It is not easy to bring new technologies from the laboratory to market. Researchers and companies face very different demands for new developments and do not always find common ground. Scientists at Empa and other institutions have analyzed two emerging solar cell technologies to identify the greatest risks. Their conclusion: Research and industry must start collaborating much earlier.

Fine chemicals are part of daily life, serving as dyes, fragrances, and food additives. However, their production harms the climate and environment due to toxic chemical precursors. Since 2023, researchers in the ETOS Future Cluster, jointly led by the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), have been working to replace conventional production processes with electrochemical processes that use renewable electricity. Following a successful initial phase, Germany’s Federal Ministry of Research, Technology, and Space (BMFTR) funds the cluster for an additional three years, providing EUR 12 million.

A research paper recently published in Science China Life Sciences reports that the transcription factors OsMADS18 and OsbZIP60 in rice interact to form a core transcriptional regulatory module. This module directly regulates chalkiness-related genes and activates the unfolded protein response (UPR) pathway, coordinately regulating the formation of stress-induced grain chalkiness. The findings highlight the central role of the OsMADS18–OsbZIP60 interaction in regulating rice grain quality and provide new insights into the genetic regulation of this agronomically significant trait.

Researchers have developed an in-situ regenerable biohybrid system using Shewanella putrefaciens and FeS nanoparticles. Under light, it rapidly reduces and removes uranium from water with high efficiency and stability, offering a green approach to treating uranium-contaminated environments.

It's a small number of research labs inside tech giants that are driving the rapid rise of AI today. But this is not the first time such labs have taken center stage, a new study shows: The United States' rise as a technological superpower was fueled not just by inventions, but by the emergence of industrial research labs in the 1920s – which reshaped who invented, where innovation happened, and how breakthroughs were made.