The use of robots, drones and AI tools in agriculture is already paying off on 42% of the world’s cropland. This could increase to 50% in the next 20 years and to as much as 75% if every country tightened environmental regulations. If every country loosened its regulations it would fall to 31%. These are the main findings from an international study led by the University of Bonn, which is the first to estimate the profitability of smart farming worldwide. What is more, high-tech agriculture often proves profitable precisely in parts of the world struggling with environmental problems such as water stress and overfertilization. The results of the study have been published in the journal PNAS. 

Researchers at Arizona State University and their collaborators have developed a palladium-coated membrane that uses hydrogen to break down highly persistent PFAS “forever chemicals.” The system successfully treated six PFAS of regulatory concern, removing more than 90% of each compound in continuous operation while chemically stripping away much of their fluorine. The approach could eventually complement existing PFAS-removal technologies by destroying contaminants rather than simply concentrating or storing them.

An ultrasonic tube developed at the University of Helsinki can guide gas, powders and plasma as well as liquids. The tube is formed by ultrasound from 256 small speakers, and it can be turned while material is flowing through it.

Dr. Duragadevi Elamaran (currently an assistant professor at SRM Institute of Science and Technology, India) and Prof. Daisuke Kiriya have developed a planar molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂) memtransistor whose memory behavior is controlled at the metal-semiconductor contacts rather than by modifying the MoS₂ channel itself. By selectively treating the contact regions with gold chloride (AuCl₃), the team created interfacial states that reversibly trap and release charge, changing carrier injection through the contact barrier. The device showed gradual resistive switching and several forms of synaptic plasticity under drain-voltage operation. As a proof of concept for temporal information processing, a single memtransistor was used with time-multiplexed virtual nodes to distinguish normal and ventricular ectopic electrocardiogram (ECG) signals from the MIT–BIH arrhythmia database.

The Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has joined BioMADE, a national institute focused on advancing manufacturing using biological systems in the United States, strengthening connections between ORNL research, industry needs and pathways to commercial-scale production of new chemicals and materials.

19 October 2026 / Kiel / San Diego. Last weekend, the research vessel SONNE set sail from San Diego into the Pacific Ocean for expedition SO322. Its destination: the Clarion-Clipperton Zone north of the equator - the area that harbours the largest known deposits of polymetallic nodules on the seafloor. Germany, among others, holds an exploration licence in this region. Under the guidance of Dr Matthias Haeckel from the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, a multidisciplinary team will investigate sites where nodule mining was tested five and a half years ago. The goal of the expedition is to assess the impacts on habitats in the water and on the seafloor. The results will directly feed into fact-based recommendations for international regulations of deep-sea mining.

SAN ANTONIO — October 19, 2026 — Dr. Steve Dellenback, vice president of Southwest Research Institute’s Intelligent Systems Division, has been selected to receive the ITS World Congress Hall of Fame’s 2026 Lifetime Achievement Award.

One-quarter of the world’s data centers are located in areas where water demand exceeds supply for at least one month each year, according to a new global analysis. Researchers reporting in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology mapped data center locations against available water resources and found that, under a future climate scenario, the proportion of facilities in water-stressed areas could rise to one-third.