As a growing share of total power output comes from wind turbines, sudden spikes in power generation from unpredictable changes in atmospheric conditions is becoming an increasingly urgent and potentially dangerous threat to grid stability. Using a 20 km-wide wind farm as a giant physics experiment, researchers have now developed a framework to predict the risk of power fluctuations for individual turbines, farms, and the whole grid, based on existing geospatial data. Their model will help establish the risk profile of existing and future developments, providing a powerful tool to ensure reliable and sustainable power generation for plant operators, grid engineers, and energy planners.

A new review synthesizes a decade of research into one of the most promising materials for water purification, biochar–hydrogel composites, and concludes that their effectiveness is governed by a single, critical factor: the chemistry of their surfaces. The work, led by corresponding author Dr. Dong Hee Kang at Morgan State University, provides a unified framework for understanding how these materials function and a clear roadmap for designing more robust and efficient filters to tackle global water contamination.

Biochar, a carbon-rich material made from pyrolyzed biomass, and hydrogels, water-absorbing polymer networks, are powerful on their own. When combined, they create a synergistic adsorbent with enhanced capabilities. This review analyzes the extensive body of literature to demonstrate that the true power of these composites comes from their surface functional groups—specific chemical moieties like carboxyl, hydroxyl, and amine groups that act as molecular-scale "hooks" to capture contaminants. The hydrogel matrix not only adds its own functional groups but also makes the biochar’s reactive sites more accessible, explaining why the composite consistently outperforms its individual components.

Tiny sound waves inside the Sun unmask evidence of systematic changes in the solar activity cycle over the last 40 years – with implications for predicting space weather.

Scientists at the University of California, Riverside are making breakthroughs in understanding how quantum wave functions move across ultra-thin materials — research that could eventually improve solar energy technologies and help lay the groundwork for new forms of quantum computing.

A team at Polytechnique Montréal has opened the door to a new generation of photonic chips that could cut the electricity use of data centres and generative AI systems. The work is published today in Science Advances, part of the Science family of journals.

Even the most modern random number generators do not produce perfectly random numbers, which can be a problem for cryptographic applications. 

ETH Zurich researchers use entangled superconducting qubits and a so-called Bell-test to amplify such imperfect randomness using quantum physics. 

Their technology could become a key foundation for secure encryption and digital security. 

Engineers have demonstrated a new way to dramatically boost heat transfer at the nanoscale, a breakthrough that could reshape energy systems, electronics cooling, and advanced sensing technologies.

Based on a 20-year field nitrogen addition experiment, this study demonstrates that long-term high nitrogen deposition does not reduce belowground carbon allocation in tropical forest plants; rather, it induces a physiological adaptation—upregulation of root exudation—to actively mobilize soil phosphorus, thereby sustaining productivity and offering a key mechanistic explanation for the persistence of tropical forest carbon sinks under chronic nitrogen enrichment.