Tech

AT&T and AST SpaceMobile hand off a phone link from towers to satellites

Your phone could soon stay connected even when it moves beyond cellular tower coverage, switching seamlessly to satellites instead. AT&T and AST SpaceMobile have demonstrated what they believe is the...

US Team Maps Electrolyte Chemistry to Guide Next-Generation Battery Designs

Lithium clusters could help explain how protective battery films form. Lithium ions in battery electrolytes do not always remain isolated. Research from Columbia University shows...

Quantum Computing Breakthrough Opens a New Path to Larger, More Powerful Processors

Keeping silicon quantum bits accurate while they work together could help turn established chipmaking technology into larger quantum computers capable of tackling increasingly complex...

Lightsaber-Like Plasma Beam Antenna Is Tuned by Laser

When most people picture an antenna, they think of a slim metal rod, whether the thin, extendable rod on a portable FM radio or...

200,000 Gallons of Water A Day: Heat from AI Data Centers Could Power Desalination Plants

This technology works like a smart water-cleaning machine that uses heat instead of a lot of extra electricity or fresh water. Turning the tables, American...

Pulsed-heat 3D printing grows metre-tall single-crystal titanium-alloy parts, a Nature paper reports

Chinese and US researchers say a wire-arc printing technique with carefully timed heat pulses can grow very long titanium-alloy crystals free of grain boundaries,...

Quantinuum reports logical error rates falling about 12-fold with each step up in error-correction code distance

A preprint from Quantinuum shows logical qubits on its Helios trapped-ion machine growing sharply more reliable as code size rises, though only in memory...

Finland grants the world’s first operating licence for a spent-nuclear-fuel disposal facility, at Olkiluoto

The government decision clears Posiva to move towards burying spent fuel deep in bedrock at Eurajoki, once commissioning tests checked by the safety regulator...

New palladium-coated membrane destroys over 90% of forever chemicals in water

An international coalition designed a catalytic “hunter-killer” membrane to annihilate these toxic molecules. Researchers at Arizona State University have developed a new technique to destroy...

US startup pairs 300 MW solar panels with battery storage for continuous data center power

The company is targeting round-the-clock data center power using solar. Ambrosia Energy has begun work on a battery factory near Austin, Texas, to supply its...

US Scientists Grow Better Perovskite Crystals, Boost Solar Cell Efficiency to 26%

A temporary liquid phase boosted perovskite device efficiency to 26%, with solar cells retaining most of their efficiency after eight weeks. Researchers have developed a...

Supercapacitor Cement Is Key to Buildings That Store Their Own Power

In the not-too-distant future, a building’s emergency lighting, fire alarms, sensors and other features could be powered not by fuel-burning generators or bulky battery...

MIT Study Reveals Why a Neutrino Laser May Be Impossible

Physicists proposed a way to focus ghostly neutrinos into a laser-like beam, but new MIT calculations show that violent atomic recoil and the particles’...

Self-Propelled Panther Railcars Get $100 Million Boost for Commercial Rollout

Instead of relying on conventional locomotives and long trains, Parallel Systems is developing self-propelled electric railcars. Parallel Systems has raised $100 million in a new...

17-Gigawatt Texas Power Project Passes Key Hurdle for World’s Largest Private Grid

Despite recent progress, crucial regulatory steps remain before reactor construction can begin. A planned nuclear-powered supercomputing hub in the Texas Panhandle has cleared a major...

A Laser Just Photographed Objects Through Six Feet of Concrete

Superman was cheated. X-ray vision isn’t where it’s at. If yesterday’s writers of comic books knew what we know today, the Man of Steel...

US Microreactor That Reached Criticality in 150 Days Set for Full-Power Test In 2027

Unity’s next demonstration will test factory fueling, transportation, full-power operation and reactor redeployment. A US-developed nuclear battery that achieved its first controlled chain reaction in...