SciExplore Connect

Tapping into the million-year energy source below our feet

MIT spinout Quaise Energy is working to create geothermal wells made from the deepest holes in the world.

There’s an abandoned coal power plant in upstate New York that most people regard as a useless relic. But MIT’s Paul Woskov sees things differently.

Woskov, a research engineer in MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center, notes the plant’s power turbine is still intact and the transmission lines still run to the grid. Using an approach he’s been working on for the last 14 years, he’s hoping it will be back online, completely carbon-free, within the decade.

In fact, Quaise Energy, the company commercializing Woskov’s work, believes if it can retrofit one power plant, the same process will work on virtually every coal and gas power plant in the world.

Fossilized bones are revealing secrets from a lost world

Researchers have uncovered thousands of preserved metabolic molecules inside fossilized bones millions of years old, offering a surprising new window into prehistoric life. The findings reveal animals’ diets, diseases, and even their surrounding climate, including evidence of warmer, wetter environments. One fossil even showed signs of a parasite still known today. This approach could transform how scientists reconstruct ancient ecosystems.

For the first time, researchers have successfully examined metabolism-related molecules preserved inside fossilized bones from animals that lived between 1.3 and 3 million years ago. These chemical traces offer rare insight into the animals themselves and the environments they once inhabited.

By analyzing metabolic signals tied to health and diet, the scientists were able to reconstruct details about ancient climates and landscapes, including temperature, soil conditions, rainfall, and vegetation. The results, published in Nature, point to environments that were significantly warmer…

The 8 worst technology flops of 2025

The Cybertruck, sycophantic AI, and humanoid robots all made this year’s list of the biggest technology failures.

This year, politics was a recurring theme. Donald Trump swept back into office and used his executive pen to reshape the fortunes of entire sectors, from renewables to cryptocurrency. The wrecking-ball act began even before his inauguration, when the president-elect marketed his own memecoin, $TRUMP, in a shameless act of merchandising that, of course, we honor on this year’s worst tech list.

We like to think there’s a lesson in every technological misadventure. But when technology becomes dependent on power, sometimes the takeaway is simpler: it would have been better to stay away.

That was a conclusion Elon Musk drew from his sojourn as instigator of DOGE, the insurgent cost-cutting initiative that took a chainsaw to federal agencies. The public protested. Teslas were set alight, and…

🎉 Congratulations to the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry Laureates — Makoto Fujita, Omar M. Yaghi, and the late Susumu Kitagawa! 🧪🏆

Their pioneering work on metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) has revolutionized materials chemistry — unlocking new frontiers in gas storage, catalysis, and clean energy solutions. 🌍✨

A remarkable achievement shaping the chemistry of tomorrow! 🔬💡

Press release: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2025/press-release/