World's first quantum battery prototype

Researchers from CSIRO, the University of Melbourne, and RMIT University have built and tested what they describe as the world's first proof-of-concept quantum battery — a device that completes a full cycle of charging, storing, and discharging energy by harnessing quantum mechanical effects. The prototype is a tiny multi-layered organic microcavity device that is charged wirelessly using a laser. Its defining property is 'super absorption': rather than absorbing energy incrementally, the quantum system absorbs it in a single, collective event, enabling much faster charging than conventional batteries allow. Counterintuitively, this effect grows stronger as the system scales — the larger the battery, the faster each unit charges, which is the opposite of how standard lithium-ion batteries behave. Laboratory tests at the University of Melbourne's Ultrafast Laser Laboratory confirmed that the prototype retained stored energy for six orders of magnitude longer than it took to charge. Lead researcher Dr James Quach of CSIRO said the next step is to extend the energy storage time of the device, bringing it closer to commercial viability. The findings were published in the journal Light: Science & Applications.

https://www.csiro.au/

National humanoid robot standard system

China released its first-ever national standard system for humanoid robotics and embodied intelligence in March 2026, a development industry experts say will accelerate technological iteration, reduce production costs, and pave the way for mass commercialization. The comprehensive framework, unveiled at the annual meeting of the Humanoid Robots and Embodied Intelligence Standardization (HEIS) committee in Beijing, covers the entire industrial chain and full lifecycle of humanoid robotics. China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology reported that over 140 domestic manufacturers released more than 330 different humanoid robot models in 2025—considered the sector's first year of mass production. Revenue from China's robotics industry reached nearly 240 billion yuan (approximately 35 billion US dollars) in 2024. According to the industry body, approximately 80 per cent of the tasks where humanoid robots need to surpass conventional automation are related to tactile sensing, and the absence of standardized pathways for tactile sensors been identified as a critical bottleneck. The new standards are expected to address this gap and support the industry's transition from isolated demonstrations to scalable real-world deployment. 'Artificial sun' breaks plasma density barrier Scientists working with China's fully superconducting Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) — known as the 'artificial sun' — achieved a long-theorized state in nuclear fusion known as the 'density-free regime'. In this state, fusion plasma remains stable at densities far beyond the limits that have historically constrained tokamak experiments, without triggering the violent instabilities that usually shut down the process. By precisely controlling fuel gas pressure and applying electron cyclotron resonance heating at the start of each discharge, the team optimized the interaction between the plasma and the reactor's metallic walls. Experiments maintained stable plasma at densities between 1.3 and 1.65 times the widely accepted Greenwald limit. Because fusion power scales roughly with the square of plasma density, operating at these levels implies a potential multi-fold increase in fusion reaction rate. The research, co-led by Professor Ping Zhu of Huazhong University of Science and Technology and Associate Professor Ning Yan of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was published in Science Advances on 1 January 2026.

https://www.science.org/

Calcium-ion battery rivals lithium performance

Researchers at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) have reported a significant advance in calcium-ion battery technology that could offer a more abundant and sustainable alternative to lithium-ion systems. The team, led by Professor Yoonseob Kim of the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, developed a quasi-solid-state electrolyte based on redox-active covalent organic frameworks — porous, carbonyl-rich materials that create aligned internal channels guiding calcium ions through the battery structure, solving long-standing problems of poor ion transport and limited cycling stability. In laboratory tests, the full calcium-ion battery cell delivered a reversible specific capacity of 155.9 mAh g⁻¹ and retained more than 74.6 per cent of its capacity after 1,000 charge-discharge cycles at high current. Calcium is approximately 2,500 times more abundant in the Earth's crust than lithium, reducing both supply-chain and geopolitical risks associated with lithium extraction. The study was conducted in collaboration with Shanghai Jiao Tong University and published in Advanced Science in February 2026.

https://hkust.edu.hk/

Gaganyaan G1 mission

India's Indian Space Research Organiation (ISRO) advanced preparations for the first uncrewed orbital test flight of its Gaganyaan human spaceflight program, with the mission reported as 90 per cent complete by January 2026. More than 8,000 ground tests — including structural qualifications, propulsion system tests, and environmental tests — had been completed with a 97 per cent success rate. On 19 February 2026, ISRO and DRDO conducted the final qualification level load test at the Terminal Ballistics Research Laboratory in Chandigarh, evaluating high-speed aerodynamic loads on the capsule. Final crew egress trials were completed on 20 February at INS Garuda. The G1 mission will carry Vyommitra, a half-humanoid robot designed to simulate astronaut conditions and gather data on life-support and environmental systems in orbit. If successful, India will become the fourth nation to demonstrate independent human spaceflight capability, after the Soviet Union, the United States, and China. The crewed mission is targeted for 2027. Shape-shifting molecular electronics Researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, have developed a new class of molecular devices that can dynamically switch roles — functioning as a memory element, logic gate, selector, analog processor, or artificial synapse within the same physical structure, depending on how they are electrically stimulated. The team, led by Assistant Professor Sreetosh Goswami at the Cente for Nano Science and Engineering (CeNSE), synthesized 17 variants of ruthenium-based molecular complexes and found that small changes in molecular geometry and ionic environment produce markedly different electronic behavior. Unlike conventional neuromorphic systems that imitate learning, these materials physically encode adaptability in their chemistry. The team built a theoretical transport framework grounded in many-body physics and quantum chemistry, enabling them to predict device function directly from molecular structure. The adaptability of the complexes allows memory and computation to be combined in a single material — a basis for neuromorphic hardware in which learning is inherent to the material itself. The team is working to integrate such materials onto silicon chips. The study was published in Advanced Materials and covered by IISc's official science news channel.

https://iisc.ac.in/

Spin flip in antiferromagnet filmed at record speed

Scientists at the University of Tokyo have obtained the first frame-by-frame visualization of how electron spins switch inside an antiferromagnet — a class of material in which neighboring atomic spins point in opposite directions, canceling each other out and making the material appear magnetically neutral. Using ultrafast electrical pulses and precisely timed flashes of light, the team led by Professor Ryo Shimano filmed the switching process at a resolution of 140 picoseconds in the antiferromagnetic material Mn₃Sn (manganese-three-tin). The experiment identified two distinct switching mechanisms: one driven by heat at high current, and a non-thermal process at lower current that requires no substantial heating. The non-thermal mechanism is of particular interest for computing applications because it is non-volatile and enables ultrafast data writing without significant energy dissipation. Antiferromagnets can in principle switch their magnetic state trillions of times per second — far faster than conventional ferromagnetic storage — and because they produce no stray magnetic fields, they can be packed far more densely. The findings were published in Nature Materials. Iron-based photocatalyst cuts rare-metal dependency Researchers at Nagoya University have developed a highly efficient iron-based photocatalyst that reduces reliance on scarce and expensive metals such as ruthenium and iridium in advanced organic chemistry. The team — comprising Professor Kazuaki Ishihara, Assistant Professor Shuhei Ohmura, and graduate student Hayato Akao of the Graduate School of Engineering — redesigned the catalyst's molecular architecture by combining inexpensive achiral bidentate ligands with a single chiral ligand. This hybrid structure reduces the quantity of costly chiral components by approximately two-thirds compared to the team's earlier design, while preserving precise three-dimensional control over the chemical products. Activated by energy-efficient blue LED light, the catalyst was used to achieve the first-ever asymmetric total synthesis of (+)-heitziamide A, a natural compound derived from medicinal plants that suppresses respiratory bursts. Iron is one of the most abundant elements in the Earth's crust, and its substitution for precious metals significantly reduces the environmental and economic cost of high-end pharmaceutical synthesis. The study was published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society in February 2026.

https://en.nagoya-u.ac.jp/

Structural redesign quadruples solid-state battery output

A multi-institutional research team in the Republic of Korea has demonstrated that all-solid-state battery performance can be improved up to fourfold through structural redesign alone, without adding expensive materials. The breakthrough, announced by the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in January 2026, was led by Professor Dong-Hwa Seo of KAIST's Department of Materials Science and Engineering, in collaboration with teams at Seoul National University, Yonsei University, and Dongguk University. The team developed a new design approach for zirconium-based solid electrolyte materials that improves the internal pathway for lithium ions to move through the battery, without relying on costly rare-earth metals. All-solid-state batteries replace the flammable liquid electrolytes in conventional lithium-ion batteries with solid materials, significantly improving safety and enabling higher energy density. The research directly addresses a key commercialization barrier — the high cost of electrolyte materials — and could accelerate the adoption of all-solid-state batteries in electric vehicles, consumer electronics, and grid-scale storage systems.

https://scitechdaily.com/

Single-atom catalyst enables clean chemical coupling

Chemists at the National University of Singapore (NUS) have developed a single-atom photocatalytic approach that enables a class of chemical reactions known as oxidant-free cross-dehydrogenative coupling (CDC) — used to join aromatic molecules with other chemical compounds without requiring harmful oxidizing agents. The catalyst consists of individual platinum atoms anchored on graphitic carbon nitride, a stable support material. Because each platinum atom acts as its own active site, the system uses metal with exceptional efficiency, minimizing waste and reducing the quantity of precious metal required. The reaction generates hydrogen gas as its sole by-product, making it a clean and recyclable process. In testing, the catalyst demonstrated high selectivity, scalability, and the ability to be reused across multiple reaction cycles. This type of CDC chemistry is widely used in pharmaceutical synthesis, and the NUS approach offers a more sustainable and cost-effective route to complex molecular structures. The findings were published in January 2026.

https://techxplore.com/

Single indium atoms convert CO₂ into methanol

Chemists at ETH Zurich have developed a catalyst that significantly lowers the energy needed to convert carbon dioxide and hydrogen into methanol — a liquid that serves as a key precursor for plastics, fuels, and a wide range of industrial chemicals. The catalyst uses the metal indium in an unusually efficient manner: each individual indium atom, anchored on a hafnium oxide support material, acts as its own active reaction site. This single-atom approach achieves up to 70 per cent higher indium-specific methanol productivity than previous indium-zirconium oxide catalysts. The design also allows scientists to observe the chemical mechanisms on the catalyst surface with far greater precision than traditional nanoparticle-based systems, enabling a more systematic approach to future catalyst development. If the energy used to produce the hydrogen feedstock is generated from renewable sources, the entire process can be carried out in a climate-neutral manner — providing a pathway to produce methanol directly from atmospheric CO₂ rather than from fossil fuels. The catalyst remains stable under the high temperatures and pressures required for industrial methanol synthesis. The study, led by Professor Javier Pérez-Ramírez, was published in Nature Nanotechnology on 2 March 2026.

https://ethz.ch/

Terahertz microscope reveals quantum jiggling in superconductors

Physicists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have built a new microscope that uses terahertz light — electromagnetic waves that lie between microwaves and infrared light — to observe previously hidden quantum vibrations inside superconductors. By compressing terahertz light into an extremely small region using a nanoscale metallic tip, the team achieved spatial resolution far beyond what conventional terahertz instruments can reach, enabling them to image microscopic quantum fluctuations within the material at the nanometer scale. Superconductors conduct electricity with zero resistance below a certain temperature and are fundamental to quantum computers, medical imaging, and energy-efficient power transmission. The 'quantum jiggling' observed by the MIT team refers to tiny oscillations of the quantum state that were previously theorized but had not been directly imaged at this scale. The new technique, reported in March 2026, could accelerate the design of new superconducting materials by making their internal quantum dynamics directly visible and measurable.

https://news.mit.edu/