Just like litter is a big problem on Earth, space junk is cluttering up outer space. To dispose of this junk, a Tohoku University researcher demonstrated the utility of a special plasma thruster.

Ultrafast fibre lasers, capable of generating ultrashort pulses with ultrahigh peak energy, are vital to contemporary optical research and industrial applications. To enhance their robustness and compactness, Chinese scientists have developed a novel core component, an application-level fibre-integrated two-dimensional (2D) nanocavity saturable absorber that enables stable single-pulse operation and high tolerance to intracavity polarization variations. This innovation will pave the way for high-performance, fully integrated all-fibre ultrafast laser systems suitable for complex environments.

Scientists have confirmed that East Antarctica's interior is warming faster than its coastal areas and identified the cause. A 30-year study, published in Nature Communications and led by Nagoya University’s Naoyuki Kurita, has traced this warming to increased warm air flow triggered by temperature changes in the Southern Indian Ocean. Previously considered an observation "blind spot," East Antarctica contains most of the world’s glacial ice. This newly identified warming mechanism indicates that current predictions may underestimate the rate of future Antarctic ice loss.  

From waste to valuable resource: Chemists at the University of Copenhagen have developed a method to convert plastic waste into a climate solution for efficient and sustainable CO₂ capture. This is killing two birds with one stone as they address two of the world’s biggest challenges: plastic pollution and the climate crisis.From waste to valuable resource: Chemists at the University of Copenhagen have developed a method to convert plastic waste into a climate solution for efficient and sustainable CO₂ capture. This is killing two birds with one stone as they address two of the world’s biggest challenges: plastic pollution and the climate crisis.

But a recent discovery by a multi-university collaboration of researchers, led by Drexel University researcher Yury Gogotsi, PhD, and Drexel alumnus Babak Anasori, PhD, who is now an associate professor at Purdue University, that sheds light on the thermodynamics undergirding the materials’ unique structure and behavior, could be the key to supercharging the development of two-dimensaional materials with artificial intelligence technology. The discovery was recently reported in the journal Science.