Rice University’s student-led Rice Wind Energy team soared to new heights this year, clinching second place overall at the U.S. Department of Energy’s 2025 Collegiate Wind Competition (CWC). Hosted by the National Renewable Energy Laboratories at the University of Colorado Boulder campus, the CWC challenges students from across the country to design and build wind turbines, develop wind energy projects and engage in public outreach to promote renewable energy.

Lead contamination in municipal water sources is a consistent threat to public health. Ingesting even tiny amounts of lead can harm the human brain and nervous system — especially in young children. To empower people to detect lead contamination in their own homes, a team of researchers developed an accessible, handheld water-testing system called the E-Tongue. This device, described in ACS Omega, was tested through a citizen science project across four Massachusetts towns.

Current regulations for nanomedicines overlook the effects of the different forms of the same element, such as ions, nanoparticles, and aggregates. In a recent study, Japanese researchers developed a new analytical method combining an asymmetric flow field-flow fractionation system and mass spectrometry to separately quantify these forms. This technique allows for better quality control and safety evaluation of metal-based nanomedicines, promoting their development and clinical use, with applications also extending to food, cosmetics, and the environment.

Replanting forests can help cool the planet even more than some scientists once believed, especially in the tropics. But even if every tree lost since the mid-19^th century is replanted, the total effect won’t cancel out human-generated warming.

Thanks to a first in physics, Nord Quantique has demonstrated "Multimode Encoding" for quantum computers using Tesseract code. This allows for increased error detection, with strong quantum error correction, and will lead to further error correction gains. This means the company will deliver quantum computers which are powerful, yet much smaller and consume a fraction of the energy, making them cost effective to operate and compact enough to install in a data center. Specifics regarding energy savings and emissions is available upon request from Nord Quantique's media contact.