A new smart window technology combines liquid crystals (LCs) and nanoporous microparticles (NMPs) to efficiently control both visible light and infrared radiation. By integrating it with a patterned vanadium dioxide (VO₂) layer, the system enhances both heat management and transparency control. The VO₂ layer aligns the LCs and boosts thermochromic properties, allowing the window to respond rapidly to voltage or temperature changes. This innovative approach offers a low-energy, high-speed solution for dynamic heat and visibility regulation, making it a promising advancement for energy-efficient building materials.

The intensive development of new technologies, especially in the field related to the construction of new portable devices used as sensors for the detection of many chemical compounds has brought many surprising solutions. One of them is an electronic tongue that can answer various questions about unknown samples: presence and amount of some specific compound, contamination, spoilage, or providing seemingly unmeasurable information such as taste. Such devices, however, would not have succeeded without the development of efficient, fast and inexpensive sensors, such as electrochemical sensors. Recent paper published by the researchers from the Institute of Physical Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences led by dr. Emilia Witkowska Nery demonstrates the low-cost, ion-selective syringe electrodes to be used to quantify potassium level in a wide range of food products, and pharmaceutical supplements. Let’s take a look closer on this research.

Millions of people with diabetes track their glucose levels daily using finger-stick devices that draw and analyze their blood. But what if they could monitor it with just a sweat sensor?

That’s the idea behind new research from Binghamton University, State University of New York that could revolutionize diabetes management by eliminating the pain and hassle. 

A joint U.S.-Japan project funded by the NSF and JST, involving researchers from FAU, Lehigh University, and Japanese institutions like Kyoto University, aims to develop a human-centered flood risk management framework. Supported by a $1 million grant, the three-year project focuses on integrating natural conditions, public perceptions, policies, and the impacts of flooding on vulnerable groups such as low-income, minority, disabled, and elderly populations.

A team of international researchers led by the Plasma Science and Fusion Technology Laboratory of the University of Seville, have demonstrated the key role that energetic particles play in the stability of a tokamak plasma edge. The findings have been published in Nature Physics and could be key for the design of compact fusion power plants.