Researchers at the University of Oxford have developed a powerful new method to visualise an essential lithium-ion battery electrode component that had been extremely difficult to trace before. The discovery, published today (17 February) in Nature Communications, could lead to increased manufacturing efficiency of battery electrodes and ultimately help improve the charging rate and lifetime of Li-ion batteries.

A new CNIC-led study shows that a genetic tool derived from baker’s yeast enables human cells to manufacture the building blocks of DNA even when their mitochondria fail.

Up to now, it has only been possible to deduce indirectly why high-temperature batteries lose efficiency and durability while in use. For the first time, a team from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) has now used so-called operando X-ray radiography to look directly into a sodium-zinc molten salt battery at approximately 600 degrees Celsius. The images reveal previously hidden processes and show that, under real operating conditions, the separating layers within the battery can prove problematic. The findings deliver important information for new, simplified cell concepts for large-scale energy storage (DOI: 10.1016/j.ensm.2025.104654).

The National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) developed a hybrid signal processing method that integrates an annealing-based quantum computer with classical computing for next-generation mobile communication systems. By implementing this method into a base station, simultaneous communications with 10 devices were successfully demonstrated through outdoor experiments, addressing the massive connectivity requirements anticipated for the 6G era. The proposed approach utilizes quantum annealing to efficiently solve the combinatorial optimization problem arising in signal detection under multi-antenna and multi-carrier transmission. This result represents a significant step toward realizing large-scale machine-to-machine communications in future 6G networks, including applications involving drones, robots, and XR devices.

This work was presented on January 9, 2026, at the international conference IEEE Consumer Communications & Networking Conference (CCNC) 2026.

Bioengineered E. coli bacteria can now produce a group of compounds with anticancer, anti-HIV, antidiabetic and anti-inflammatory activities. The Kobe University achievement is the result of a rational design strategy that yields a platform for the industrial production of drug candidates.

Research from The University of Osaka highlights a new model of a gyroscopic wave energy converter. The device was shown to be capable of absorbing up to half of incoming wave energy across a wide range of frequencies, meaning it could achieve the theoretical maximum efficiency. These results provide important design insights for more efficient and adaptable wave energy technologies.