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Tech & Engineering

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 30-Oct-2026 16:16 ET (30-Oct-2026 20:16 GMT/UTC)

Waste cotton hulls become powerful catalyst for cleaner water

Biochar Editorial Office, Shenyang Agricultural University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A team of researchers has developed a green catalyst from cotton hulls that can dramatically improve the ability of ozone to remove stubborn organic pollutants from water. The study, published in Biochar, shows that a nitrogen-doped biochar catalyst called N-BC-800 can efficiently degrade N,N-diethyl-meta-toluamide, better known as DEET, a widely used insect repellent that is increasingly detected in rivers, wastewater, and other aquatic environments.

Journal: Biochar

Biochar triggers a five-year soil recovery cascade in acidifying rice paddies

Biochar Editorial Office, Shenyang Agricultural University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Soil acidification is a growing threat to food production, especially in intensively managed agricultural regions where repeated fertilizer use can gradually make soils more acidic, reduce nutrient availability, and increase the mobility of toxic metals. A new five-year field study published in Biochar shows that biochar may do more than simply neutralize acidic soils. It can help organize a coordinated recovery process across the entire soil ecosystem.

Journal: Biochar

World’s leading soil science congress opens in Nanjing for the first time in China

Biochar Editorial Office, Shenyang Agricultural University
Meeting Announcement

The 23rd World Congress of Soil Science, often regarded as the “Olympics” of the soil science community, opened in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province. Held from June 8 to 12 under the theme “Soil and the Shared Future of Humankind,” the congress marks the first time in its nearly 100-year history that this premier global academic event in soil science has been hosted in China.

Using subsurface energy to power the future of remote communities

Institut national de la recherche scientifique - INRS
Grant and Award Announcement

What if the answer to the energy transition lay beneath our feet? As the climate crisis intensifies, the potential of the subsurface is emerging as a promising solution — especially for remote communities that still rely heavily on fossil fuels. It is in this context that Professor Jasmin Raymond of the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) has been appointed to the Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Sustainable Geoenergy Systems Analysis, funded at $1.4 million by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).

Funder: Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada

Advanced airliner concept co-designed by U-M engineers

University of Michigan
Business Announcement

A new turboelectric airliner concept, capable of delivering 17% better efficiency over 2050 projections for standard airliners, was unveiled Monday at the AIAA AVIATION Forum, and a University of Michigan Engineering team played a central role in its development. Yesterday's technical talk on the project, including work from the U-M team, was delivered to a standing-room-only crowd.

Diet remodels chromatin structure and extends survival in models of glioma

Baylor College of Medicine
Peer-Reviewed Publication

An unexpected lab observation led a team of scientists to discover how diet can influence survival in animal models of glioma, one of the most aggressive and deadly forms of brain cancer. Researchers reveal how limiting a single nutrient, the amino acid methionine, in the diet destabilized DNA organization and led to cancer cell death and increased animal survival. These findings open new possibilities for treating one of the most challenging forms of brain cancer.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Why is effective action being taken on some drivers of suicide and not others?

PLOS
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Content Warning: This press release contains discussions about suicide. If you or someone you know is in crisis or needs support, please use this link to find an international helpline: www.findahelpline.com.

Governments put up railings and barriers and regulate supplies of certain drugs to prevent people from dying by suicide. But other products associated with fatal self-harm, such as firearms, pesticides, and alcohol remain widely available and publicly promoted. The difference in approach to regulation needs to be addressed to make progress in preventing suicide, according to an analysis published June 10 in the open access journal PLOS Global Public Health by May van Schalkwyk from the University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom, and colleagues.

Journal: PLOS Global Public Health

A small optical component could change how telescopes view the sun

University of California - San Diego
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new telescope technology — measuring just six millimeters in diameter — could improve how future space missions study and monitor the Sun while simplifying onboard hardware and reducing costs. The technology is built from a metasurface, which is a device engineered with nanoscale structures that manipulate light in unusual ways. In tests at the Dunn Solar Telescope in New Mexico, the metasurface captured scientifically meaningful data of the Sun's magnetic fields and sunspots.

Journal: Science Advances
Funder: National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Understanding Rett syndrome before symptoms appear

Baylor College of Medicine
Peer-Reviewed Publication

To better understand what drives the emergence of symptoms in Rett syndrome, researchers took a closer look at brain cells in mice modeling Rett syndrome before symptoms appeared. They identified a set of dysfunctional genes and specific cell types that are vulnerable early on to genetic changes.

Journal: Science Advances