Two faculty members at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville — Hua “Kevin” Bai, a professor in the Center for Ultra-Wide-Area Resilient Electric Energy Transmission Networks in the Tickle College of Engineering, and Sheng Dai, a chemistry professor who holds a joint faculty appointment between UT and Oak Ridge National Laboratory — have been elected National Academy of Inventors Fellows.

SAN ANTONIO — December 16, 2025 —Southwest Research Institute’s novel Compact Dual Ion Composition Experiment (CoDICE) instrument aboard NASA’s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) spacecraft has successfully collected first-light data. IMAP launched in September to help researchers better understand the boundary of the heliosphere, the magnetic bubble that surrounds and protects our solar system.

How can you tell if fruit has reached its optimal ripeness without picking it, touching it or carrying out any test that might damage it? A research team from the Department of Analytical Chemistry and Organic Chemistry at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV) has found the answer by applying near- and mid-infrared spectroscopy to the leaves closest to the fruit. They discovered that the technique allows reliable information to be obtained about the fruit’s developmental state without damaging it.

 The highly ordered, evenly spaced spikes of a cicada wing can be modified to act as an optical metamaterial, using their tiny geometry to modify interactions between light waves and matter. In AIP Advances, by AIP Publishing, researchers showed that these natural nanostructures can be tuned to amplify signals in molecular detection techniques. The team coated cicada wing spires in silver nanoparticles using two methods: sputtering deposition and e-gun evaporation.  The microscopic gap created by the silver-coatings provided an optimal cranny for strong and consistent electromagnetic hotspots to form in, enhancing improve surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) performance by a factor of a million.

Helium leaks are hard to detect, since it is odorless, colorless, tasteless, and does not react with other chemical substances. In Applied Physics Letters, by AIP Publishing, researchers from Nanjing University developed a device that utilizes sound waves to detect helium. The researchers built a device inspired by a traditional Japanese bamboo weaving technique called “Kagome-biki.” The triangular device also allows the researchers to determine the location of helium leaks in a 2D space and the researchers hopes to expand the device to locate leakage points in 3D space and develop the system into a portable device.

SAN ANTONIO — December 16, 2025 — After less than a year in orbit, the Southwest Research Institute-built PUNCH spacecraft have made major accomplishments, imaging the Sun in context while tracking comets and enormous space weather events as they traveled through the inner solar system. SwRI’s Dr. Craig DeForest discussed the achievements of NASA’s PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere) mission during a media roundtable at the AGU25 conference on Dec. 16.

A new class of ceramics are not only transparent, but they can control light with exceptional efficiency — better than any theories predicted. Now, an advanced theory put forth by researcher at Penn State may explain why this material is so good at light control, which could lead to large-scale manufacturing of these materials for faster, smaller and more energy efficient technologies used in high-speed communications, medical imaging and advanced sensing. 

A new regional assessment shows that Southeast Asia is a major net source of greenhouse gases, with land-use change and rising fossil fuel use overwhelming natural carbon sinks, reservoirs that store carbon-containing chemical compounds for a long period.