Interesting Engineering

Hydro, working with SINTEF and NTNU, has produced aluminum for the first time using HalZero, a process that could end the CO2 emissions of a 140-year-old method. The conventional process releases about 1.5 kilograms of CO2 for every kilogram of aluminum, and that CO2 is so diluted in air that capturing it is extremely difficult and costly. HalZero instead converts alumina into aluminum chloride, which is then split into aluminum metal and chlorine gas through electrolysis. All process gases circulate in closed loops and are reused, with CO2 captured and converted into CO gas. The milestone was reached at Hydro’s pilot facility at Herøya, Norway. Researchers say an industrial-scale plant should need similar energy and capital to a conventional one.

Virginia Tech researchers have uncovered how liquid metal droplets embedded in soft materials form conductive pathways, a mechanism that had been used for years without being fully understood. Using microscopes and 3D X-ray imaging, the team showed that when the material is compressed, the insulating layer between neighboring gallium-indium droplets cracks and liquid metal flows through the gaps. The metal stays in those cracks after the pressure is released, leaving a permanent electrical network. The team also built a mathematical model, based on fracture mechanics, that predicts how much force is needed to make the material conductive, working for droplets from millimeters down to a few dozen micrometers. The findings could allow engineers to program where conductivity forms in stretchable sensors, wearables, and soft robots. The research is published in Matter.

Researchers at Berkeley Lab’s Molecular Foundry have connected a commercial large language model to a transmission electron microscope capable of imaging structures about half the size of a hydrogen atom. The assistant, called TEM Agent, carries out experiments described in plain language, adjusting magnification, tilting samples, and refocusing the beam, including demanding techniques like electron tomography and ptychography. It works through a set of prewritten microscope functions rather than open-ended control, and it can chain those steps together for requests that were never specifically programmed. Linked to a supercomputing center and a data platform, it can turn around data in seconds that once took hours, since a single detector can generate roughly 700 gigabytes in 15 seconds. The team says the approach could extend to other instruments and is meant to extend expert knowledge rather than replace it. The research is published in npj Computational Materials.

Flywing's X Wing Fighter is a remote-controlled electric VTOL with four X-shaped wings that hovers like a quadcopter and switches to plane mode at the flick of a switch. Pilots fly it through goggles from a miniature head-tracking cockpit over DJI's O4 Air video link, while a LoRa-based "radar" tracks up to six X Wings for formation flying. It lists at $2,499 on Flywing's store and is currently sold out.

Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories are recreating dense fog and heavy rain inside a controlled chamber to measure how well commercial cameras and sensors detect people when visibility drops. Six off-the-shelf cameras, including a thermal model, were synchronized and tested at the same moment so vendor claims could be compared under identical conditions. Fog is produced from a mix of water, ice, and salt sprayed from ceiling nozzles, while a new rain system can generate downpours of 12 inches per hour using netting that forms larger droplets. Lasers fired down the length of the chamber in visible, shortwave infrared, and thermal bands measure exactly how thick the fog is. The resulting labeled data will also be used to train machine learning models that may recognize targets even when people cannot see them in the footage.

French startup AEMOTION has built a two-seat electric microcar that is just 79 cm wide and tilts beyond 35 degrees in corners, with the rider steering and leaning it through a motorcycle-style handlebar. It reaches 115 km/h, covers up to 200 km on its fixed battery and can be driven in France on a regular car licence plus seven hours of training, with first deliveries expected around 2027.

ETH Zurich researchers have developed two methods to bind sand into a solid architectural material using Sporosarcina pasteurii, a bacterium that forms calcium carbonate between sand grains, the same mineral found in limestone and chalk. The first method 3D prints a bio-ink of sand, water, and living bacteria, then hardens it in a urea and calcium chloride bath for three days, with the whole process taking up to five days and requiring no heat. The second uses a robotic arm to spray the sand and bacteria mix layer by layer, a process that ran continuously for six months without constant human supervision. Cement production is a major source of CO2 emissions because it demands extremely high temperatures, which makes this room-temperature approach an attractive alternative. The material is not yet as strong as concrete, though it could replace mortar, and toxic ammonium produced as a by-product in the 3D printing method still needs to be neutralized.

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy are developing tools to detect hardware tampering and prepare security chips for the quantum computing era. Their open-source software, HAL (Hardware Analyzer), helps specialists examine chip circuitry for suspicious modifications, including hidden circuits known as hardware Trojans that could leak sensitive data. Meanwhile, researchers are adapting the open-source OpenTitan security chip to support post-quantum cryptography, which is designed to resist attacks from future quantum computers. The work addresses two distinct threats: malicious backdoors embedded during manufacturing and encryption methods that could eventually be broken by quantum technology. Researchers also warn that attackers may already be collecting encrypted data to decrypt later, making the transition to quantum-resistant security increasingly urgent.

Lithium-ion is built for hours. Wind can vanish for days. Ore Energy’s iron-air battery uses only iron, water, and air to carry energy across a windless week, and a 1 GWh deal in the Netherlands is already signed. bit.ly/3WCoZzl

Startup OKA (One Kind Artifact) has launched Mori, a mushroom-shaped home robot with no screen and no voice assistant that responds to touch with nature scenes made of light, sound and movement. OKA says everything Mori senses is processed on the device, and the limited first run costs $649, with delivery expected in late December 2026.