For the tenth consecutive year, the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is funding a solicitation that seeks proposals leveraging the International Space Station (ISSInternational Space Station) National Laboratory for research in transport phenomena, which now includes research in manufacturing methods that utilize such phenomena, and the resulting materials. NSF will provide up to $3.6 million in total funding for multiple projects to utilize the space station for fundamental research focused on:

The tiny particles that shed from clothing, packaging and other plastic products are winding up in the fish that people eat, according to a new study from Portland State researchers, highlighting a need for technologies and strategies to reduce microfiber pollution entering the environment.

Sandia National Laboratories is collaborating with other research institutions to head off a potential future energy crisis that could be driven in part by artificial intelligence.

A research team at Yokohama National University has developed a way to study how the orientation and behavior of electrons in titanium influence its physical characteristics. Their findings, published in Communications Physics on December 18, 2024, could pave the way for the development of more advanced and efficient titanium alloys.

Penn Engineers have utilized quantum sensors to realize a groundbreaking variation of nuclear quadrupolar resonance (NQR) spectroscopy, a technique traditionally used to detect drugs and explosives or analyze pharmaceuticals.  The new method is so precise that it can detect the NQR signals from individual atoms — a feat once thought unattainable. This unprecedented sensitivity opens the door to breakthroughs in fields like drug development, where understanding molecular interactions at the atomic level is critical.

Chinese scientists proposed a novel imine-to-olefin transformation strategy to synthesize single-crystal sp² carbon-linked covalent organic frameworks (sp²c-COFs).