Imagine a world where the homes we live in, the clothes we wear, and even the sensors in our electronics weren’t manufactured, but grown. Mycelium, the root structure of fungi, is shaking up everything from sustainable construction to meatless bacon. It’s turning agricultural waste into walls, hemp into
Solar panels are built to last around 30 years, weathering all kinds of abuse during that time.1 That’s a solid run for any piece of tech, but what if we could push that even further? What if solar panels could last… forever? That’s the promise behind a
Thorium reactors are like the solid-state batteries of nuclear power: vastly superior, yet forever on the horizon. But now, a Danish company is closer than ever to turning them into a reality. Its reactors are designed to deliver on thorium’s decades-old promise: a self-sustaining chain reaction that breeds fresh
It’s no secret that tech companies are racing to build “artificial general intelligence,” or AI that can match a human brain without needing a lifeline. But here’s the kicker: our brains already have the home field advantage. They do the same heavy lifting with just a fraction of
You’ve seen the headlines. The viral demos. AI writing essays, generating photorealistic images, even creating entire videos. It feels like we’re living in a sci-fi future … or dystopian one. But while we’ve been mesmerized by chatbots and deepfakes, something much more important is happening behind the scenes.
Freshwater may soon flow from the depths of the ocean to drought-stricken coastal cities. A handful of companies are betting that crushing deep-sea pressures can replace the energy-hungry pumps and toxic chemicals that are desalination’s inconvenient truth. By going the extra quarter-mile into the ocean, they’re pioneering a
Every crashing wave delivers a pulse of power. Add them all up, and the ocean carries more energy than the roughly 30,000 TWh of electricity generated globally in 2023.12 But for decades, wave power has been a sea of broken dreams — sunk prototypes, busted budgets, and forgotten startups.
When is a battery more than just a battery? That’s not a riddle. A battery is more than a battery when it’s also a wall… or a floor, or even part of your car, or a plane. But what if that same battery could cut a laptop’s
What if I told you your fridge — that humming box in the kitchen — could be cooled without gas, without chemicals … just magnets? It sounds futuristic, but researchers are already making it happen. It not only promises higher efficiency, but solves a critical problem with the status quo…yes, a critical
Sodium-ion battery technology isn’t exactly new, but something interesting is happening. CATL, the world’s biggest lithium battery manufacturer, says that up to half the market could switch to sodium. That’s right—the biggest name in lithium batteries is betting against lithium. Looks like lithium might need to
You’ve heard of paper straws and cups, but how about a paper battery? One you can compost when you’re done with it. Two companies are already proving it works, one of them with a battery that runs on sugar. So how did humble paper become a next-generation battery
Lithium-sulfur batteries were once kind of a joke. A chemistry so unstable and unreliable that no one took them seriously. But now? Multiple research teams have recently made strides in transforming sulfur from stinky stone to capable cathode. Some claim they’ve cracked the code — creating prototypes that charge faster