CSL Group built the MV Yampu for Adbri — the world's first self-loading and self-unloading bulk carrier. A hybrid power system with a 6758 kWh battery allows electric propulsion for up to 40% of the route and cuts fuel consumption by 25%, reducing Scope 1 emissions by over 40%.
Northrop Grumman won a US Space Force contract to develop a geosynchronous reconnaissance satellite prototype under the GHOST-R program. The suitcase-sized ESPASat-L platform will carry a TRL-11 optical payload and must be ready for launch within 24 months.
China's Tianwen-3 Mars sample return mission has entered the prototype phase: launch in 2028 on two Long March 5 rockets, drilling up to 2 meters deep, and returning samples to Earth around 2031. Eight candidate sites have been selected to collect about 500 grams of soil.
MIT engineers created a reconfigurable robotic optical lab: a seven-joint manipulator assembled a desktop laser resonator from randomly placed components in 50 operations and about 30 minutes. The system identifies parts by QR codes, aligns them with micron precision, and self-recovers alignment after failures.
The US Department of Energy announced the Quantum Genesis Q competition with a prize of up to $215 million: companies must propose fault-tolerant quantum systems with at least 100 logical qubits performing hundreds of millions of operations. Applications are due by October 19, with a webinar on September 25.
SpaceX plans to retire Crew Dragon after 2030, so NASA is preparing to order two more crewed Starliner flights from Boeing and pay for part of the work to fix engine problems. Boeing's losses on the Starliner program have exceeded $2 billion.
Toyota led US EV sales growth in August with 4,964 bZ crossovers sold, up 35% from July. Total US EV sales reached 78,895, up 2.5% from July but down 46.9% year-over-year. The average EV transaction price fell to $54,754.
The U.S. Space Force warned that a continuing resolution through December 11 will freeze new programs for fiscal year 2027. It requested $71.1 billion, including $19.1 billion for procurement; about 10% of programs may slow down.
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, launched August 30, 2026, captured its first test image of stars, blurry as expected. The optics are not yet aligned, and the 300-megapixel Wide Field Instrument detectors remain in their launch position. NASA estimates at least 22 years of fuel, versus the planned 10.
At an exhibition in Beijing, the AVIC institute presented a laser targeting system for a fighter jet, showing it next to an image of the J-36. The system weighs less than 380 kg, and its power on the poster is hidden as “*00 kW,” which may mean from 100 kW. There is no public evidence of J-36 flights with a laser.
Bentley has started production of its first all-electric vehicle, the Torcal, at its Crewe plant. The model will debut on September 23 in London. The EV is built on the Volkswagen Group's PPE platform, shared with Porsche and Audi, enabling 390 kW charging.
Researchers from the University of Mainz and NTNU captured for the first time in real time how an ordered lattice of magnetic skyrmions loses order while simultaneously controlling individual vortices. The work, published in Nature Nanotechnology, could advance energy-efficient brain-like computers.
Scientists from the University of California, Santa Barbara have extended the search for microscopic black holes that could be produced at CERN's Large Hadron Collider. Theorists view such objects as a way to explain anomalies in understanding spacetime structure, and the search method demonstrates a new approach to detecting unknown particles.
Hyundai Motor head José Muñoz told Reuters that without trade barriers the US faces a wave of cheap Chinese EVs, as happened in the UK. In Europe, Chinese models are 30–40% cheaper even with duties, while the US maintains a 100% tariff on Chinese EV imports.
Tesla released data for the first year of FSD (Supervised) in Australia and New Zealand: over 12 months and 160 million km with FSD, the collision rate was 40% lower than manual driving. One collision per 1.78 million km vs 1.07 million km manually.
Scientists at North Carolina State University developed a non-porous thin-film perovskite with thermal conductivity around 0.04 W/(m·K) at room temperature. The material blocks heat five times better than silicone and is 700–10,000 times stiffer.
Researchers at UC Davis synthesized nine simplified analogs of the LSD core by removing parts of its ergoline scaffold. Compounds UCD0094 and UCD0076 showed reduced hallucinogenic and cardiotoxic effects, and UCD0076 produced antipsychotic effects in mice.
At the AMOS conference in Hawaii, LeoLabs presented Scout-S, a transportable radar the size of a 20-foot container that can detect debris smaller than 10 cm. About 16,790 active satellites are in orbit, nearly two-thirds of them Starlink, and the space situational awareness market is valued at $1.9 billion this year.
MicroNuclear has begun detailed design of a 20 MW thermal molten salt reactor, MsNB, with the Idaho National Laboratory Foundation, EXP, Premier Technology and Porter House. The unit is designed for 10 years of operation without refueling and uses natural circulation instead of pumps.
Neuroscientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine described in Nature a population of Sst-Chodl cortical neurons, about 0.1% of all neurons. Optogenetic stimulation puts a mouse to sleep, and the cells initiate slow waves rather than only responding to signals from deep brain regions.
NASA extended its contract with SpaceX by $950 million for three additional crewed Dragon flights to the ISS, bringing the total to 17 missions under the Commercial Crew program. If all flights are completed, SpaceX will receive $5.92 billion from NASA. Crew 13 is expected in October, Crew 14 in spring.
Scientists used laser experiments to reproduce magnetic reconnection, the process behind solar flares and Earth's magnetospheric substorms. Measurements showed consistent reconnection rates.
Joby Aviation said an aircraft using its autonomous control technology flew more than 3,100 miles across the US without pilot intervention. The Cessna Caravan-based flight included autonomous taxi, takeoff, navigation and landing, controlled remotely from California and a South Carolina Air Force base.
City of Hope tested the PANXEON test on 1,800 participants from the US, Italy, Japan and South Korea; results were published in Nature Medicine. The AI combines three biomarkers into one score: 87% sensitivity for stages I-II, AUROC 91.7%, and 64% detection of precancerous dysplasia. The test is still investigational.
Two studies in Science describe an RNA-guided system that originated in viruses and is likely a predecessor of CRISPR. The finding could expand gene-editing tools.
Researchers found a way to use low-grade waste heat from electrolysis to desalinate seawater while producing fresh water and hydrogen. This solves the problem of electrode damage during direct seawater electrolysis.
Firefighters responded Friday to a fire at the damaged Vistra Corp. battery storage site in Moss Landing, California. The facility had already been damaged earlier.
Researchers from Radboud University and Columbia University suppressed collisional losses in a molecular gas, creating stable artificial quantum matter. The results, published in Science, open a path to studying strongly interacting quantum systems.
ALS patient Kenneth Shock in the VOICE trial demonstrated output of imagined speech via the N1 implant: a wireless device reads cortical signals and synthesizes words in his pre-illness voice. Independent data on accuracy and the several-second delay have not yet been published.
SoftBank, Hitotsubashi University, and the Japanese Polar Research Institute conducted the world's first demonstration of ground-based laser tracking of a stratospheric HAPS platform. The experiment took place on August 23–24, 2026, off Cape Muroto: laser pulses reflected off a corner reflector on the Sceye platform and were received by a compact ground system.
