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Tech Xplore / Safer batteries for storing energy at massive scale: A new electrolyte with proton-hopping conductivity

Among the enduring challenges of storing energy—for wind or solar farms, or backup storage for the energy grid or data centers—is batteries that can hold large amounts of electricity for a long time. In addition to having ...

Feb 18, 2026 in Engineering
Phys.org / Antibiotic resistance is rising: A membrane protease could be E. coli's weak spot

A University of Alberta research team has identified a new drug target to treat harmful E. coli bacteria—which cause nearly 250,000 deaths a year from urinary tract infections (UTI) and are becoming increasingly resistant ...

Feb 18, 2026 in Biology
Tech Xplore / Safer railroads through ultrasound: Beamforming algorithms can improve track safety inspections

Advances in ultrasound—the same imaging technology that uses sound waves to allow doctors to monitor babies in utero—are being applied by engineers at the University of California San Diego to make railroad track inspection ...

Feb 18, 2026 in Engineering
Medical Xpress / The neurobiology of why some brains cannot move on from loss

For most people, the intense ache that follows the death of a loved one eventually softens, and daily life resumes. But for some, the pain does not ease with time—a condition known as prolonged grief disorder (PGD). In ...

Feb 18, 2026 in Psychology & Psychiatry
Phys.org / Feeling worse about money? Climate change may be part of the reason

Climate change is not just reshaping the planet, it's already affecting how people feel about their lives, their health and their financial security, according to a new study from the Universities of Portsmouth and Dundee. ...

Feb 18, 2026 in Other Sciences
Tech Xplore / Laughter reveals how we use AI at home

Voice assistants such as Alexa are often marketed as smart tools that streamline everyday life. But once the technology moves into people's homes, interest quickly fades. This is shown by new research in which laughter is ...

Feb 18, 2026 in Consumer & Gadgets
Phys.org / Genetic discovery offers hope for global banana farming

Scientists have pinpointed crucial genetic resistance to a fungal disease that threatens the global banana supply in a wild subspecies of the fruit. In a valuable step forward for banana breeding programs, Dr. Andrew Chen ...

Feb 18, 2026 in Biology
Phys.org / Cracks in snow propagate faster than expected

Since 10 January 2026, the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research (SLF) has received reports of hundreds of "whumpfs" (i.e., sounds indicating a collapse in the snowpack) and of remote triggering events—unmistakable ...

Feb 18, 2026 in Earth
Phys.org / An 'electrical' circadian clock balances growth between shoots and roots

Plants don't just respond to light and water, they also run on an internal daily timekeeper known as the circadian clock. Researchers have now discovered that the plant circadian clock can regulate electrochemical signals ...

Feb 18, 2026 in Biology
Tech Xplore / Hydrogen-bond networks boost all-perovskite solar cell efficiency

The use of solar cells, devices that can convert sunlight into electricity, has grown exponentially over the past decades. These devices are enabling the production of clean and renewable energy, which could contribute to ...

Feb 17, 2026 in Engineering
Phys.org / Honey bees navigate more precisely than previously thought

A team from the University of Freiburg led by neurobiologist and behavioral biologist Prof. Dr. Andrew Straw studied the flight behavior of honey bees. Using a drone, the researchers tracked honey bees as they flew between ...

Feb 17, 2026 in Biology
Tech Xplore / Repairable infrared lens can cut costs and bring thermal imaging to more devices

The days of dropping a thermal imaging camera and replacing an expensive lens are coming to an end with a new repairable lens developed by Flinders University scientists. The high-performance lens for infrared cameras invented ...

Feb 18, 2026 in Engineering