The quantum Y2K moment
Quantum computers threaten many of the encryption systems that keep online communications secure. Margaret Harris investigates plans to make the Internet "quantum-safe"
Playing games with quantum computers
Want to understand how quantum computers work and what they can do? Try developing games for them, suggests James Wootton
The search for silicon’s successor
In today's solar-PV market, silicon is king. Will later generations of materials ever steal its crown? Jon Major assesses their chances
Seeing through a glass, darkly
Solar windows could make buildings "greener", but past attempts to commercialize the technology have run into obstacles. Will the latest efforts succeed?
It’s all smoots and garns
From a human ruler to a space-sickness scale, Stephen Ornes looks at how some of the oddest and most surreal units came to exist
Cool innovations for clean energy
Cryogenics firms are developing novel ways of using liquid air, nitrogen and methane to store renewably-generated energy and reduce emissions
A brief history of timekeeping
Helen Margolis discusses how humans have been trying to measure time with increasing accuracy for centuries, and how the next step in that quest is the optical atomic clock
SI gets a makeover
A key meeting this month is likely to see all SI units defined for the first time in terms of fundamental constants. Benjamin Skuse explains the change
Beyond the lithium-ion battery
Engineering a sustainable, electrified future means developing materials with properties that surpass those found in current technologies
A wave of discovery
James Hough tells the story of the last 30 years of gravitational-wave astronomy, which has had a revolutionary impact
