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The Paint That Cools Itself in Direct Sunlight
A few years ago, workers painted the roof and outer walls of Hong Kong Coliseum with an ordinary-looking white coating. It wasn’t meant to make the stadium look better. The goal was something far stranger: keep the building dramatically cooler. According to the company behind the technology, the coating can lower roof temperatures by 13…
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How Scientists Turned Ibuprofen Into a Heat Battery
The painkiller in your medicine cabinet can do something surprising: soak up heat, hold onto it, and release it later exactly when it is needed. A team of researchers has shown that ibuprofen, of all things, may be one of the most durable materials yet discovered for storing low-grade waste heat. It is a strange…
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The Engineering Behind Prada’s New Moon Suit
Prada just unveiled the high-tech underwear NASA astronauts will wear on the moon. Yes, *that* Prada. On June 7, the fashion house and Axiom Space pulled the cover off their Liquid Cooling and Ventilation Garment at Prada’s flagship store in New York City. It has stirrup pants, thumbhole sleeves, and Prada’s signature red stripe. It…
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How a Solar Panel Turns Seawater into Drinking Water and Lithium
What if a single black panel could turn ocean water into something you can drink, pull valuable minerals out of the sea, and leave almost nothing behind? That sounds like science fiction, but researchers at the University of Rochester have developed a solar-powered desalination panel that can do exactly that. The device converts seawater into…
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MIT’s New Lithium Process Could Reshape Battery Supply Chains
MIT researchers and startup Rock Zero have developed a low-temperature lithium extraction process using ammonium fluoride that cuts refining costs by roughly 40% while producing almost no waste. Getting lithium out of hard rock is one of the dirtiest and most energy-intensive parts of battery manufacturing. A team at MIT may have found a way…
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Welcome to Dr. Kelly Explores — Science Is Reshaping Our World
Some of the most important technologies shaping the future are not apps, gadgets, or social media trends. They are advanced materials controlling heat inside buildings. Cooling systems hidden behind massive AI data centers. Energy technologies buried underground. Engineering solutions quietly keeping modern civilization running. Most people never see them. Most people never hear about them.…