A new review of emerging research suggests that biochar, a carbon-rich material produced from biomass, could play an important role in making 3D printing more sustainable while improving material performance. The study brings together recent advances in biochar–polymer composites and outlines the scientific and engineering challenges that must be solved before the technology can be widely adopted.

Researchers have developed a new biochar material derived from marine microalgae that can detect hydrogen peroxide rapidly, sensitively, and without the need for enzymes. The discovery could support applications ranging from medical diagnostics to environmental monitoring and food safety.

A reserach team led by Professor Huang Zhang at Harbin University of Science and Technology recently made significant progress in the research of zinc-iodine aqueous batteries. They proposed an electrolyte additive strategy based on tetramethylammonium iodide (TMAI), which, through the synergistic effect of anions (I^-) and cations (TMA⁺), simultaneously solved three core challenges in zinc-iodine batteries: sluggish iodine reaction kinetics, polyiodide shuttle effect, and zinc dendrite growth. This research not only achieved ultra-long cycle stability of over 5500 hours for symmetric zinc batteries, but also demonstrated excellent performance with almost no capacity decay after 50,000 cycles in the full cell, providing a new approach for the design of high-performance, long-life aqueous zinc-iodine batteries. The article was published as an open access Research Article in CCS Chemistry, the flagship journal of the Chinese Chemical Society.

The peer review process in scientific publishing has reached a critical point where there are too many manuscript submissions and not enough peer reviewers. UW News asked Carl Bergstrom, University of Washington professor of biology, and Kevin Gross, North Carolina State University professor of statistics, to describe this self-perpetuating cycle and potential interventions.

University of Utah engineers demonstrate lightweight ‘exoskeleton’ that helps stroke survivors walk. Tested on seven patients with hemiparesis, the 5.5-pound wearable robotic device lowered the metabolic cost of walking by 18%, the equivalent of shedding a 30-pound backpack.