Research & Development news

• Weight-loss drugs show signs of slowing biological aging, say drugmakers

  06-10-2026 18:40 via technologyreview.com
  
  Popular weight-loss drugs may do more than help people shed pounds. They might also melt away the years.Drug giants Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk say patients taking their drugs age less quickly, according to readouts from molecular “aging clocks.”Such clocks assess a person’s biological age by looking at changes to DNA that accumulate with time, or, in newer versions, by tracking levels of key proteins.Both companies found that overweight or diabetic patients taking the drugs, ca
  
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• The Download: 10 climate tech companies to watch

  06-10-2026 14:10 via technologyreview.com
  
  This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.10 climate tech companies to watchEach year, MIT Technology Review puts together a list of the most promising climate tech companies in the world. This year, the stakes feel higher than ever. The world is on track for one of its hottest years on record, climate-fueled disasters are taking lives and costing billions, while political shifts and intern
  
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• X-energy and its helium-cooled nuclear reactors

  06-10-2026 12:35 via technologyreview.com
  
  X-energy is developing small modular reactors to satisfy some of the planet’s most power-hungry users: industrial manufacturers that need high temperatures to produce billions of tons of concrete, plastics, fibers, and chemicals.
  Solar panels and wind turbines are great at producing electricity but what heavy industry also needs is raw heat—and lots of it. The manufacture of concrete, glass, and steel, as well as the production of many chemicals, plastics, and fertilizers, are
  
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• WeLion New Energy and its semi-solid-state batteries

  06-10-2026 12:35 via technologyreview.com
  
  WeLion New Energy is on a quest to make safer, better batteries. The company’s semi-solid-state cells could improve safety and offer greater energy density than lithium-ion batteries to power electric cars, boats, and drones.
  From the EVs that carry commuters home to the ships that transport goods across countries, more and more vehicles around us are powered by batteries. Lithium-ion batteries are commonly used to power personal devices and vehicles today. But as the need for batter
  
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• WaveSave and its portable rubber dam

  06-10-2026 12:35 via technologyreview.com
  
  As sea levels rise and flood risks worsen due to global warming, WaveSave’s easy-to-erect portable dam offers a quick-response tool. People can use the dam to protect themselves and their property, and it can also store freshwater for later use. Communities in Europe, Africa, and Southeast Asia have deployed it successfully. Now, the company is expanding into other water-related services to help vulnerable places become more resilient.
  One in five people globally are at high risk of being
  
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• Moment Energy and its shipping containers packed with old EV batteries

  06-10-2026 12:35 via technologyreview.com
  
  Demand for energy storage is surging, with capacity expected to grow eightfold in the next decade. To meet that demand, Moment Energy wants to shortcut a supply chain that now flows largely through China, by domestically repurposing EV batteries into new grid-connected storage systems.
  Moment Energy’s four founders met while studying mechatronics engineering in college and worked together on a team that built and raced electric cars. After graduating, they scattered to companies including
  
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• Here’s how our climate team picked 10 promising companies to watch

  06-10-2026 12:35 via technologyreview.com
  
  As the team at MIT Technology Review set out to choose companies for this year’s edition of our annual list of Climate Tech Companies to Watch, the challenge felt more daunting than any year since we started compiling the list in 2023. This year is shaping up to be one of the hottest ever recorded. The world must begin to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions to address the climate crisis, which is already affecting communities around the globe. Wildfires, floods, and other climate-fueled d
  
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• Form Energy and its iron batteries

  06-10-2026 12:35 via technologyreview.com
  
  Form Energy is building iron-based batteries that can store energy for multiple days. The company is ramping up supply at its factory and signing deals for commercial projects.
  New solar and wind installations produce electricity more affordably than fossil fuels in most places, but their output varies based on season, time of day, and weather. To compensate, utilities are increasingly investing in battery storage systems, which can charge when power is abundant and discharge when the grid need
  
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• Energy Dome and its carbon dioxide batteries

  06-10-2026 12:35 via technologyreview.com
  
  There’s a growing need for long-duration storage to meet energy demand and balance out renewables on the grid. Energy Dome uses compressed carbon dioxide gas in its massive grid batteries, which can deliver power for up to 24 hours. 
  As the world races to meet growing electricity demand, solar and onshore wind power have become the cheapest and quickest-to-deploy sources to install on the grid. But, despite their upsides, both are subject to variations in weather patterns, which mean
  
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• Brimstone and its one-stop process for making cleaner cement and critical minerals

  06-10-2026 12:35 via technologyreview.com
  
  Brimstone is making strides on two industrial problems, reducing the emissions from cement and providing a way to produce more critical minerals within the US. If the company can do both, with the same rocks in the same plant, it would unlock a cleaner and more efficient process for manufacturing building materials, aluminum, steel, and more.
  Brimstone is a code-switching climate tech company for these polarized political times. The US-based startup—part green cement company, part critica
  
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• BasiGo and its fleet of electric buses

  06-10-2026 12:35 via technologyreview.com
  
  BasiGo aims to replace the tens of thousands of diesel-powered buses on sub-Saharan African roads with electric ones that generate far fewer emissions. The company’s pay-as-you-drive business model has helped make EVs more attainable and is changing the way public transport operates.
  In a bid to contain the covid-19 pandemic in 2020, the Kenyan government temporarily suspended public transportation. The suspension lasted only three days, yet the change in air quality was dramatic. The air
  
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