For years, physicists have worked to design clocks capable of measuring incredibly small durations of time with extreme precision. Quantum clocks, in particular, have advanced this goal by using the strange and powerful principles of quantum mechanics to reach astonishing levels of accuracy.

Yet, there has always been a trade-off. As these clocks become more precise, they consume more energy and generate more entropy—essentially, disorder and wasted heat. This link between precision and thermodynamic cost has long been considered unavoidable.

Carbon capture and utilization (CCU) technologies are playing a growing role in efforts to address climate change by trapping carbon dioxide emissions and converting them into useful fuels or chemicals. However, for these systems to be commercially viable, they must run continuously for thousands of hours—a goal that has been hampered by persistent technical issues like salt buildup inside electrochemical reactors.

Researchers at Rice University have discovered a surprisingly straightforward solution to one of the most critical bottlenecks in CO₂ electroreduction systems. Instead of using water to humidify carbon dioxide gas before it enters the reactor, the team bubbled the gas through a mild acid solution. This small change allowed the system to remain stable for over 4,500 hours—more than 50 times longer than standard water-based setups.

Physicists at the University of Oxford have achieved the most accurate control of a quantum bit (qubit) ever recorded, making just one mistake in 6.7 million single-qubit operations—an error rate of 0.000015 percent. This breakthrough, nearly ten times more precise than their previous world record set a decade ago, will be published in Physical Review Letters under the title Single-qubit gates with errors at the 10⁻⁷ level.

To illustrate how rare these errors now are, the team notes that a person is more likely to be struck by lightning in a given year (a probability of 1 in 1.2 million) than for one of their quantum logic gates to fail. This leap in reliability addresses one of the biggest obstacles to building practical quantum computers: maintaining accuracy across millions of operations.

Researchers in Japan have developed an ultra-compact, low-power radio module operating in the 150 GHz band, bringing 6G wireless connectivity closer to everyday mobile devices. Designed specifically for future 6G user equipment, the new module integrates a phased-array transceiver with key innovations that overcome the technical barriers traditionally associated with sub-terahertz communication.

The team, led by Professor Kenichi Okada from the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the School of Engineering, Institute of Science Tokyo, developed the module in collaboration with the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) and other partners. Their findings were presented at the 2025 Symposium on VLSI Technology and Circuits in Kyoto.

A research team from Seoul National University’s College of Engineering has unveiled a new approach to water electrolysis that could dramatically lower the cost and complexity of green hydrogen production. By eliminating the need for precious metal-based catalysts, this breakthrough marks a significant step toward realizing a scalable and economically viable hydrogen economy.

Published in Nature Communications on May 23, the study introduces an innovative electrolysis strategy called Electrochemical Activation (EA) operation, which enables the use of commercial nickel (Ni) electrodes—without any catalyst coating—while maintaining high efficiency and long-term performance. The project was led by Professors Jeyong Yoon and Jaeyune Ryu, in collaboration with Professor Jang Yong Lee of Konkuk University.

Smartphones are becoming obsolete faster than ever. Most users now replace their devices every two to three years—even when the phones still function. Fueled by aggressive marketing and rapid tech advancements, this culture of constant upgrading has led to the production of more than 1.2 billion smartphones globally each year.

This cycle comes at a steep environmental cost. Manufacturing and shipping smartphones consumes vast natural resources and emits significant amounts of CO₂. While some old devices are recycled, many end up in landfills, adding to the world’s growing e-waste crisis.