News by Subject Technology & Engineering

An incredibly light new material that can reduce aircraft engine noise and improve passenger comfort has been developed at the University of Bath. The graphene oxide-polyvinyl alcohol aerogel weighs just 2.1kg per cubic metre, making it the lightest sound insulation ever manufactured.

Researchers at the University of Houston, in collaboration with Rice University, published a paper detailing how to improve energy density in a novel electric vehicle battery - a step toward a more cost-effective, easily recycled battery that would allow EVs to travel farther and charge faster at a low cost.

Additive manufacturing offers an unprecedented level of design flexibility and expanded functionality, but the quality and process can drastically differ across production machines, according to Hui Yang, a professor of industrial engineering at Penn State. With applications in aerospace, health care and automotive industries with potential for mass customization, additive manufacturing needs quality management.

The German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and the German Council for Sustainable Development (RNE) have published a joint position paper presenting paths to climate neutrality by 2050. In it, the Leopoldina and the RNE highlight options for action to effect the changes needed within society, at political level and in the business world, in view especially of the urgency and the historic dimensions of the transformation we face.

Current approaches for planning relocation for potentially millions of people affected by climate change are 'woefully inadequate' and risk worsening societal inequities, experts wrote in a policy perspective on June 17 in Science. Policymakers and scientists need to rethink how they work together to develop, communicate and carry out relocation plans so that relocating communities can thrive, though it relies on a transformation in how science is used, tools are deployed, and stakeholders are engaged.