This remarkable desalination device, made from 170,000 recycled plastic bottles, runs on mechanical power from waves as it floats in the ocean, and creates up to 13,000 gallons (53,000 liters) of fresh water a day – while discharging far less concentrated salty brine than other designs. Only 3% of the Earth’s water is fresh water – take away the water […]

Israeli defence tech company Elbit Systems has launched a lethal, autonomous suicide drone. The Lanius is an agile racing quad with a range of AI-powered scouting, mapping and target classification abilities, and the ability to explode when required. Quadcopter drones are becoming a staple of modern warfare, as exemplified in the current Ukraine conflict. It’s easy to see why; they’re […]

The unpredictable nature of the conflict in Ukraine makes it a confusing one from the outside looking in, but Western powers are watching it unfold with intelligence resources that would have been unimaginable half a century ago. Here, New Atlas looks at a key component in these efforts – NATO’s spy planes that serve as its eyes the sky. Every […]

We may soon be entering a whole new world of transparent solar panels that gather energy while doubling as windows, glass facades and even the screens of our portable electronic devices. These dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) open up all sorts of possibilities. Scientists have been studying DSCs for decades, as they are fairly simple, easy to produce and have low toxicity. How […]

We’ve already seen systems that wirelessly transmit data via patterns of flickering light. A Saudi Arabian team has created a less energy-intensive alternative, that could use modulated sunlight in place of traditional Wi-Fi. Currently in development at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), the system utilizes “smart glass” elements known as Dual-cell Liquid Crystal Shutters (DLSs). These rapidly […]

Building or repairing structures in difficult-to-reach locations is a daunting task, as bringing in the cranes, scaffolding and whatnot can be quite difficult. That’s why scientists are creating a honeybee-inspired system, which uses flying 3D-printing drones to do the job. Known as Aerial Additive Manufacturing (Aerial-AM), the technology is being developed by researchers from Imperial College London and Switzerland’s Empa […]

Imagine if there were a robotic fish that filtered microplastic particles out of the water as it swam. Well, now there is one, and it’s the physical version of the winning concept in the first-ever Natural Robotics Contest. Announced this May, the University of Surrey’s Natural Robots Contest invited members of the public to submit their ideas for animal- or plant-inspired robots […]

The UniWave sea platform is an artificial blowhole that harvests energy from ocean waves. Independent analysts now predict it’ll create some of the cheapest renewable energy on the market – and some of the most reliable and predictable, as well. We first encountered Wave Swell Energy (WSE) and the UniWave back in early 2021. This curious, half-sunken-looking concrete structure is designed to […]

Single-use electronic devices pose a challenge, as the heavy metals and other toxic materials in them shouldn’t just be released into the environment, yet those substances are difficult to reclaim. Scientists have developed what could be a solution, in the form of a paper circuit board. Led by Prof. Seokheun Choi, a team from the State University of New York […]

A team of researchers in the UK has developed a fully automated artificial intelligence-enabled system that can scan retinal images for vascular health, helping identify those at high risk of heart disease and stroke. The old adage “the eyes are windows to the soul” isn’t that far off when considering how much one can infer about a person’s general health […]