What if we told you that the plastic shopping bag from last week’s grocery run could one day help detect toxic metals in drinking water? Sounds like science fiction? Think again. A dazzling new breakthrough led by Dr. Indriana Kartini from the Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, is doing exactly that—turning plastic waste into glowing nanomaterials that can sense pollution in water. And yes, it’s as cool as it sounds.

The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation selected Boston College Assistant Professor of Physics Qiong Ma as one of five creative scientists in the tenth cohort of Moore Inventor Fellows. Professor Ma’s invention of “twistronic” artificial synapses is connecting discoveries in advanced materials directly with neuroscience-inspired computing. The fellowship was launched in 2016 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Moore’s Law, the groundbreaking prediction by Gordon Moore of exponential growth in computing power. The 2025 awards mark the fulfillment of a ten-year $35 million commitment to support “50 inventors to shape the next 50 years.” In that time, the program has been supporting breakthrough tools and technologies that accelerate progress in scientific discovery, environmental conservation, and patient care.

A pair of researchers from the University of Minnesota analyzed years of Taylor Swift’s recorded interviews to track how her dialect has evolved. Their results were published in JASA on behalf of the Acoustical Society of America by AIP Publishing, and show that studying high-profile dialect shifts like Swift’s can help scientists better understand the scope of these dialects, not just in terms of geographic area but also in terms of social group, age, and leadership status.

You might think that glass has no business acting as a replacement for bone, but it turns out the two materials have many similarities. Researchers reporting in ACS Nano developed a 3D printable bio-active glass that served as an effective bone replacement material. In rabbits, it sustained bone cell growth better than regular glass and a commercially available bone substitute.

Hydrogen propulsion systems have emerged as a sustainable and more eco-friendly alternatives for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Despite extensive research, previous studies focused on standalone performance evaluations for liquid hydrogen storage systems in UAVs. In a new study, researchers have developed an integrated analytical framework for evaluating thermal performance and structural integrity of liquid hydrogen storage systems, tailored to UAV-specific operation conditions. This study could serve as reference for establishing design criteria for hydrogen-powered UAVs.