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For decades, one of the biggest challenges of nuclear energy has been deciding what to do with highly radioactive nuclear waste. Unlike ordinary industrial waste, spent nuclear fuel can remain hazardous for extremely long periods. Now, Finland has taken a major step toward solving this problem. Finland’s nuclear safety regulator, STUK, issued a favorable safety assessment on August 4 for a deep geological repository being developed at Olkiluoto. The facility, built by nuclear waste management company Posiva , is designed to store high-level nuclear waste deep underground and isolate it from people and the environment for at least 100,000 years . The decision represents an important milestone for the project. However, the facility has not yet received its final operating permit. The Finnish Government will use STUK’s safety assessment as part of its decision on whether the repository can begin full-scale operations. A Nuclear Waste Facility Unlike Any Other The Olkiluoto facility is wid...

For millions of people living with diabetes, monitoring blood glucose is an essential part of daily life. Keeping track of changing glucose levels helps patients and doctors identify dangerous fluctuations early and take action before complications develop. However, traditional glucose monitoring can be uncomfortable and inconvenient. A new wearable technology developed by researchers at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) could offer a different approach. Scientists have created an enzyme-free microneedle patch called ARMPatch that can continuously monitor changes in blood glucose using a standard ultrasound probe. The technology could eventually make glucose monitoring less painful, more convenient and potentially longer-lasting than many existing systems. The Problem With Traditional Glucose Monitoring Conventional blood glucose testing usually requires a small blood sample, often obtained by pricking the fingertip. Although the procedure is simple, repeated testing can be...

The world of medical diagnostics and chemical analysis is becoming increasingly smaller. Scientists are developing microfluidic devices —tiny systems that can move and control extremely small amounts of liquids through microscopic channels. These devices are used in biomedical testing, chemical analysis, drug research and lab-on-chip technologies. However, making such tiny structures has always been a major challenge. Conventional 3D printing can produce complex shapes, but creating extremely small enclosed channels quickly and accurately is difficult. Now, researchers led by Miner and his team have developed a new multi-resolution 3D printing technique that could overcome this problem. Their method can create fully enclosed microfluidic channels with cross sections as small as 1.9 × 2.0 micrometres . That is an extremely small structure—about two orders of magnitude smaller in cross-sectional area than the 18 × 20 micrometre channels demonstrated in earlier work. Why Microfluidic ...

Perovskite solar cells are widely considered one of the most exciting technologies in the future of renewable energy. They can convert sunlight into electricity with very high efficiency, while also offering advantages that traditional silicon solar panels cannot easily provide. They can be made extremely thin, lightweight and flexible, and their manufacturing process could require less energy and potentially lower production costs. But one major problem has slowed their journey toward widespread commercial use: stability . Perovskite solar cells can gradually lose performance when exposed to moisture, oxygen and high temperatures. Now, researchers at Kaunas University of Technology (KTU) and their international collaborators have developed a promising solution to one of the key causes of this degradation. Their research, published in Nature Communications , focuses on something incredibly small but extremely important—the molecular interface between the different layers of a solar cel...

Dark matter is one of the biggest mysteries in modern science. Scientists believe that a large part of the Universe is made of dark matter, but we still do not know exactly what it is made of or how it behaves. One interesting possibility is that dark matter can become trapped inside neutron stars . These stars are the extremely dense remains of massive stars that have exploded. Their gravity is so strong that they can capture particles passing nearby. A new study by Liu and Sun looks at what happens when neutron stars slowly collect dark matter over billions of years. The researchers wanted to know whether this hidden dark matter could change the structure of neutron stars and, more importantly, whether those changes could be detected through gravitational waves . Their results suggest that dark matter can change a neutron star, but the changes are usually very small. What Are Neutron Stars? Neutron stars are among the strangest objects in the Universe. They are formed when a massive...

Neutron stars are some of the most extreme objects in the Universe. They are incredibly dense, extremely hot and have very strong gravity. Although they are only about the size of a city, they can contain more mass than the Sun. These strange objects can also produce powerful explosions called X-ray bursts . Scientists have now found that some of these bursts may be doing something unexpected: they may be bending and disturbing the disk of gas surrounding the neutron star . A new study by Ballantyne and Degenaar examined five unusually long X-ray bursts that showed sudden changes in brightness. The researchers found evidence that these strange fluctuations may be connected to changes in the shape of the surrounding accretion disk. The discovery could help scientists understand one of the biggest mysteries in astrophysics: how material moves through the disks around neutron stars and other compact objects. What Is a Neutron Star? A neutron star is the extremely dense leftover core of a ...

Space is filled with spectacular objects, but some look so familiar that they almost seem alive. One such object is the Lion Nebula , a breathtaking cloud of glowing gas and dust that resembles the face of a lion floating across the darkness of space. In a striking new view captured by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) , the nebula appears surrounded by a brilliant purple, fuzzy structure that looks remarkably like a lion’s mane. But behind this beautiful appearance lies the story of a dying star—and a cosmic structure that will not last forever. What Is the Lion Nebula? The Lion Nebula is formally known as NGC 2392 . It is a type of object called a planetary nebula . Despite the name, a planetary nebula has nothing to do with planets. The name comes from early astronomers who thought some of these round, glowing objects looked similar to planets when viewed through small telescopes. NGC 2392 was created when a star similar to the Sun reached the final stages of its life. At the h...