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Tech & Engineering

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 10-Sep-2025 00:11 ET (10-Sep-2025 04:11 GMT/UTC)

Research infrastructure for innovative power grids

Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT)
Business Announcement

Electricity is increasingly being supplied by distributed sources of renewable energy, replacing central power plants and changing the demands on power grids. At the High Power Grid Lab (HPGL), new grid technologies are to be analyzed in a test environment designed to emulate the real power grid as accurately as possible. The focus will be on low- and medium-voltage grids for regional power distribution. The test platform is set to begin operation in 2030 as part of the Energy Lab at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). Its construction is being funded with EUR 32.8 million in strategic development funding from the Helmholtz Association.

If native plants are going to survive climate change, they need our help to move—here’s how to do it safely

University of Massachusetts Amherst
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Many native plants in the U.S. cannot possibly move themselves fast enough to avoid climate-change driven extinction. If these native plants are going to have any chance of surviving into the future, they’ll need human help to move into adjacent areas, a process known as “managed relocation.” And yet, there’s no guarantee that a plant will thrive in a new area. Furthermore, movement of introduced plants, albeit over much larger distances, is exactly how the problem of invasive species began—think of kudzu-choked forests, wetlands taken over by purple loosestrife or fields ringed by Japanese honeysuckle. Thanks to new research from a pair of ecologists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, we now have a detailed sense of which plant characteristics will help ensure successful relocation while minimizing the risk that the plant causes unwanted ecological harm.

Journal: Global Change Biology

We are vastly overestimating the amount of fresh water available for lithium mining, new study finds

University of Massachusetts Amherst
Peer-Reviewed Publication

New research into lithium mining in the “Lithium Triangle” of Chile, Argentina and Bolivia — source of more than half of the world’s lithium resources — shows that the commonly accepted models used to estimate water how much water is available for lithium extraction and what the environmental effects may be are off by more than an order of magnitude. The paper, published in Communications Earth and Environment, reveals that there is far less water available than previously thought. With demand for the mineral, which is critical for batteries powering the green transition, projected to increase 40-fold in the coming decades, the research suggests local communities, regulators and the lithium mining industry must quickly collaborate to bring their water usage within sustainable limits.

Journal: Communications Earth & Environment

Cuneiforms: new digital tool for researchers

University of Würzburg
Reports and Proceedings

Major milestone reached in digital Cuneiform studies: researchers from Mainz, Marburg, and Würzburg present an innovative tool that offers many new possibilities.

Funder: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

This AI-model is more certain about uncertainty

Radboud University Nijmegen
Reports and Proceedings

Artificial intelligence (AI) plays a role in virtually every aspect of our lives, from self-driving cars to smart vacuum cleaners, to computer models that can predict the course of an epidemic. No matter how advanced these AI systems are, there always remains a certain degree of unpredictability about their behaviour. Thom Badings developed a new method to include this uncertainty in predictive algorithms, so that a safe solution can be achieved. His PhD defence takes place on 27 March at Radboud University.

Adulting is hard on the heart: Teen to young adulthood is a critical time to address risk

American Heart Association
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Many youth have heart disease risk factors by their late teens, and preventing or addressing these risks early may reduce the risk of developing cardiovascular disease in the future, according to a new American Heart Association scientific statement

Journal: Journal of the American Heart Association

Kumamoto University researchers develop novel method for modeling periodically time-varying systems

Kumamoto University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers at Kumamoto University have made a significant breakthrough in the field of control engineering by developing a highly accurate mathematical modeling technique for linear periodically time-varying (LPTV) systems. This pioneering research, led by Associate Professor Hiroshi Okajima of the Faculty of Advanced Science and Technology, opens new possibilities for improving technologies such as autonomous driving, robotics, and satellite navigation.

Journal: IEEE Access