Peer Reviewed

Researchers more than doubled the ability of a material to convert heat into electricity, which could help reduce the amount of wasted heat, and thus wasted fossil fuel, in daily activities and industries.

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) today (14 June) kicked off the Jockey Club Smart City Tree Management Project, a large-scale pilot project in Hong Kong, to apply smart sensing technology and Geographic Information Systems for monitoring tree stability.

Researchers discover gold nanoparticles in natural plant tissues.

PolyU has developed a novel micro-embossing equipment for manufacturing precision glass lenses with high image quality and resolution and embossing ultra-precise optical microstructures in glass in a much environmentally friendly way than conventional machines, saving electric power by 60 times and reducing manufacturing cost by two-thirds.

A metabolic process that provides heart muscle with energy fails to mature in newborns with thickened heart walls, according to a Japan­–Canada research team.

A team of Japanese scientists led by Masahiro Kayama of Tohoku University’s Frontier Research Institute for Interdisciplinary Sciences, has discovered a mineral known as moganite in a lunar meteorite found in a hot desert in northwest Africa.

The field of solid-state ionics originated in Europe, but Takehiko Takahashi of Nagoya University in Japan was the first to coin the term ‘solid ionics’ in 1967.

The works of Japanese physicist Ukichiro Nakaya still remains a primary reference on crystal shapes.

Learning how boron evaporates will help to improve water desalination technologies.

Successful university-community partnerships should be integrated into the everyday activities. Students’ community engagement is important for their holistic personal and professional development. Empirical evidence suggests that university should remain committed and supportive towards this lifelong learning plan.

Nanoparticles avoid deactivation and convert biomass-derived gas into methane.

Light focused into nano-grooves in a gold film bonded to an atomically thin crystal flake produces a remarkable frequency doubling effect.

Direct nanoscale patterning of LED surfaces brings new possibilities for the control of light.

Innovative drone designs and software enables a team of drones to work together in a coordinated approach.

With the help of citizen science, researchers have unraveled the close correlation between weather conditions and the appearances of a giant slug species, enabling them to predict the slug’s activity on the following day.

Deep data analytics drive the development of a technique that sheds light on drug action by monitoring the dynamics of thousands of protein complexes simultaneously within intact cells.

A molecular process that signals distress could also help corals adapt to climate change.

HKBU research group has described a new species of gecko in Hong Kong, and named it Hong Kong Tree Gecko (scientific name Hemiphyllodactylus hongkongensis). The species description was published in Zootaxa.

New study presents capsule-type microrobots to be used for retinal degeneration treatment by minimizing the external effects of cell and drug transfer.

Nagoya University researchers use E.coli to convert benzene into phenol, simplifying a chemical reaction that is difficult by conventional methods

Half a century since the earliest lithium-sulfur batteries were invented, an A*STAR team is leading the race to bring them to the masses.

8 June Bangkok (Thailand) – One of the world’s most widely used anti-malarial drugs is safe to use, say researchers, after a thorough review and analysis of nearly 200,000 malaria patients who’d taken the drug dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine (DHA-PPQ).

Researchers investigate how the blue-tongued skink uses a full-tongue display to deter attacking predators.

Competition to innovate is set to peak with the development of China’s Greater Bay Area, with an estimated 12% of the country’s current economy. The area's edge lies not only in technological advancements but the ability for companies to commercialize their innovation at a faster pace than their Western counterparts.

Research shows that endemic New Zealand bat’s courtship song is complex and gives clues about the physiological characteristics of potential mates

The interface between two tin-oxide semiconductors can exhibit unexpected metallic properties.

An unexpected two-step mechanism occurs when cells copy DNA.

A Japanese university that suffered from atomic devastation will help pave the way towards a world without nuclear weapons. [The journal's Editor-in-Chief Fumihiko Yoshida is available to speak to journalists on this issue]

Successful replication of ovarian tumours inside chicken eggs heralds a new era for patient-centred cancer treatment.

A new theoretical model involving squeezing light to just the right amount to accurately transmit information using subatomic particles is bringing us closer to a new era of computing.