3. Today marks the 30-day legal deadline for the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to release the funding. Without this, the NIH cannot spend any of the newly appropriated research funding.  Last year, OMB revised a document called Circular A-11, nicknamed the Budget Bible, to…

Short-read genome sequencing, while cost- and time-effective, often misses pertinent genetic information for rare disease diagnosis. This method sequences DNA fragments between 50 and 300 base pairs at a time and struggles with sequencing complex genomic regions and identifying large structural variations. It also requires an amplification process that can introduce errors or sequence bias. …

Researchers found that a species of ant called Sericomyrmex amabilis directly converts atmospheric carbon dioxide into a mineral armor that coats their exoskeletons. This species is the first known animal to produce partially ordered dolomite.  The mineral layer is 7 to 20 micrometers thick and covers almost the entire body of mature worker ants, except…

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile have created the largest image of the central region of the Milky Way ever produced by ALMA, revealing a complex network of filaments of cosmic gas. The data will allow astronomers to investigate the lives of stars in the most extreme region of the galaxy,…

Laser uranium enrichment has been proven to work in labs for over 50 years, but no one has been able to commercialize it. The technology works, but scaling it has proven insurmountable.  A startup based in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, is tackling the scaling problem. LIS Technologies was founded by a team with roots in ASML,…

A research team at the University of Rochester’s Institute of Optics has developed aluminum tubes that will not sink, even when damaged, using a technique learned from observing spiders. Their work was published in Advanced Functional Materials.  The team created buoyancy by chemically etching micro- and nanoscale pits into the aluminum tubes to capture air,…

Blood tests that detect a protein involved in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) could help predict the age when symptoms may appear. However, experts advise caution regarding individual clinical use, saying the test is insufficiently precise for individual decision-making and more useful for clinical trials.  A new study administered the tests to detect the protein, p-tau217, that…

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket made an uncontrolled reentry over Europe, creating a visible fireball last year. Using a specialized laser instrument called a resonance lidar, scientists in northern Germany detected a 10-fold spike in lithium atoms at about 96 kilometers altitude, roughly 20 hours after the rocket burned up. They published their findings in…

Researchers from Sandia National Laboratories are investigating methods to capture methane from biogas, a mixture found in waste such as food scraps, manure and sewage. Biogas is a renewable energy source produced by breaking down organic matter that can be used to fuel vehicles, heat homes and generate electricity.  “We are creating new types of…

Researchers in the Netherlands, Italy and Poland have developed a new porous material that can selectively capture carbon dioxide and release it in response to visible light. Their work was published in PNAS last month.  The work combines porous framework materials and light-responsive functional groups. Ben Feringa, who shared the 2016 chemistry Nobel Prize, and…

Researchers at the University of Chicago have discovered a way to use lithium to break down 95% of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), one of the most abundant “forever chemicals,” which may cause cancer and other harmful effects. The team published their findings in Nature Chemistry. PFAS are commonly found in drinking water, soil, waste sites, foods…

Scientists using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) spotted the farthest galaxy, called MoM-z14, detected to date, NASA announced last week.  The galaxy existed just 280 million years after the Big Bang. In comparison, the Milky Way formed 800 million years after the Big Bang. The scientists published a paper on the galaxy in the…

A 33-year-old man survived without his lungs for 48 hours through the use of an external artificial-lung system until he could receive a double lung transplant. The system was designed by Ankit Bharat, a thoracic surgeon at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, and his team. The team published their findings in Med.…

New York City–based autonomous material-science discovery firm Radical AI, founded in 2024, aims to accelerate materials R&D with the integration of AI, engineering and materials science in its self-driving lab. Its lab can create and characterize more than 25 alloys in a single day. The company’s AI system screens billions of material compositions to predict…

To qualify for 2027 subsidies and market access, 80% automakers’ and battery manufacturers’ critical minerals must be “circular” or domestically sourced for the U.S. Section 30D tax credit under the Inflation Reduction Act. In the EU, manufacturers are required to declare recycled content in 2027, with minimum recycled quotas kicking in in 2031. However, traditional…

Researchers at Mass General Brigham have reported that high-dose inhaled nitric oxide (iNO) demonstrates potential antimicrobial activity in preclinical models and is safe and feasible in early human studies in Science Translational Medicine.  “This study provides a translational foundation rather than a definitive clinical solution,” Binglan Yu, of the Mass General Brigham Department of Anesthesia,…

Researchers reported in Nature that they have engineered proteins to emit light in response to a combination of weak magnetic fields and pulses of energy at radio frequencies. This could set the stage for tracking proteins in the body with MRI-like instruments with less powerful magnets. The technology could allow researchers to track disease-linked proteins…

A research team led by the University of Massachusetts Amherst aims to address the massive volumes of digital information that drain energy and slow data transmission speeds with a new technology that uses old-school analog computing: an electrical component called a memristor. The name memristor is a combination of “memory” and “resistor.” A memristor is…

Researchers at Nanjing University published a new study in Environmental and Biogeochemical Processes describing a method for treating perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) in water. By introducing a small amount of formic acid into a UV-activated persulfate system, the researchers increased defluorination from 27% to 89% in 24 hours. The best results required acidic conditions (pH 2.5),…