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Category: sustainability

Scientists Discovered A Record Number Of New Species In The Ocean Depths

Among the newly discovered species is the ‘ghost shark’ chimaera, a distant relative of sharks and rays, found in the Coral Sea. Other notable finds include symbiotic worms on volcanic seamounts in Japan and a striking new species of shrimp in Marseille, France. These discoveries highlight the diversity and complexity of life beneath the ocean surface.

Dr. Michelle Taylor, Head of Science at Ocean Census, emphasized the importance of these discoveries, stating, “We are in a race against time to understand and protect ocean life.” The Ocean Census is not only about finding new species but also generating evidence to drive global science and policy.

The discoveries provide crucial data for international agreements like the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Treaty and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. As the Census continues, its global network and open-access platform, NOVA, will ensure that this critical data informs global decision-making.

Fungus-powered farming delivers higher yields and better-tasting crops, says study

Can we have higher yields and better taste? Using a natural extract from the fungus Pseudozyma aphidis, this method improves the firmness and natural sugar content of crops like tomatoes and melons while significantly boosting production. This discovery offers a practical path to meeting global food demands without compromising the health of the planet or produce quality. Furthermore, because the approach uses stable microbial secretions instead of live cultures, it ensures consistent and reliable performance across various agricultural environments and climates.

Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have identified a natural, eco-friendly way to significantly increase agricultural yields while also improving the quality and taste of produce. The study, led by Professor Maggie Levy alongside researchers Anton Fennec and Neta Rotem, focuses on an extract derived from the yeast-like fungus Pseudozyma aphidis.

As the global population continues to grow, the demand for higher agricultural output has historically led to the heavy use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. These chemicals often contribute to soil and water pollution and increase greenhouse gas emissions. The new research, published in the journal Plant Physiology, suggests that beneficial micro-organisms can offer a sustainable alternative to these traditional agricultural inputs.

Outside the Safe Operating Space of a New Planetary Boundary for Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS)

It is hypothesized that environmental contamination by per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) defines a separate planetary boundary and that this boundary has been exceeded. This hypothesis is tested by comparing the levels of four selected perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs) (i.e., perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorohexanesulfonic acid (PFHxS), and perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA)) in various global environmental media (i.e., rainwater, soils, and surface waters) with recently proposed guideline levels. On the basis of the four PFAAs considered, it is concluded that levels of PFOA and PFOS in rainwater often greatly exceed US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Lifetime Drinking Water Health Advisory levels and the sum of the aforementioned four PFAAs (Σ4 PFAS) in rainwater is often above Danish drinking water limit values also based on Σ4 PFAS; levels of PFOS in rainwater are often above Environmental Quality Standard for Inland European Union Surface Water; and atmospheric deposition also leads to global soils being ubiquitously contaminated and to be often above proposed Dutch guideline values. It is, therefore, concluded that the global spread of these four PFAAs in the atmosphere has led to the planetary boundary for chemical pollution being exceeded. Levels of PFAAs in atmospheric deposition are especially poorly reversible because of the high persistence of PFAAs and their ability to continuously cycle in the hydrosphere, including on sea spray aerosols emitted from the oceans. Because of the poor reversibility of environmental exposure to PFAS and their associated effects, it is vitally important that PFAS uses and emissions are rapidly restricted.

Biodegradable sensors attached to plants detect pesticides in 3 minutes

Researchers at the São Carlos Institute of Physics at the University of São Paulo (IFSC-USP) in Brazil, led by Paulo Augusto Raymundo-Pereira, have created biodegradable, “wearable” sensors for plants to monitor their health, including the presence of pesticides. The sensors are made from carbon ink and are screen-printed onto transparent cellulose acetate bioplastics.

The study was published in Biosensors and Bioelectronics: X. The World Economic Forum selected wearable sensor engineering as one of the top ten emerging technologies of 2023 for its potential to improve plant health and increase agricultural productivity.

However, most wearable devices today are made from nonrenewable plastic polymers derived from petroleum and have poor adhesion to uneven, wavy, and curved surfaces.

Researchers solve longstanding problem in measuring semiconductor defects

Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories and Auburn University have developed a new method to more accurately detect atomic-scale defects in electronic materials, an advance that could help improve technologies ranging from electric vehicles to high-power electronics. The study, appearing in the Journal of Applied Physics, addresses a longstanding challenge in understanding what happens at the critical boundary where a semiconductor meets an insulating layer.

At this interface, microscopic defects can trap electrical charge and quietly reduce device performance, even when the device otherwise appears to function normally. These defects can limit efficiency, increase electrical losses, and reduce the performance of advanced semiconductor devices.

Scientists commonly study these defects by comparing how a device responds to slow and fast electrical signals. However, the technique depends on knowing a key device property, the insulator capacitance, with very high accuracy. Even tiny errors can produce misleading results, sometimes making it appear that far more defects exist than are actually present.

Careful crystallization unlocks well-ordered perovskite layers for transistors

Perovskites are a class of materials with a unique crystal structure that suits applications such as fabricating solar cells, light-emitting diodes and transistors. However, molecules in thin layers often cannot arrange themselves properly because the process proceeds too quickly. Now, an international research team led by Tomasz Marszalek from the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research has developed a new approach to controlling low-cost solution processing, thereby improving the formation of well-ordered perovskite layers and enabling their broader application in optoelectronic devices. Their paper is published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

Electronics can be found in almost every device, from smartphones and televisions to washing machines. Field-effect transistors are the main building blocks of electronic circuits, and they ensure that these devices can be easily operated and fully controlled. Perovskites are a new class of semiconductor that could be suitable for transistor applications. They contain various chemical elements, such as organic cations, divalent metal cations, and halide anions. This combination of elements enables the properties of thin perovskite films to be tailored precisely for specific applications.

Currently, their use in transistors is often unsuccessful due to a lack of control over the formation of the thin film, known as nucleation and crystallization. Therefore, researchers are attempting to organize the materials into thin, two-dimensional layers and stabilize them with organic molecules between the inorganic layers in order to control their optoelectronic properties.

How wasted infrared light could boost solar panels, night vision and 3D printing

Researchers at UNSW Sydney have developed a nanoscale device that converts low-energy infrared and red light into higher-energy visible light, a breakthrough that could eventually improve solar panels, sensing technologies, and advanced manufacturing systems.

Published in Nature Photonics, the research addresses a longstanding problem in photonics: how to stop energy from being lost before it can be used.

That mechanism allowed the device to achieve photon conversion efficiencies of 8.2%, among the strongest reported for this type of architecture.

Scientists develop near-invisible solar cells that could turn windows into power generators

Imagine a car whose windows and sunroof can help top up its battery while parked under the sun, or a pair of smart glasses whose lenses can harvest light to power built-in electronics.

Such applications could become more feasible with a new type of ultrathin transparent solar cell developed by scientists from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore).

Led by Associate Professor Annalisa Bruno, the NTU researchers created perovskite solar cells that are about 10,000 times thinner than a strand of human hair and around 50 times thinner than conventional perovskite solar cells.

Sustainable chemistry: Iron substitutes noble metals in catalytic reactions

The production of many products used in everyday life and in industry, such as pharmaceuticals, plastics, and coatings, requires chemical catalysts, often expensive noble metals with limited availability. Researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) are now presenting the first air-stable iron compound, which enables the direct use of iron(I) for catalysis and, unlike previous methods, does not require strong reducing agents. A first test yielded active iron catalysts.

The study, “A Simple, Air Stable Single-Ion Source of Iron(I),” is published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

Catalysts are required to speed up chemical reactions or even make them possible at all. The catalysts generally used in industry are noble metals, such as rhodium, iridium, or palladium. They are highly effective for many applications, but at the same time expensive and rare.

Engineered proteins store digital files with 30 times density at one-tenth cost

Massive volumes of digital data are generated every day from AI training, big data analytics and smart devices. As conventional hard drives and cloud storage are increasingly constrained by high costs, limited capacity, high power consumption and short lifespans, molecular data storage has emerged as a breakthrough storage alternative.

Researchers at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) have pioneered a method that uses engineered proteins to store digital data and, for the first time, completed the full process from data storage to data retrieval in de novo designed unnatural proteins.

This demonstrates the potential of establishing a protein-based storage framework with sustainability, high storage capacity and high stability, offering a promising solution to the explosive AI-generated growth in data globally.

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