New sodium-sulfur battery may offer safer, cheaper alternative to lithium

New sodium-sulfur battery may offer a more sustainable, low-cost and safer alternative to lithium batteries
Flammability test of the conventional organic electrolyte comprising 1 M NaClO4 in the mixture of ethylene carbonate (EC) and propylene carbonate (PC) with 5 wt% fluoroethylene carbonate (FEC) and our NaDCA electrolyte. Scale bars, 3 cm. Credit: Nature (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09867-2

Due to our ever-increasing reliance on electronics, researchers are always on the lookout for battery materials with more desirable qualities. Common battery materials, like lithium, can be prone to disadvantages like overheating and material sourcing issues, leading to safety risks and higher costs.

Now, researchers from China have revealed a new battery design that may offer a better alternative to lithium...

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Dark stars could help solve three pressing puzzles of the high-redshift universe

Dark stars could help solve three pressing puzzles of the high-redshift universe
UHZ1, a record breaking galaxy 13.2 billion light-years away, seen when the universe was only 3% of its current age. UHZ1 is puzzling in view of it harboring a supermassive black hole that could not have possibly been seeded even by regular stars, in view of its mass and very little time for the BH to grow. As such, UHZ1 is believed to be evidence for supermassive stars that—upon collapse—generate the supermassive black hole powering the quasar at its center. In this study, the authors show how UHZ1 could harbor a supermassive black hole seeded by the collapse of a dark star. The mechanisms identified by the authors are not restricted to UHZ1—it provides a pathway for explaining over massive black hole galaxies, of which UHZ1 is a prominent example...
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New BMI uses AI to reveal hidden metabolic disorders

New BMI reveals hidden metabolic disorders

Researchers at Leipzig University and the University of Gothenburg have developed a novel approach to assessing an individual’s risk of metabolic diseases such as diabetes or fatty liver disease more precisely. Instead of relying solely on the widely used body mass index (BMI), the team developed an AI-based computational model using metabolic measurements. This so-called metabolic BMI shows that people of normal weight with a high metabolic BMI have up to a fivefold higher risk of metabolic disease. The findings have been published in the journal Nature Medicine.

The conventional body mass index, calculated using height and weight, may indicate overweight but does not reflect how healthy or unhealthy body fat actually is...

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Plasma rings around M dwarf stars offer new clues to planetary habitability

Naturally occurring
Artist’s rendition of the space weather around M dwarf TIC 141146667. The torus of ionized gas is sculpted by the star’s magnetic field and rotation, with two pinched, dense clumps present on opposing sides of the star. Credit:Navid Marvi, Carnegie Science.

How does a star affect the makeup of its planets? And what does this mean for the habitability of distant worlds? Carnegie’s Luke Bouma is exploring a new way to probe this critical question—using naturally occurring space weather stations that orbit at least 10% of M dwarf stars during their early lives. He is presenting his work at the 247th American Astronomical Society meeting.

The paper is also published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

We know that most M dwarf stars—which are smaller, cooler, and dimmer than our ...

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