A new review highlights major advances in bio-hydrovoltaic technology, marking a shift from traditional non-living materials to living biological systems that generate electricity through metabolic processes. This revolutionary energy approach offers self-regulation, environmental adaptability, and biodegradability, with strong potential in wearables, environmental monitoring, and distributed energy networks. Future directions include a “hydrovoltaic internet,” “hydrovoltaic intelligence,” and “hydrovoltaic ecology,” while key challenges remain in material stability, scalable manufacturing, and biosafety.

Under ultraviolet irradiation, water molecules can generate highly oxidative hydroxyl radicals (Ultraviolet-water/UV-W), which can scissor polymer chains. The study results reveal that by first introducing water passages into the polymer membrane and subsequently applying the UV-W process, tunable angstrom-sized channels can be created, enabling precise ion sieving.

With a newly developed method that compares AI-generated protein sequences with naturally occurring ones, function- and structure-regulating amino acids can be determined much more precisely than before.

Researchers at the RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science (CSRS) in Japan have discovered that extended periods of high stress lead to iron deficiency and stunted growth in wheat crops. Experiments show reducing iron deficiency with a synthetic organic molecule called PDMA results in better growth and healthier plants. These findings are good news for farmers and consumers alike and could lead to treatments in the field that improve wheat production during prolonged periods of heat. The study was published in the scientific journal Nature Communications.

Solid oxide electrolysis cells (SOECs), a key technology for producing green hydrogen without carbon emissions, require a high-temperature “sintering” process to harden ceramic powders. Researchers at KAIST have successfully shortened this process from six hours to just ten minutes, while also reducing the required temperature from 1,400°C to 1,200°C. This innovation dramatically cuts both energy consumption and production time, marking a major step forward for the green hydrogen era.

Innovative artificial muscles made from silicone and equipped with microbubbles can achieve programmable deformation in response to wireless ultrasound activation. Researchers at ETH Zurich have demonstrated an array of potential applications, from a gripper arm to stingray-inspired robots and tissue patches for use as drug delivery systems. While these uses remain limited to laboratory trials for the time being, the technology has potential uses in robotics and medicine.