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July 4^th 2025

Tthe Daily Innovation Newsletter will be taking a short break next week, but will be back the week after as normal.

⚡️ Energy

🇮🇱 🇩🇪 Israeli and German engineers develop world’s first large-scale air battery to stabilize renewables

Israel's Augwind Energy will build the world's first industrial AirBattery in Germany, using a giant salt cavern to store compressed air and generate electricity for weeks or months. The Hydraulic Compressed Air Energy Storage system combines pumped hydro and air compression, offering a cost-effective, long-duration alternative to lithium batteries with local materials and no imported metals. Validated by Fichtner Group, the project could help decarbonize Europe’s power grids and mitigate energy shortages during renewable lulls.

🦾 Robotics

🇺🇸 US researchers create radar system that lets robots see through walls with 96% accuracy

MIT scientists have developed mmNorm, a radar-based imaging system that allows robots to reconstruct hidden objects behind walls, plastic, or cardboard with 96% accuracy. Using millimeter wave signals similar to Wi-Fi, the system estimates both object location and surface angles for precise 3D imaging, outperforming existing technologies. The breakthrough could revolutionize warehouse quality control, enabling humanoid robots to inspect goods inside closed containers without opening them.

🌎 Sustainability

🇺🇸 🇬🇧 US and UK scientists cut plastic recycling’s footprint by 99% with enzyme breakthrough

Researchers from the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the UK's University of Portsmouth have developed a low-cost, enzyme-based process to recycle PET plastic with 99% fewer chemicals and 65% less energy. The system replaces sodium hydroxide with recyclable ammonium hydroxide, enabling a closed-loop process that makes recycled plastic cheaper than virgin plastic for the first time. Published in Nature Chemical Engineering, this breakthrough could transform plastic recycling and reduce global plastic pollution.

💊 Healthcare

🇳🇿 🇸🇪 New Zealand and Swedish researchers restore movement in rats with electric spinal implant breakthrough

Scientists from the University of Auckland and Chalmers University have developed a bioelectric spinal implant that restores movement and sensation in rats with spinal cord injuries. The ultra-thin device delivers precise electrical currents to injury sites, reactivating dormant healing processes without causing inflammation or damage. Published in Nature Communications, this research offers new hope for future human therapies to treat paralysis.

🇸🇪 🇨🇳 Swedish and Chinese scientists use gene therapy to restore hearing in deaf adults and children

Researchers from Karolinska Institutet and Chinese hospitals have restored hearing in children, teens, and adults born with OTOF-related genetic deafness using gene therapy. In the Nature Medicine study, a healthy OTOF gene was delivered via a virus into the inner ear, with participants hearing sounds within weeks and profound improvements seen by six months. This breakthrough offers hope for treating lifelong deafness, even in adults up to 24 years old.

🇺🇸 US scientists revive dying brain cells in Parkinson’s with enzyme-blocking drug breakthrough

Stanford researchers have shown that inhibiting the overactive LRRK2 enzyme in mice with Parkinson’s disease can regrow vital brain cell structures called primary cilia, restoring communication in dopamine circuits and boosting neuroprotective signals. After three months of treatment with the drug MLi-2, early signs of neuronal recovery appeared, offering hope of slowing or reversing disease progression. Published in Science Signaling, this discovery could lead to new therapies for genetic and other forms of Parkinson’s.

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Max

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