- The Daily Innovation Newsletter
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- May 28th 2025
May 28th 2025
Max Gray
May 28, 2025
The Daily Innovation Newsletter
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May 28th 2025
⚡️ Energy
New York-based Aircela has unveiled a fridge-sized machine that captures carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and synthesizes gasoline using renewable energy, producing fuel compatible with existing engines. This decentralized system offers a low-emission, drop-in alternative to fossil fuels without requiring infrastructure changes. Backed by industry leaders and rooted in direct air capture science, it aims to deploy units by fall 2025 for off-grid and commercial users.
Scientists from KIST and Korea University have developed a stretchable, biocompatible ultrasonic receiver that enables wireless charging of medical implants and underwater electronics. The device uses high-efficiency piezoelectric materials to transmit power through water and human tissue, outperforming earlier rigid, inefficient systems. Published in Advanced Materials, this breakthrough could eliminate the need for wires or battery replacements in pacemakers, wearables, and marine sensors.
🚘 Transport
🇺🇸 US researchers develop sodium-air fuel cell that powers electric planes and captures carbon dioxide
MIT scientists have created a sodium-air fuel cell that not only offers higher energy density than current lithium-ion batteries but also passively captures CO₂ from the atmosphere. The system generates energy through sodium-air reactions and produces byproducts that naturally convert atmospheric carbon into stable compounds like baking soda, helping mitigate climate change. Published in Joule, the research demonstrates a scalable, safer alternative to batteries for electric aircraft and ships, using abundant and easily sourced sodium.
🦾 Robotics
Mechatronics engineer and YouTuber Will Cogley has designed a bio-inspired robotic neck that mimics human anatomy using six miniature linear actuators arranged like a Stewart platform. To achieve smooth, realistic movement, he integrated a flexible artificial spine made of 3D-printed vertebrae and discs, correcting motion issues caused by prioritizing human form over geometry. This innovation, demonstrated in his latest video, advances the realism of animatronic heads and could help shape the future of expressive humanoid robots.
💉 Biotechnology
🇦🇹 Austrian scientists create artificial blood vessels for organ-on-chip models using laser precision
Researchers at TU Wien have developed a fast, scalable technique to create perfusable, natural-like blood vessels within hydrogels using ultrashort laser pulses, enabling more realistic and reproducible organ-on-chip systems. These engineered vessels respond to inflammation like real tissue and maintain structural stability, solving a long-standing problem in tissue engineering. The research, published in Biofabrication, also demonstrated a vascularized liver model, marking a major step toward replacing animal testing in drug development.
💊 Healthcare
🇩🇪 German researchers uncover new brain stimulation pathway to restore mobility in Parkinson’s patients
Scientists from Ruhr University Bochum and Philipps-Universität Marburg have demonstrated that stimulating the inferior colliculus, an auditory brain region unaffected by Parkinson’s, can activate alternative motor pathways and improve mobility. Using optogenetics, they precisely controlled neurons with light and showed this stimulation triggered activity in the mesencephalic locomotor region, bypassing damaged basal ganglia circuits. Published in Scientific Reports, this foundational research could lead to new therapeutic strategies for advanced Parkinson’s disease.
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Max
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