In the realm of environmental engineering and material science, Professor Kangwoo Cho's team at POSTECH has made notable progress in advancing decentralized saline wastewater treatment and hydrogen production. By focusing on scalable heterojunction anodes, their research addresses critical challenges in achieving efficient pollutant removal and resource recovery in sustainable water management systems. The centerpiece of their work is an Ir-doped NiFe₂O₄ (NFI) anode integrated with a TiO₂ overlayer, which combines exceptional catalytic performance, selectivity, and stability for multifunctional applications.

This September, recipients of the Abel Prize, ACM A.M. Turing Award, ACM Prize in Computing, Fields Medal, IMU Abacus Medal and the Nevanlinna Prize are invited to gather in Heidelberg to meet with 200 young researchers from all over the world at the 12th Heidelberg Laureate Forum (HLF). In order to reach a broader, more diverse and international audience, the Heidelberg Laureate Forum Foundation (HLFF) encourages journalists to cover the event and affords them the chance to interact with the preeminent scientists of mathematics and computer science. The 12th HLF will take place from September 14 to 19, 2025, and applications for journalist travel grants are accepted until March 31, 2025.

Soft robots are revolutionizing the world of technology. Advancing robotics in automation, a team of researchers from the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology has developed Leafbot. This monolithic soft robot moves efficiently across rugged terrains using a vibration-driven mechanism. By combining analytical modeling, finite element analysis, and real-world testing, the study provides valuable insights into terradynamics—the science of movement on complex terrains—unlocking new possibilities for diverse robotic applications.

Graphite has been widely used as an anode material for lithium ion-batteries. However, its low storage capacity falls short of meeting current demands for high-capacity batteries required for long-range electrical vehicles and renewable energy storage. In a new study, researchers developed a novel germanium (Ge)/LiAlGePO composite material for LIB anodes that significantly improves storage capacities and capacity retention. This new anode material can lead to next-generation LIBs that can support the growing renewable energy demand.

A multi-institutional research team led by Osaka University has introduced a piezoelectric device that can measure acceleration and pressure simultaneously. The device can be manufactured at room temperature and is made from inexpensive materials, which makes it a promising candidate for a wide range of applications, including the maintenance of industrial machinery and disaster mitigation.

This study reveals that traditional biomass assessments in the Miombo ecoregion of Sub-Saharan Africa often overlook the significant contribution of understorey trees and shrubs. By comparing sites at the extreme ends of the rainfall gradient, dry Miombo woodland in Namibia and wet Miombo woodland in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), researchers found that understorey biomass accounts for up to 28.2% of total above-ground biomass (AGB) in drier regions, highlighting the need for more comprehensive forest carbon assessments.

Research team led by Limin Xiao revolutionizes metadata management in distributed file systems with a novel consistency framework that reduces synchronization delay and enhances scalability, outperforming existing methods in global virtual data space file systems.