Gravitational-wave detection technology is poised to make a big leap forward thanks to an instrumentation advance led by physicist Jonathan Richardson of the University of California, Riverside. A paper detailing the invention, published in the journal Optica, reports the successful development and testing of FROSTI, a full-scale prototype for controlling laser wavefronts at extreme power levels inside the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory.

It is a fully biodegradable and eco-friendly system for hydroponic agriculture, made of hydrogel and capable of supporting plant growth with minimal water; in the future, it will be able to monitor plant health in real time. This innovation is the result of joint research between the Faculty of Engineering at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano (UniBz) and the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT-Italian Insititute of Technology) in Genoa. The invention offers a zero-waste, low-environmental-impact solution for agriculture, a sector increasingly threatened by climate change, drought, pollution, biodiversity loss, and soil degradation.

At an awards ceremony held on September 18, 2025 in Düsseldorf, Dr. Jingyuan Xu from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) was honored with the “For Women in Science” sponsorship award in recognition of her pioneering research into environmentally friendly cooling technologies. Together with three other female scientists from Germany, she received the EUR 25,000 award, which is offered by L’Oréal, the German Commission for UNESCO, and the German Humboldt Network. Since its launch in 1998, the programme’s goal has been to raise the visibility of excellent women in science worldwide.