Xuanhong Cheng, a professor of bioengineering and materials science and engineering at Lehigh University, and her team are collaborating with materials science company Dow Inc. to study how microbes—microscopic organisms that digest sewage—interact with and potentially biodegrade viscosifiers, polymers used in consumer products like shampoos, detergents, and cosmetics to keep ingredients suspended and stable in solution. Their proposal recently received a three-year GOALI award from the National Science Foundation. The program funds projects that support university-industry collaborations.

Sporadic-E is a phenomenon that occurs in the ionosphere that can disrupt radio communications. Through simulations, researchers have found that rising CO₂ levels in our atmosphere could lead to sporadic-E becoming stronger, occur at lower altitudes, and persist longer at night.

Atomic clocks are very precise - but nuclear clocks are even better. This completely new technology was made possible by a major breakthrough in 2024. Now, this technology can be used to answer some of the deepest questions in physics: are the natural constants really constant?

A fundamental link between two counterintuitive phenomena in spin glasses— reentrance and temperature chaos—has been mathematically proven for the first time. By extending the Edwards–Anderson model to include correlated disorder, researchers at Science Tokyo and Tohoku University provided the first rigorous proof that reentrance implies temperature chaos. The breakthrough enhances understanding of disordered systems and could advance applications in machine learning and quantum technologies, where controlling disorder and errors is crucial.

Scientists from Shibaura Institute of Technology have developed a power-free acoustic testing system that uses the sound of bursting bubble wrap as an impulse source. The system can detect foreign objects in pipes with a 2% error margin using wavelet-based sound analysis. This eco-friendly, low-cost approach eliminates the need for specialist equipment, making on-site inspections safer and easier, even in flammable environments.

The mechanical properties of biological fluids can act as early indicators of disease, reflecting subtle physiological and pathological changes. However, current technologies face challenges in achieving high-throughput measurements, which limits their broader application in clinical diagnostics. To address this issue, the researchers developed a laser-emission vibrational microscopy technique based on whispering gallery mode laser, enabling rapid, high-throughput analysis of fluid mechanical properties. The method demonstrated strong potential for large-scale and efficient screening of hyperlipidemia.