Civil Engineering News

January 21, 2026

Top Headlines

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 greatly strengthen the battery’s ceramic core. ...

A New Crystal Makes Magnetism Twist in Surprising Ways

Jan. 12, 2026 Florida State University scientists have engineered a new crystal that forces atomic magnets to swirl into complex, repeating patterns. The effect comes from mixing two nearly identical compounds whose mismatched structures create magnetic tension ...

This Simple Design Change Could Finally Fix Solid-state Batteries

Jan. 9, 2026 Scientists in South Korea have discovered a way to make all-solid-state batteries safer and more powerful using inexpensive materials. Instead of adding costly metals, they redesigned the battery’s internal structure to help lithium ions move ...

This Tiny Chemistry Change Makes Flow Batteries Last Far Longer

Jan. 1, 2026 A new advance in bromine-based flow batteries could remove one of the biggest obstacles to long-lasting, affordable energy storage. Scientists developed a way to chemically capture corrosive bromine during battery operation, keeping its ...

MIT Just Made Aluminum 5x Stronger with 3D Printing

Dec. 29, 2025 MIT researchers have designed a printable aluminum alloy that’s five times stronger than cast aluminum and holds up at extreme temperatures. Machine learning helped them zero in on the ideal recipe in a fraction of the time traditional methods ...

This Hidden Flaw Has Been Breaking EV Batteries

Dec. 29, 2025 A major breakthrough in battery science reveals why promising single-crystal lithium-ion batteries haven’t lived up to expectations. Researchers found that these batteries crack due to uneven internal reactions, not the grain-boundary damage seen ...

Scientists Are Turning Earth Into a Giant Detector for Hidden Forces Shaping Our Universe

Dec. 6, 2025 SQUIRE aims to detect exotic spin-dependent interactions using quantum sensors deployed in space, where speed and environmental conditions vastly improve sensitivity. Orbiting sensors tap into ...

Nearly 47 Million Americans Live Near Hidden Fossil Fuel Sites

Nov. 20, 2025 A nationwide analysis has uncovered how sprawling fossil fuel infrastructure sits surprisingly close to millions of American homes. The research shows that 46.6 million people live within about a mile of wells, refineries, pipelines, storage sites, ...

Hypersonic Breakthrough Could Enable Planes That Fly 10 Times the Speed of Sound

Nov. 14, 2025 Hypersonic flight could one day make long-haul travel as quick as a short movie. Researchers are testing how turbulence behaves at extreme speeds, a critical hurdle for designing these aircraft. ...

Entangled Spins Give Diamonds a Quantum Advantage

Nov. 11, 2025 UC Santa Barbara physicists have engineered entangled spin systems in diamond that surpass classical sensing limits through quantum squeezing. Their breakthrough enables next-generation quantum sensors that are powerful, compact, and ready for ...

This Tiny Laser Could Transform How We See and Sense the World

Oct. 19, 2025 Researchers from NTNU and EPFL have unveiled a compact, low-cost laser that outperforms current models in speed, control, and precision. Built using microchip technology, it can be mass-produced for use in everything from Lidar navigation to gas ...

Scientists 3D-print Materials That Stop Vibrations Cold

Oct. 18, 2025 A collaboration between the University of Michigan and AFRL has resulted in 3D-printed metamaterials that can block vibrations using complex geometries. Inspired by nature and theoretical physics, these “kagome tubes” demonstrate how geometry ...

Latest Headlines

updated 12:51pm EST

This New Building Material Pulls Carbon out of the Air

Jan. 21, 2026 A new building material developed by engineers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute could change how the world builds. Made using an enzyme that turns carbon dioxide into solid minerals, the material ...

A Clear New Material Could Make Windows Super Efficient

Dec. 13, 2025 MOCHI uses microscopic, air-filled channels to stop heat in its tracks while remaining nearly crystal clear. If scaled up, it could transform windows into powerful energy savers and solar ...

Seven-Year Study Uncovers the Holy Grail of Beer Brewing

Nov. 29, 2025 ETH Zurich scientists have found the holy grail of brewing: the long-sought formula behind stable beer foam. Their research explains why different beers rely on different physical mechanisms to keep ...

This Glowing Particle in a Laser Trap May Reveal How Lightning Begins

Nov. 24, 2025 Using a precisely aligned pair of laser beams, scientists can now hold a single aerosol particle in place and monitor how it charges up. The particle’s glow signals each step in its changing ...

Europe Launches Bold Plan to Harness Twisting Beams of Light

Nov. 24, 2025 Europe is investing in a coordinated effort to develop high-power optical vortex technologies and train new specialists in the field. The HiPOVor network unites academia and industry to advance ...

Breakthrough Shows Light Can Move Atoms in 2D Semiconductors

Nov. 14, 2025 Laser light can physically distort Janus TMD materials, revealing how their asymmetrical structure amplifies light-driven forces. These effects could power breakthroughs in photonic chips, sensors, ...

Scientists Just Found a Way to Grow Diamonds Without Heat or Pressure

Oct. 29, 2025 A University of Tokyo team has turned organic molecules into nanodiamonds using electron beams, overturning decades of assumptions about beam damage. Their discovery could transform materials science ...

Scientists Accidentally Create a Tiny “rainbow Chip” That Could Supercharge the Internet

Oct. 7, 2025 Researchers at Columbia have created a chip that turns a single laser into a “frequency comb,” producing dozens of powerful light channels at ...

Lighting the Way for Electric Vehicles by Using Streetlamps as Chargers

Oct. 5, 2025 A Penn State research team found that streetlights could double as affordable EV charging stations. After installing 23 units in Kansas City, they discovered these chargers were faster, cheaper, and ...

This Ultra-Thin Solar Tech Could Power Everything from Phones to Skyscrapers

Oct. 2, 2025 A team in Sweden has unraveled the hidden structure of a promising solar material using machine learning and advanced simulations. Their findings ...

Sneezing from Cats or Dust? Safe UV Light May Neutralize Allergens in Minutes

Sep. 22, 2025 Sneezing from cats, dust mites, or mold may one day be preventable with a flip of a switch. Researchers at CU Boulder found that UV222 light can alter allergen proteins, reducing allergic reactions ...

Scientists Unlock Nature’s Secret to Superfast Mini Robots

Aug. 24, 2025 Ripple bugs’ fan-like legs inspired engineers to build the Rhagobot, a tiny robot with self-morphing fans. By mimicking these insects’ passive, ultra-fast movements, the robot gains speed, ...

What Came Before the Big Bang? Supercomputers May Hold the Answer

Aug. 22, 2025 Scientists are rethinking the universe’s deepest mysteries using numerical relativity, complex computer simulations of Einstein’s equations in extreme conditions. This method could help explore ...

Room-Temperature Quantum Breakthrough Freezes Motion Without Cooling

Aug. 18, 2025 ETH Zurich scientists have levitated a tower of three nano glass spheres using optical tweezers, suppressing almost all classical motion to observe quantum zero-point fluctuations with unprecedented ...

Einstein Was Wrong: MIT Just Settled a 100-Year Quantum Debate

Aug. 2, 2025 Physicists at MIT recreated the double-slit experiment using individual photons and atoms held in laser light, uncovering the true limits of light’s wave–particle duality. Their results proved ...

Scientists Discover Salt That Makes Batteries Last 10x Longer

July 27, 2025 A team at KAUST has revealed that the short lifespan of aqueous batteries is primarily due to "free water" molecules triggering harmful chemical reactions at the anode. By adding affordable ...

Concrete That Lasts Centuries and Captures Carbon? AI Just Made It Possible

July 23, 2025 Imagine concrete that not only survives wildfires and extreme weather, but heals itself and absorbs carbon from the air. Scientists at USC have created an AI model called Allegro-FM that simulates ...

Scientists Twist DNA Into Self-Building Nanostructures That Could Transform Technology

July 20, 2025 Scientists have used DNA's self-assembling properties to engineer intricate moiré superlattices at the nanometer scale—structures that twist and layer like never before. With clever molecular ...

Ghost Particles May Secretly Decide the Fate of Collapsing Stars

July 28, 2025 Neutrinos, ghostly particles barely interacting with matter, may secretly be reshaping the fates of massive stars. New research suggests that as stars collapse, they form natural "neutrino ...

A Simple Twist Unlocks Never-Before-Seen Quantum Behavior

July 11, 2025 Scientists have discovered a revolutionary new method for creating quantum states by twisting materials at the M-point, revealing exotic phenomena previously out of reach. This new direction ...

Forget 3D printing—DNA and Water Now Build Tiny Machines That Assemble Themselves

July 10, 2025 Imagine if you could "print" a tiny skyscraper using DNA instead of steel. That’s what researchers at Columbia and Brookhaven are doing—constructing intricate 3D nanostructures by ...

Goodbye Plastic? Scientists Create New Supermaterial That Outperforms Metals and Glass

July 22, 2025 Scientists at Rice University and the University of Houston have created a powerful new material by guiding bacteria to grow cellulose in aligned patterns, resulting in sheets with the strength of ...

You Hear the Beep, but Can’t Find the Car: The Hidden Flaw in Electric Vehicle Safety

June 18, 2025 As electric vehicles grow more popular, their warning sounds may not be doing enough to protect pedestrians. A Swedish study shows that these signals are hard to locate, especially when multiple ...

This Quantum Sensor Tracks 3D Movement Without GPS

June 14, 2025 Physicists at the University of Colorado Boulder have created a groundbreaking quantum device that can measure 3D acceleration using ultracold atoms, something once thought nearly impossible. By ...

Photons Collide in the Void: Quantum Simulation Creates Light out of Nothing

June 8, 2025 Physicists have managed to simulate a strange quantum phenomenon where light appears to arise from empty space a concept that until now has only existed in theory. Using cutting-edge simulations, ...

Collaboration Can Unlock Australia's Energy Transition Without Sacrificing Natural Capital

June 3, 2025 Australia can reach net-zero emissions and still protect its natural treasures but only if everyone works together. New research from Princeton and The University of Queensland shows that the country ...

New Laser Smaller Than a Penny Can Measure Objects at Ultrafast Rates

June 2, 2025 Researchers have engineered a laser device smaller than a penny that they say could power everything from the LiDAR systems used in self-driving vehicles to gravitational wave detection, one of the ...

Predicting Underwater Landslides Before They Strike

May 30, 2025 A new method for predicting underwater landslides may improve the resilience of offshore ...

Waste to Foundation: Transforming Construction Waste Into High-Performance Material

May 29, 2025 In a major advancement for sustainable construction, scientists have created a cement-free soil solidifier from industrial waste. By combining Siding Cut Powder and activated by Earth Silica, an ...

Electronic Tattoo Gauges Mental Strain

May 29, 2025 Researchers gave participants face tattoos that can track when their brain is working too hard. The study introduces a non-permanent wireless forehead e-tattoo that decodes brainwaves to measure ...