For decades, scientists have sought ways to counter our dependence on lithium-ion batteries. These traditional, rechargeable batteries energize today’s most ubiquitous consumer electronics – from laptops to cell phones to electric cars. But raw lithium is expensive and is often sourced through fragile geopolitical networks. This month, Princeton Chemistry’s Dincă Group announces an exciting alternative that relies on an organic, high-energy cathode material to make sodium-ion batteries, advancing the likelihood that this technology will find commercialization with safe, cheaper, more sustainable components.

A new publication by researchers from the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Oxford shows that the relationship between water temperature and the main biological mechanism by which the ocean captures atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) is far more complicated than previously thought.

Drawing on long-term time-series data from oceanographic stations such as the Bermuda Atlantic Time-Series, the research highlights how the quality of currently available data limits our understanding of this critical mechanism in the carbon cycle.

International researchers with the participation of Graz University of Technology present a global assessment of ice loss since the beginning of the millennium. In a global comparison, the glaciers in the Alps and Pyrenees are melting the fastest.

For centuries, static electricity has been the subject of intrigue and scientific investigation. Now, researchers from the Waitukaitis group at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) have uncovered a vital clue to this enduring mystery: the contact history of materials controls how they exchange charge. The groundbreaking findings, now published in Nature, explain the prevailing unpredictability of contact electrification, unveiling order from what has long been considered chaos.

The melting ice from glaciers worldwide is leading to an increased loss of regional freshwater resources. And it is causing global sea levels to rise at ever-greater rates. Since the year 2000, glaciers have been losing 273 billion tons of ice annually, according to estimates by an international research community led by researchers of the University of Zurich.