Overheating batteries are a serious risk, in the worst cases leading to fires and explosion. A team including researchers from the University of Tokyo has developed a simple, cost-effective method to test the safety of lithium-ion batteries, which opens up opportunities for research into new and safer batteries for the future. The researchers created an intentionally unstable battery which is more sensitive to changes that could cause overheating. The battery is one-fiftieth the size of conventional batteries, so is less resource intensive and tests can be carried out in a smaller lab environment.

Monitoring urban plant health traditionally requires extensive manual labor and botanical expertise, creating challenges for cities facing expanding green spaces, higher population densities, and increasing threats to plants. Now, researchers from Japan have developed ‘Plant Doctor,’ an artificial intelligence-based tool that could revolutionize plant health monitoring. The proposed system can track individual leaves in urban video footage and precisely quantify the damage from pests and diseases, enabling scalable, non-invasive urban plant management.