Energy and Resources News

June 11, 2026

Top Headlines

Scientists Built a Battery-free Device That Turns Sunlight Into Fuel

June 11, 2026 Scientists have developed an artificial photosynthesis system that essentially regulates itself, eliminating the need for batteries used in many current designs. The key innovation is an electrolyzer that automatically adapts to changing sunlight by ...

MIT’s New Spacecraft Engine Could Send Tiny Satellites to Mars

June 10, 2026 MIT researchers have shown that one fuel can power both chemical and electric spacecraft thrusters, potentially transforming what small satellites can do. The approach combines quick bursts of speed with highly efficient long-range propulsion in a ...

New Hydrogen Breakthrough Turns Waste Heat Into Clean Fuel

June 2, 2026 A breakthrough hydrogen-production method could make clean fuel far cheaper and easier to generate. Researchers at the University of Birmingham developed a perovskite-based catalyst that splits water into hydrogen at much lower temperatures than ...

New Solar Desalination Breakthrough Makes Fresh Water Without Toxic Brine

May 31, 2026 Scientists have developed a solar desalination system that turns seawater into drinking water without creating environmentally damaging brine. Special laser-textured metal panels use sunlight to evaporate water while automatically moving salt ...

This Strange New Phase of Matter Could Transform Quantum Technology

May 30, 2026 By stacking custom-designed silver nanoparticles like nanoscale LEGO bricks, scientists stabilized a mysterious crystal phase that had never been observed before. The material not only solves a longstanding puzzle in materials science but also ...

Scientists Break 30-year Superconductivity Record at Normal Pressure

May 27, 2026 Scientists at the University of Houston have shattered a long-standing superconductivity record, creating a material that can conduct electricity with zero resistance at the highest temperature ever achieved under normal pressure conditions. Their ...

Scientists Just Found a Faster, Cleaner Way to Extract Lithium for EV Batteries

May 23, 2026 A breakthrough lithium-extraction method could help solve one of clean energy’s dirtiest problems. Researchers at Columbia Engineering have developed a fast new technique that pulls lithium ...

Scientists Discover Massive Natural Hydrogen Source Beneath Canada

May 20, 2026 Scientists in Canada have discovered that ancient underground rocks are naturally producing hydrogen gas — and lots of it. Measurements from mine boreholes in Ontario show the gas can flow continuously for years, offering a potential new source of ...

The “Impossible” LED That Could Change Everything

May 18, 2026 Scientists at the University of Cambridge have achieved what was once considered impossible by electrically powering insulating nanoparticles to create a completely new kind of LED. Using tiny organic “molecular antennas,” the team found a way ...

Scientists Just Unlocked a Cheaper Way to Make Clean Hydrogen Fuel

May 18, 2026 Researchers have developed a durable new catalyst that produces clean hydrogen without relying on expensive platinum metals. The breakthrough could make renewable hydrogen fuel cheaper, more efficient, and easier to scale for real-world energy ...

Scientists “Bottle the Sun” with a Liquid Battery That Stores Solar Energy

May 14, 2026 Scientists at UC Santa Barbara have created a remarkable new material that works like a “rechargeable solar battery,” storing sunlight inside tiny molecules and releasing it later as heat — ...

“Cannot Be Explained” – New Ultra Stainless Steel Stuns Researchers

May 10, 2026 A team at the University of Hong Kong has developed a new “super steel” that can survive the harsh conditions needed to make green hydrogen from seawater. The material uses an unexpected double-protection mechanism that resists corrosion far ...

Latest Headlines

updated 10:57am EDT

Scientists Simulated a Nuclear Fireball and Found a Surprise in the Fallout

June 3, 2026 Scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory recreated part of the intense chaos inside a nuclear fireball to better understand how radioactive fallout forms. Their experiments revealed that ...

Physicists Discover Quantum Particles That Break the Rules of Reality

May 9, 2026 Physicists may have just cracked open a hidden side of the quantum world. For decades, every known particle was thought to belong to one of two categories — bosons or fermions — but researchers ...

This Town Found Clean Energy Deep Inside Old Coal Mines

May 6, 2026 Cumberland, B.C. is reimagining its coal mining past as a clean energy opportunity. Water trapped in abandoned mine tunnels could be used in a geothermal system to heat and cool buildings efficiently ...

NASA Just Tested a Powerful New Thruster That Could Send Humans to Mars

May 6, 2026 A powerful new electromagnetic thruster has taken a major step forward after a successful high-energy test at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Fueled by lithium vapor and driven by intense ...

Scientists Turn Plastic Waste Into Clean Hydrogen Fuel Using Sunlight

May 4, 2026 Scientists are using sunlight to turn plastic waste into clean fuels like hydrogen, offering a breakthrough solution to both pollution and energy challenges. While still in development, the approach ...

This Laser Turns Metal Into a Star-Like Plasma in Trillionths of a Second

May 1, 2026 In a striking glimpse into extreme physics, scientists have captured the split-second chaos that unfolds when powerful laser flashes blast matter into a superheated plasma. By combining two ...

This New Aluminum Could Replace Rare Metals and Cut Costs Dramatically

May 1, 2026 A team at King’s College London has created a powerful new aluminum compound capable of doing the work of expensive rare metals. Its unique triangular structure gives it remarkable stability and ...

Scientists Develop Dirt-Powered Fuel Cell That Could Replace Batteries

Apr. 19, 2026 Scientists have developed a fuel cell that uses microbes in soil to produce electricity. The device can power underground sensors for tasks like monitoring moisture or detecting touch, without ...

This Chain of Atoms Can Detect Electric Fields With Stunning Precision

Apr. 17, 2026 A new quantum sensing approach could dramatically improve how scientists measure low-frequency electric fields, a task that has long been limited by bulky setups and blurry resolution. Instead of ...

Fool’s Gold Isn’t So Foolish: Scientists Find Hidden Treasure in Pyrite

Apr. 16, 2026 Researchers have discovered lithium hidden in pyrite within ancient shale rocks—an unexpected find that could reshape how we source this critical battery material. It raises the possibility of ...

This New Chip Could Slash Data Center Energy Waste

Apr. 10, 2026 A new chip design from UC San Diego could make data centers far more energy-efficient by rethinking how power is converted for GPUs. By combining vibrating piezoelectric components with a clever ...

Solar Cells Just Did the “impossible” With This 130% Breakthrough

Mar. 28, 2026 A new solar breakthrough may overcome a long-standing efficiency barrier. Researchers used a “spin-flip” metal complex to capture and multiply energy from sunlight through singlet fission. The ...

Physicists Discover a Heavy Cousin of the Proton at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider

Mar. 19, 2026 A new subatomic particle known as the Ξcc⁺ has been discovered at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. This heavy proton-like particle contains two charm quarks and was detected using the upgraded LHCb ...

A Lab Mistake at Cambridge Reveals a Powerful New Way to Modify Drug Molecules

Mar. 14, 2026 Cambridge scientists have discovered a light-powered chemical reaction that lets researchers modify complex drug molecules at the final stages of development. Unlike traditional methods that rely on ...

Electrons Catapult Across Solar Materials in Just 18 Femtoseconds

Mar. 6, 2026 Electrons in solar materials can be launched across molecules almost as fast as nature allows, thanks to tiny atomic vibrations acting like a “molecular catapult.” In experiments lasting just 18 ...

Scientists Turn CO2 Into Fuel Using Breakthrough Single-Atom Catalyst

Mar. 20, 2026 Researchers have created a cutting-edge catalyst that turns CO2 into methanol more efficiently than ever before. Instead of using clumps of metal atoms, they engineered a system where each single ...

Scientists Unlock a Powerful New Way to Turn Sunlight Into Fuel

Mar. 16, 2026 Scientists have developed a powerful new computational method that could accelerate the search for next-generation materials capable of turning sunlight into useful chemical energy. The work focuses ...

Record-Breaking Photodetector Captures Light in Just 125 Picoseconds

Mar. 4, 2026 A new ultrathin photodetector from Duke University can sense light across the entire electromagnetic spectrum and generate a signal in just 125 picoseconds, making it the fastest pyroelectric ...

Green Hydrogen Has a Hidden Problem and Scientists May Have Fixed It

Feb. 26, 2026 Green hydrogen could be a game-changer for the clean energy transition—but right now, it’s too expensive and still relies on harmful “forever chemicals.” A new EU-backed project called ...

Scientists Just Uncovered the Secret Behind Nature’s “proton Highway”

Apr. 7, 2026 Scientists have zoomed in on how phosphoric acid moves electrical charges so efficiently in both biology and technology. By freezing a key molecular pair to extremely low temperatures, they found it ...

For the First Time, Light Mimics a Nobel Prize Quantum Effect

Mar. 1, 2026 Scientists have pulled off a feat long considered out of reach: getting light to mimic the famous quantum Hall effect. In their experiment, photons drift sideways in perfectly defined, quantized ...

Oxford Breakthrough Could Make Lithium-Ion Batteries Charge Faster and Last Much Longer

Feb. 20, 2026 Oxford researchers have found a way to visualize one of the most hidden — yet critical — components inside lithium-ion batteries. By tagging polymer binders with traceable markers, they revealed ...

These Cheap Solar Cells Work Better Because They’re Flawed

Apr. 10, 2026 Perovskite solar cells shouldn’t work as well as they do—but they do. Scientists have now discovered that defects inside the material actually help, creating networks that separate and guide ...

Scientists Create Slippery Nanopores That Supercharge Blue Energy

Mar. 9, 2026 Scientists have found a way to significantly boost “blue energy,” which generates electricity from the mixing of saltwater and freshwater. By coating nanopores with lipid molecules that create a ...

A Spinning Gyroscope Could Finally Unlock Ocean Wave Energy

Feb. 18, 2026 Ocean waves are a vast and steady source of renewable energy, but capturing their power efficiently has long frustrated engineers. A researcher at The University of Osaka has now explored a bold new ...

New Catalyst Makes Plastic Upcycling 10x More Efficient Than Platinum

Jan. 24, 2026 Scientists are finding new ways to replace expensive, scarce platinum catalysts with something far more abundant: tungsten carbide. By carefully controlling how tungsten carbide’s atoms are ...

Scientists Just Recreated a Rare Cosmic Reaction Never Seen Before

Apr. 14, 2026 A breakthrough experiment has shed new light on one of astrophysics’ biggest mysteries: the origin of rare proton-rich elements. For the first time, scientists directly measured a key reaction that ...

A Breakthrough That Turns Exhaust CO2 Into Useful Materials

Jan. 29, 2026 Scientists have created a device that captures carbon dioxide and transforms it into a useful chemical in a single step. The new electrode works with realistic exhaust gases rather than requiring ...

Silver Just Solved a Major Solid-State Battery Problem

Jan. 18, 2026 Solid-state batteries could store more energy and charge faster than today’s batteries, but they tend to crack and fail over time. Stanford researchers found that a nanoscale silver treatment can ...

New Catalyst Turns Carbon Dioxide Into Clean Fuel Source

Feb. 3, 2026 Researchers have found that manganese, an abundant and inexpensive metal, can be used to efficiently convert carbon dioxide into formate, a potential hydrogen source for fuel cells. The key was a ...