Digital Science today launches its Catalyst Grant round for 2026 to support innovative technology ideas. This year's theme is: Agentic Workflows You Can Trust.

A new method allows whole legumes to be converted into tasty products with a fibrous structure. The technique is so simple that it can even be applied in a household kitchen.

Announcing a new publication from Opto-Electronic Technology; DOI   10.29026/oet.2026.260013.

A new study published in Biomedical Analysis reports a protein-coated nanoparticle platform that combines the powerful light-to-heat conversion ability of copper sulfide with the biological compatibility of albumin, offering a potential strategy for safer photothermal cancer therapy.

University of Waterloo researchers have developed a nature-inspired, 3D-printed electrode that could improve the performance of redox flow batteries, an emerging technology for large-scale renewable energy storage. Led by chemical engineering professor Dr. Maxime van der Heijden, the team used advanced 3D printing and complex geometries found in nature to create electrode structures that improve the flow of battery liquids and enhance the chemical reactions that store and release energy. The best-performing design increased battery performance by 52 per cent in testing. Because redox flow batteries use non-flammable, water-based electrolytes and can be scaled for community and grid-level applications, the research could help advance safer and more efficient ways to store energy generated by wind and solar power. The findings were published in the Journal of Energy Storage.

Zinc–air batteries offer attractive characteristics for electrochemical energy storage, but their practical performance is still constrained by the slow kinetics of oxygen reduction and oxygen evolution at the air electrode. A recent study published in the Journal of Bioresources and Bioproducts presents a strategy that uses carbon curvature and metal-support interactions to regulate Co-N₄ single-atom sites. Through a Zn volatilization-induced pyrolysis process, the researchers constructed cobalt nanoparticles and Co-N₄ sites on curved, nitrogen-doped biomass-derived carbon. The resulting structural distortion and electronic polarization strengthened metal-support interactions, altered the electronic structure of Co-N₄ sites and improved oxygen intermediate adsorption. The catalyst delivered a half-wave potential of 0.87 V for oxygen reduction and an overpotential of 290 mV at 10 mA cm^-2 for oxygen evolution. A zinc-air battery using the catalyst reached a peak power density of 172 mW cm^-2 and operated for more than 400 h.