Researchers at Rice and collaborators at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Technology, Sydney report the first demonstration of low noise, room-temperature quantum emitters in h-BN made through a scalable growth technique.

If you’ve seen an owl fly, you probably didn’t hear a thing. That’s because their skin and feathers dampen sound by absorbing high- and low-frequency flight noise. Inspired by this natural soundproofing, researchers publishing in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces developed a two-layer aerogel that mimics the structures inside owl feathers and skin to mitigate sound pollution. This new material could be used in cars and manufacturing facilities to reduce traffic and industrial noise.

Primates, birds, and elephants are all known to make tools, but examples of tool use among marine animals are much more limited. Reporting in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on June 23, a team of whale experts has found widespread tool manufacture and usage in an endangered population of resident killer whales living in the Salish Sea—part of the Pacific Ocean between British Columbia and Washington. The whales fashion tools from kelp and use them for grooming purposes. 

Researchers have developed a method to enhance ultra-thin magnets, making them more robust for future electronics and quantum computing.

By combining these magnets with topological insulators, they improved the strength of the magnetic ordering, enabling operation at higher temperatures.

SAN ANTONIO — June 23, 2025 — Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) and The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) have evaluated a promising approach to improve long-term carbon storage in depleted oil and gas reservoirs. The team proposes using foam-entrapped supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO₂) to prevent stored and captured carbon from moving back to the surface. The project is supported by the Energize program, a joint effort between SwRI and UT Austin to enhance scientific collaboration between the two institutions.