Researchers at Aarhus University’s Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center (iNANO) report a passive smart-window concept based on silver nanorings embedded in a thin, transparent layer inside the glass. When sunlight intensifies, the nanorings heat up through a thermoplasmonic effect and selectively reduce near-infrared (NIR) transmission—the part of sunlight that carries most heat—while maintaining high visible light transmittance. The intensity-dependent response requires no electricity, sensors or control systems and could help reduce building cooling loads and associated CO₂ emissions. The study is published in Advanced Functional Materials.

Three graduate students in CSHL’s dos Santos lab have developed a tool called MaGNet to quickly measure changes in mouse mammary glands. This open-source technology can be used to study how hormonal changes affect mammary glands and may one day allow for earlier breast cancer diagnoses.

Dark energy, which drives the accelerated expansion of the Universe, is assumed to be constant since the Universe began by today’s leading model. Researchers from Japan, Spain, and the U.S. explored the possibility of time-varying dark energy by conducting one of the largest cosmological simulations to date. Their results show that while dark energy variations have modest effects alone, variations in other parameters like matter density significantly alter galaxy formation and cosmic structure, aligning closely with the latest observations.

Precise heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) control is important for energy savings in residential buildings. Recently, a team of researchers from Korea, led by a scientist from Hanbat National University, has demonstrated a quantum reinforcement learning based HVAC control system for the first time. It provides significant improvements over traditional technologies in power consumption and electricity costs, simultaneously ensuring maximum occupant comfort.

The demand for polymer-based dielectrics with a low dielectric constant and a low dissipation factor is rising, owing to the expansion of 5G and 6G telecommunications networks. However, polymer designs that satisfy both requirements have been difficult to realize. Now, researchers from Japan have developed a new family of ultralow dielectric loss polymers, presenting a new strategy for developing next-generation dielectrics that are suitable for future beyond-6G telecommunications.