A new telescope technology — measuring just six millimeters in diameter — could improve how future space missions study and monitor the Sun while simplifying onboard hardware and reducing costs. The technology is built from a metasurface, which is a device engineered with nanoscale structures that manipulate light in unusual ways. In tests at the Dunn Solar Telescope in New Mexico, the metasurface captured scientifically meaningful data of the Sun's magnetic fields and sunspots.

SAN ANTONIO — June 10, 2026 — SwRI’s James Dante has been named a Fellow of the Association for Materials Protection and Performance (AMPP) in recognition of his outstanding and significant contributions of academic, mentoring, technical, and policy efforts in the field of materials protection and performance. As a Fellow, Dante will serve as an advisor to the AMPP.

The deep sea is a unique ‘evolutionary engine’ with one of the richest and most unexplored sources of genetic diversity on Earth, according to a major new study that has assessed its potential to transform biotechnology and DNA sequencing technologies.

When comparing different types of antifouling paints against fouling on leisure boats, the results were the opposite of what many would expect. Of the paints tested, the biocide-free silicone paint worked best, and the paint marketed as environmentally friendly turned out to be extremely toxic. The study, led by Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, was conducted in Swedish, Danish and French coastal waters, and also showed that coatings with a low copper content can be just as effective as those containing more copper.

Pack enough string-like objects together, and they will begin to align with one another. But replace the strings with worms or bacteria living in your gut, and this self-organisation becomes much more difficult. A team of University of Amsterdam (UvA) researchers have demonstrated that activity can fundamentally alter one of the most important phase transitions in soft matter physics.

Chemists at Brown University have shown the first experimental evidence that carbon buckyballs, which launched the nanotechnology revolution, have a cousin made from 80 atoms of the element boron.

Ammonia is the key ingredient in synthetic fertilisers - we could not feed the world without it. But it takes a lot of energy to synthesize ammonia. TU Wien has now shown: Using special catalysts, ammonia can be produced in a completely different way.