Innovation & Technology
Wastewater DNA Shows Which Sewer Is Corroding
Japanese researchers combined bacterial DNA from wastewater with pipe data and machine learning to flag the sewer sections most prone to corrosion – across the whole network, before the camera goes in.
The Decade of Fusion Energy Begins
As Wisconsin plans its first fusion power plant, America, Europe and China are racing at the same time to tame limitless energy.
A Wonder Weapon Is Born in the Fight Against Forever Chemicals
A cheap waste-derived material that can capture up to 90% of PFAS where activated carbon keeps failing.
Green Hydrogen Gets Greener
Researchers at the University of Birmingham have developed a perovskite catalyst that can split water into hydrogen at temperatures up to 500 °C lower than current processes – a step closer to cheap hydrogen from industrial waste heat.
Filtering Microplastics With Ferrofluid?
Starting from a garage lab, a Virginia teenager has got where membrane technology cannot: a self-recycling magnetic filter against microplastics – the only question is what the small print says…
A Natural Coagulant Against Microplastics – Moringa Seeds May Outperform Chemicals
A promising water treatment innovation: Brazilian and British researchers have deployed a tropical plant, known and used for water treatment since antiquity, to filter out microplastics.
Drinking Water From the Sea, Without Brine or Chemicals
The University of Rochester's solar desalination system turns seawater into drinking water without chemical treatment or toxic brine – and can recover valuable minerals, including lithium.
The Solar Panel Revolution
In three decades, photovoltaics has gone from a laboratory curiosity to the world's cheapest source of energy – but the real breakthrough is still ahead.
What Is Hydrogen Good For? – Industry, Energy, Transport
For decades, hydrogen has quietly kept heavy industry alive – now, through e-fuels and fuel cells, it is entering transport too.
Denmark Shows How Biogas Can Be Carbon-Negative
On 20 May, Denmark's Bigadan inaugurated a CO₂ facility in Kalundborg that delivers one of the world's first fully integrated, commercial-scale value chains for the permanent geological storage of carbon dioxide captured from biogas.