Study led by University of Utah engineers shows data center operations can be adjusted to lower costs. By up to $590 million a year on the Western grid.

ORNL tested two aluminum alloys — cast ACMZ (AlCuMnZr) and printed DuAlumin3D — in a prototype GM engine. The materials enabled a more-than-10-percent improvement in fuel efficiency and a 15-percent reduction in weight without sacrificing strength or durability. 

Instead of letting old lithium-ion batteries pile up as waste, Sandia National Laboratories researchers have developed a microwave-based process to recover and remake their cathodes, potentially turning spent batteries into a new domestic source of critical materials.

In 2016, the Alfred Wegener Institute, together with the University of Bremen, the Palau Community College, and the Coral Reef Research Foundation, opened a research station at what is probably its warmest location: Palau. The archipelago lies in the heart of an area that is characterised by the cleanest air in the world. Moreover, this region is where the composition of the stratosphere - the layer of the atmosphere that contains the ozone layer - is determined for the whole planet. This makes the location ideal for studying the distribution of trace gases and particles in the atmosphere and their impact on the global climate, from Europe to the polar regions. Over the last ten years, the observatory has developed into one of the largest in the entire tropics and the largest in the Western Pacific.

Radiation-proof hybrid materials developed at the University of Helsinki work reliably under radiochemical conditions, enabling cleaner separation of rare earth elements — and offering future possibilities for recovery from electronic waste.

Heatwaves are arriving sooner and becoming hotter, with the United Kingdom recording May 25 as its hottest day in May since tracking began more than a century ago, only for the record to break again the next day. While humans can turn to artificial means of cooling, such as air conditioning or swimming pools, plants are left to cope with heat and frequently co-occurring droughts on their own. Sarah M. Assmann, Waller Professor of Biology at Penn State, is working to better understand how plants respond to environmental signals — and is applying that understanding to develop crops more resilient to environmental stress.

At Rice University, a soccer ball can become a lesson in force and motion. A goal post can open the door to engineering design. A robot can help students see the connection between coding, teamwork and play. That is the idea behind Rice STEM-Letics, a summer camp hosted by the university’s Center for STEM Engagement (R-STEM) and Rice Athletics that introduces students in grades three through five to science, technology, engineering and math through sports and hands-on activities. 

Weill Cornell Medicine anesthesiologist Dr. Gunisha Kaur, B.S. ’06, M.D. ’10, has been appointed to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), an independent, bipartisan legislative branch agency that globally monitors the universal right to freedom of religion or belief.