There are high hopes for the next generation of high energy-density lithium metal batteries, but before they can be used in our vehicles, there are crucial problems to solve. An international research team led by Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, has now developed concrete guidelines for how the batteries should be charged and operated, maximising efficiency while minimising the risk of short circuits.

Within the framework of a partnership, Boehringer Ingelheim will make use of Google’s resources in the field of quantum computing. The pharmaceutical company is the first in its industry to team up with Google in this field.

Researchers at Linköping University, Sweden, have developed efficient blue light-emitting diodes based on halide perovskites. The new LEDs may open the way to cheap and energy-efficient illumination.

Scientists at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have developed insulin nanoparticles that may one day become the basis for an oral medicine, and an alternative to insulin injections for diabetic patients. In a pre-clinical study, a NTU Singapore team fed insulin-containing nanoparticles to rats and found that insulin increased in their blood minutes later.

A layer as thin as a single atom is enough to double the amount of water split on the surface of an electrode in an electrolysis system — and thus also the volume of hydrogen produced. Researchers from Jülich, Aachen, Stanford, and Berkeley report on this in the latest edition of the journal Nature Materials.

Astra Zeneca collaborated with the Serum Institute of India (SII) for the supply of the vaccine to the Indian Government as well as many other low and middle-income countries. Astra Zeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine has also received emergency use authorisation in five other countries.

Many technologies would not be possible without catalysts. To further improve heterogeneous catalysts, it is necessary to analyze the complex processes at their surface, where the active centers are located. Researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), together with colleagues from Spain and Argentina, have made decisive progress in this area.

A protective layer of epoxy resin helps prevent the leakage of pollutants from perovskite solar cells (PSCs), report scientists from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (Oist). Adding a “self-healing” polymer to the top of a PSC can radically reduce how much lead it discharges into the environment. This gives a strong boost to prospects for commercializing the technology.

The UK has become the first country in the world to approve a Covid-19 vaccine in order to combat the global pandemic. The first doses of the vaccine developed by Pfizer-Biontech will be available to the UK immediately.

By studying the genomes of hundreds of thousands of people, scientists from Unige, HUG and the University of Utrecht discovered the genetic basis of intracranial aneurysms.