SAN ANTONIO — November 11, 2025 — Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has expanded the capabilities of its world-class Metering Research Facility (MRF) to ensure existing natural gas infrastructure is compatible with hydrogen fuels. This initiative is supported by internal funding and combines SwRI’s expertise in energy, power, and automotive engineering to help several industries evaluate how blending hydrogen with natural gas affects infrastructure and technology.

Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) has been awarded a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation to develop hands-on training, internships, and mentoring aimed at expanding the hydrogen energy workforce. The unique program will focus on experiential learning to build a blueprint that can be adapted to prepare workers for other jobs in any emerging technology industry, not just hydrogen energy.

JMIR Publications, a premier open access publisher of digital health research, and The MidSouth Computational Biology and Bioinformatics Society (MCBIOS), a leading professional organization for computational biology and bioinformatics, today announced a strategic, long-term partnership.

Rice University’s Pedro J.J. Alvarez, a world leader in environmental nanotechnology and water sustainability, has been awarded the 2026 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Civil Engineering, one of the oldest and most prestigious science and engineering honors in the United States.

Bacterial spores – the hardy survival structures formed by certain bacterial species – are proving to be a game changer in the field of engineered living materials (ELMs). By embedding Bacillus spores within ELMs, researchers of the University of Technology Delft have created living materials that not only endure harsh environments but can also be programmed to perform specific tasks. In the future, these materials may be a sustainable replacement for fossil-based materials. Their findings were published in Science Advances.

The EU-funded project SHOWCASE has released its final handbook, titled “Farming with Biodiversity”, which serves as a practical and evidence-based guide and bank of resources to help farmers, advisors and policymakers work together to make European agriculture both profitable and nature-positive.