Scientists in Japan Develop Non-Toxic Plastic That Dissolves in Seawater Within Hours

Japanese scientists were thrilled to receive significant interest from the packaging industry over their new seawater-degradable plastic.Breaking apart into nutritious compounds for ocean-borne bacteria in just 2 to 3 hours depending on the size and thickness, the invention could be a major solution to reducing plastic waste in the environment.GNN has previously reported that the amount of plastic waste in the ocean is currently overestimated by 3,000%, making the remaining total a much-more addressable challenge.To that end, researchers at a lab in Wako city near Tokyo used two ionic monomers to form a salt bond for the basis of the polymer plastic. Despite being strong and flexible like normal petroleum-based plastics, the material is highly vulnerable to salt and immersion in salty ocean water dissolves the plastic in short order.Researchers from the RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science and the University of Tokyo who developed the plastic don’t have any detailed plans for commercialization, but they have been contacted by members of the packaging industry with significant interest.The plastic is non-toxic, non-flammable, and doesn’t emit CO2. It won’t leach chemicals and microplastics into one’s body as is the case with normal plastic water bottles, packaging, take-away containers, and so on.Additionally, because there are...

Read More........→June 12, 2025

AI Tool Could Accelerate Discovery of Advanced Superconductors

Credit: iStock.Original story from Emory University, Using artificial intelligence shortens the time needed to identify complex phases in quantum materials.Using artificial intelligence shortens the time to identify complex quantum phases in materials from months to minutes, finds a new study published in Newton. The breakthrough could significantly speed up research into quantum materials, particularly low-dimensional superconductors.The study was led by theorists at Emory University and experimentalists at Yale University. Senior authors include Fang Liu and Yao Wang, assistant professors in Emory’s Department of Chemistry, and Yu He, assistant professor in Yale’s Department of Applied Physics.The team applied machine-learning techniques to detect clear spectral signals that indicate phase transitions in quantum materials — systems where electrons are strongly entangled. These materials are notoriously difficult to model with traditional physics because of their unpredictable fluctuations.“Our method gives a fast and accurate snapshot of a very complex phase transition, at virtually no cost,” says Xu Chen, the study’s first author and an Emory PhD student in chemistry. “We hope this can dramatically speed up discoveries in the field of superconductivity.”One of the challenges in applying machine learning to quantum materials is...

Read More........→May 12, 2025

World’s Smallest Pacemaker is Made for Newborns, Activated by Light, and Requires No Surgery

World’s smallest pacemaker next to a grain of rice – Credit: John Rogers / Northwestern University press releaseNorthwestern University engineers have developed a pacemaker so small that it can fit inside the tip of a syringe and be non-invasively injected into the body, according to a new study published in Nature.Although it can work with hearts of all sizes, the pacemaker is particularly well-suited to the tiny, fragile hearts of newborn babies with congenital heart defects.A pacemaker is an implantable device that helps maintain an even heart rate, either because the heart’s natural cardiac pacemaker provides an inadequate or irregular heartbeat, or because there is a block in the heart’s electrical conduction system.Smaller than a single grain of rice, the pacemaker is paired with a small, soft, flexible, wireless, wearable device that mounts onto a patient’s chest to control pacing. When the wearable device detects an irregular heartbeat, it automatically shines a light to activate the pacemaker.These short light pulses, which penetrate through the patient’s skin, breastbone, and muscles, control the pacing.Designed for patients who only need temporary pacing, the pacemaker simply dissolves after it’s no longer needed. All the pacemaker’s components are biocompatible, so they naturally dissolve into the body’s biofluids, bypassing...

Read More........→April 09, 2025

Scientists Discover Mechanisms That Prevent Autoimmune Diseases and Win $600,000 Crafoord Prize

Autoimmune researcher Professor Goodnow Christopher – Photo by Garvan Institute of Medical ResearchTwo researchers in the US and Australia have discovered important mechanisms that prevent B cells from attacking the body’s own tissues in autoimmune diseases like arthritis, lupus, and multiple sclerosis—and in the process have won a prestigious prize.Normally, the body’s immune system protects us from viruses, bacteria, and foreign substances. However, in autoimmune diseases, the immune system starts attacking tissues in the body instead.Researchers had long tried to discover the cause of autoimmune diseases. But, Christopher Goodnow and David Nemazee, independently of each other, adopted a new approach.They asked why we do not all develop these diseases. Their focus was on B cells which, together with white blood cells and T cells, are the building blocks of our complex immune system.“They have given us a new and detailed understanding of the mechanisms that normally prevent faulty B cells from attacking tissues in the body, explaining why most of us are not affected by autoimmune diseases,” says Olle Kämpe, member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and chair of the Crafoord Prize committee that awarded the pair 6 million Swedish kronor ($600,000).Neutralize B cellsIn recent years, physicians have started to experiment by...

Read More........→April 07, 2025

Scientists Discover Oldest Bird Fossils, Rewrite History of Avian Evolution

A photograph and interpretive line drawing show the Baminornis zhenghensis fossil – credit: Min WangAccording to a truly field-altering fossilized bird found in China, birds already existed in the Late Jurassic period, approximately 160 million years ago.The new discovery suggests that rather than a linear evolutionary path from dinosaur to bird, these two orders evolved somewhat simultaneously.An artistic representation of the newly discovered species, Baminornis zhenghensis, with the preserved bones highlighted – credit: Zhao Chuang.Baminornis zhenghensis is the world’s oldest species of avid. A holotype fossil was recently found in East China’s Fujian Province and described in the journal Nature. The pelvis, trunk, forelimbs, and part of the hindlimb are all intact.“Baminornis is a landmark discovery and ranks among the most important bird fossils unearthed since the discovery of Archaeopteryx in the early 1860s,” Stephen Brusatte, a paleontologist from the University of Edinburgh who was not involved in the study but wrote a commentary accompanying it, tells Xinhua.“This is a groundbreaking discovery. It overturns the previous situation that Archaeopteryx was the only bird found in the Jurassic Period,” Zhonghe Zhou, a paleontologist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and co-author of the study, tells the Chinese news agency...

Read More........→March 05, 2025

Antarctica Yields Intact Skull — An Ancestor of Today’s Waterfowl That Survived Dinosaur Extinction

An artist’s impression of Vegavis iaai, an ancestor of modern waterfowl – credit: Mark Witton / SWNSA modern-looking diving bird was living somewhere in Antarctica when a massive asteroid struck the Earth and caused the dinosaurs to go extinct.But unlike the dinosaurs, this early ancestor of today’s waterfowl survived that mass extinction event, and a nearly complete skull has now been recovered by a special paleontological project on the southern continent.The animal is called Vegavis iaai—a Late Cretaceous diving bird which lived at the same time that Tyrannosaurus rex was dominating North America.The skull exhibits a long, pointed beak and a brain shape unique among all known birds previously discovered from the Mesozoic Era—the epoch stretching from 252 to 66 million years ago, and comprising the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous Periods.Researchers say the features place Vegavis in the group that includes all modern birds, representing the earliest evidence of a now widespread and successful evolutionary radiation across the planet.Assistant Professor of Biology Chris Torres from the University of the Pacific acquired the fragments of the animal’s skull from a geology sample obtained during a 2011 expedition by the Antarctic Peninsula Paleontology Project.Meticulously extracted and scanned into a 3D rendering, Torres said...

Read More........→February 21, 2025

Second-Ever Elusive Night Parrot Egg Discovered in Australia Where it Had Been ‘Extinct’ for 100 Years

Ngururrpa Ranger Lucinda Gibson gently holding the unfertilised night parrot egg – credit: supplied by Ngururrpa Rangers.Though it was unfertilized and therefore never destined to become an animal, the discovery of a night parrot egg in Western Australia has jolted the nation’s indigenous conservation community into excitement and action.Discovered last September in a vast and remote area called the Kimberly in Western Australia state, it’s hoped the egg can reveal some information about the bird’s breeding habits—of which virtually nothing is known.Adult night parrots are ground-dwelling birds that fly – Photo by Steve MurphyThe night parrot is one of the great natural enigmas left in the world: a parrot that flies but lives in burrows; that’s nocturnal, and virtually unobserved by modern science.Indigenous communities like the Kiwirrkurra and Ngururrpa, on whose lands night parrots have been confirmed to survive, have a sight-unseen relationship with the night parrot, identifying it by its calls across the deserts and drylands of Western Australia and Queensland.In 2013 a wildlife photographer captured video footage of a live bird in Queensland, confirming its existence for the first time in almost a century. Since then, they’ve been identified by their calls in two Indigenous Protected Areas (IPA) managed by the two communities...

Read More........→February 18, 2025

Scientists discover new superconductor material for wider use

Tokyo, (IANS): Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have discovered a new superconducting material which can be more widely deployed in society.They combined iron, nickel, and zirconium, to create a new transition metal zirconide with different ratios of iron to nickel.While both iron zirconide and nickel zirconide are not superconducting, the newly prepared mixtures are, exhibiting a “dome-shaped” phase diagram typical of so-called “unconventional superconductors,” a promising avenue for developing high temperature superconducting materials, according to the study published in the Journal of Alloys and Compounds.Superconductors already play an active role in cutting-edge technologies, from superconducting magnets in medical devices and maglev systems to superconducting cables for power transmission.However, they generally rely on cooling to temperatures of around four Kelvin, a key roadblock in wider deployment of the technology.Scientists are on the lookout for materials which can show zero resistivity at higher temperatures, particularly the 77 Kelvin threshold at which liquid nitrogen can be used to cool the materials instead of liquid helium.Now, a team of researchers led by Associate Professor Yoshikazu Mizuguchi from Tokyo Metropolitan University have conceived a new superconducting material containing a magnetic...

Read More........→January 23, 2025

Scientists Finally Discover Why Some Cats Are Orange–and Why They Tend to Be Males

Photo by Melanie Andersen on UnsplashOrange cats have won a reputation for being energetic rascals. In Italy, it’s said the red cat is always the leader.That’s probably because red/orange cats are almost always males, and now we know why thanks to two teams of scientists probing the genetic lineage of the orange coat in domesticated felines.Working separately,, reports Smithsonian Magazine, the two teams have independently arrived at the same conclusion—a mutation on the X chromosome.Male animals have one copy of the X chromosome, while females have two—explaining yet further why female cats with orange in their coats tend to have it mixed in with other colors such as black in the case of a ‘tortoiseshell cat,’ and white in the case of a calico.Kelly McGowan, a Stanford University geneticist who participated in one of the two studies, said that cats are a “fascinating exception” to the trend of orange coloration in other animals such as dogs, sheep, horses, and rabbits.“Our work provides an explanation for why orange cats are a genetic unicorn of sorts,” she told Newsweek.In most other mammals, mutations in a protein called Mc1r lead to red hair color, but not in cats. Instead, this decades-long mystery has been solved with the identification of the gene Arhgap36 that codes for a protein along the X chromosome.Arhgap36 has never...

Read More........→January 03, 2025

Giant Millipede Lost to Science for a Century Rediscovered in Madagascar with 20 More Species in World-First Expedition

Spirostreptus sculptus (Photo by Dmitry Telnov/NHM London, UK)It may be the very definition of a creepy crawly, but this species of giant millipede was a major discovery for a recent scientific expedition to Madagascar.Not seen in 126 years, it was part of a bevy of species identified by scientists among the trees and waterfalls in a remote section of the largest forest on the island, called Makira.The expedition was part of Re:wild’s Search for Lost Species program, on the progress of which GNN has reported substantially over the last four years. It included teams of scientists and conservationists from 4 different organizations, as well as local guides.Different specialized team members were searching for mammals, fish, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and invertebrates that have not had a documented sighting in at least a decade or more, but are not assessed as extinct by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The full team, which numbered more than 30 people, searched Makira for several weeks in September 2023 and spent several months analyzing their results.“In the past the Search for Lost Species has primarily looked for one or two species on each expedition, but there are now 4,300 species that we know of around the world that have not been documented in a decade or more,” said Christina Biggs, lost species officer for Re:wild,...

Read More........→December 30, 2024

World’s Largest Genome Discovered in a Tiny Fern: ‘Breaks all records’

A group of small fork ferns – credit Pol Fernandez, released via iScienceOn the island of New Caledonia, a simple, unassuming species of fern has been identified as having the longest genome of any living organism known.It is 50 times longer than a human’s, 7% longer than the previous world record-holding species for longest genome, and 20% longer than the record-holding animal.Compared to 23 pairs of chromosomes in every human cell, the tiny fern contains 416—and if unraveled, would climb higher than Big Ben in London’s Westminster.Questions abound, as does admiration for the majesty and mysteries of biological life.“Compared to other organisms, plants are incredibly diverse when viewed at the DNA level, and that should make us pause to think about their intrinsic value in the wider picture of global biodiversity,” said Dr. Ilia Leitch, Senior Research Leader at the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew.“This discovery also raises many new and exciting questions about the upper limits of what is biologically possible, and we hope to solve these mysteries one day.”Tmesipteris oblanceolata is a species of New Caledonian fork fern that grows on the ground or out of rotting tree trunks. A team from Kew and the Institut Botànic de Barcelona traveled to New Caledoina’s largest island of Grand Terre to collect this species for study.20,000 species...

Read More........→December 09, 2024

Scientists Discover ‘World’s Largest’ Coral –the Size of 5 Tennis Courts

Courtesy of Manu San Félix / National Geographic Pristine Seas (cropped)On an expedition to the Solomon Islands, divers affiliated with National Geographic have found the world’s largest single coral colony ever recorded.It’s longer than the largest blue whale. At 34 meters (111 feet) in length, and with a width of 32 (105) meters, it could sit corner to corner across 5 tennis courts.Experts believe it has been growing for between 300 and 500 years.The mammoth coral was discovered by scientists from National Geographic’s Pristine Seas Initiative, which aims to gather scientific data to inform conservation measures in places where marine life is bountiful. During an expedition to the Three Sisters island group in the Makira-Ulawa Province of Solomon Islands, they thought at first its massive shadow under the water was a shipwreck.“At a time where we can observe every square inch of the land with satellites and drones, the ocean below the surface continues to hold mysteries like this one,” said National Geographic explorer in residence Enric Sala. “It was like finding the world’s tallest tree.”Sala hopes the coral and its presentation—agonizingly short of being able to feature at the sixteenth annual conference of the parties to the Convention on Biodiversity, (COP16)—will nevertheless help spur future marine protection by demonstrating...

Read More........→November 28, 2024

First Antarctic amber discovery sheds light on ancient forests

Berlin, (IANS): Scientists in Germany have discovered amber in Antarctica for the first time, revealing that around 90 million years ago, the continent's climate conditions supported resin-producing forests, Germany's Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) reported.This southernmost discovery of amber offers new insights into Cretaceous forests near the South Pole, AWI said in a press release.The amber was discovered in a sediment core retrieved from the Amundsen Sea at a depth of 946 meters, using a seabed drilling device during a 2017 expedition aboard the icebreaker Polarstern. For analysis, the source material was carefully air-dried and sliced into pieces about 1 mm in diameter to extract the amber. Potential remnants of tree bark were also identified, offering further clues about the ancient forests near the South Pole."The analyzed amber fragments provide direct insights into the environmental conditions that prevailed in West Antarctica 90 million years ago," AWI marine geologist Johann P. Klages said. "It was very exciting to realize that, at some point in their history, all seven continents had climates that allowed resin-producing trees to survive."The research team, led by scientists from AWI and the TU Bergakademie Freiberg, has published their findings in the journal Antarctic Science, Xinhua news agency reported. First Antarctic...

Read More........→November 14, 2024

Rare fish rediscovered in Cambodia after disappearance for nearly two decades

Phnom Penh, (IANS): The 'Mekong ghost' fish has resurfaced in Cambodia after nearly two decades without a trace.According to the news release, the elusive giant salmon carp (Aaptosyax grypus) was spotted once again on Tuesday in Cambodian waters by a team of international scientists led by the Fisheries Administration under the Cambodian Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.The unusual fish, a carp with a hooked jaw and salmon-shaped body, had not been documented since 2005. An international team of scientists has confirmed the existence of three giant salmon carp caught between 2020 and 2023, a significant finding for a fish previously feared extinct, reports Xinhua, quoting the news release."The rediscovery of the giant salmon carp is a reason for hope, not just for this species but for the entire Mekong ecosystem," said Bunyeth Chan, lead researcher from Svay Rieng University in Cambodia."The Mekong ecosystem is the most productive river on Earth, producing over 2 million tonnes of fish per year worth over $10 billion," he added.As a result of the rediscovery, the Cambodian Fisheries Administration has added the giant salmon carp to its list of protected species. Source: https://www.morungexpress.com/rare-fish-rediscovered-in-cambodia-after-disappearance-for-nearly-two-deca...

Read More........→October 31, 2024

New Carbon Fiber Batteries Could Form the Actual Framework of Cars and Airplanes

Artist impression of vehicle partly constructed with batteries made of carbon fibre composite stiff as aluminum – Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden / Henrik Sandsjö / SWNSCars and planes could soon be built from the world’s strongest batteries, thanks to a ground-breaking innovation from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden.Researchers detailed the advance of so-called massless energy storage—and a structural battery that could cut the weight of a laptop by 50%, make mobile phones as thin as a credit card, or increase the driving range of an EV by up to 70 percent on a single charge.Structural batteries are materials that, in addition to storing energy, can carry loads. Stiff, strong carbon fibers could store electrical energy chemically and, in this way, the battery material can become part of the actual construction material of a product.And, when cars, planes, ships, or computers are built from a material that functions as both a battery and a load-bearing structure, the weight and energy consumption are radically reduced.“We have succeeded in creating a battery made of carbon fibre composite that is as stiff as aluminum and energy-dense enough to be used commercially,” says Chalmers researcher Richa Chaudhary, the first author of a paper recently published in Advanced Materials. “Just like a human skeleton,...

Read More........→September 17, 2024

Scientists discover gut protein that helps protect brain cells from Parkinson’s

New Delhi, (IANS) Scientists have identified a gut protein that can prevent the development of Parkinson's disease (PD) by protecting against brain damage. This disease affects nearly 10 million people globally.Parkinson's is characterised by rigidity of muscle and tremors due to loss of dopamine in the brain, and one of the reasons for that is toxin exposure.In the study published in the journal npj Parkinson's Disease, the team found that gut receptor protein GUCY2C could prevent PD by protecting the brain from damage.Dr Scott A. Waldman and his team at Thomas Jefferson University have been studying GUCY2C, known for its role in gut water and salt secretion, and found that it also present in the brain.They observed that removing GUCY2C from gut cells in mice increased the expression of PD-related genes, prompting them to investigate its role in the brain.Collaborating with Dr. Richard Smeyne, they discovered that mice without GUCY2C had more brain-cell damage and were more toxin-susceptible than normal mice. When normal mice were exposed to toxins, GUCY2C levels naturally increased, indicating a protective role in neurons.In human samples, PD patients showed elevated GUCY2C levels compared to non-PD patients, puzzling researchers. Current PD therapies manage symptoms by mimicking dopamine.However, targeting GUCY2C could potentially...

Read More........→August 13, 2024

Anand Mahindra praises IIT-Madras startup for developing electric flying taxi

New Delhi, May 11 (IANS) Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra has praised the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras startup that is developing an electric flying taxi, saying that the institution has become one of the world's most "exciting and active incubators"."A company is being incubated at IIT Madras to build a flying electric taxi by sometime next year," Mahindra posted on X.Thanking the institution, he further said that with the rapidly growing number of ambitious incubators throughout India, "we're no longer seen as a country that lacks genuine innovators"."Audacious aspirations matter. Accept no limits," Mahindra wrote.Since being shared, his post has been viewed by more than 190K times. Several users also shared their thoughts in the comments."Exciting times, this is audacious thinking taking root. With our immense talent pool and a supportive environment, Indian innovators are truly taking flight," a user wrote."India's incubators are hatching the future, and IIT Madras is leading the charge with their electric flying taxi project. This is the kind of innovation that puts a country on the map and inspires the next generation of dreamers and doers," another user said.Earlier this week, IIT Madras said that it raised an all-time high amount of Rs 513 crore in funding from its alumni, industry and individual donors...

Read More........→May 13, 2024

Scientists develop blood-based marker to spot acute sleep deprivation

New Delhi, March 10 (IANS) A team of scientists has developed a blood test that can detect when someone has not slept for 24 hours, also called sleep deprivation.This level of sleep deprivation increases the risk of serious injury or fatality in safety critical situations, according to experts at Monash University in Australia, and the University of Birmingham in the UK.The biomarker detected whether individuals had been awake for 24 hours with a 99.2 per cent probability of being correct, according to the study published in the journal Science Advances.“This is a really exciting discovery for sleep scientists, and could be transformative to the future management of health and safety relating to insufficient sleep,” said Clare Anderson, a professor of Sleep and Circadian Science at the University of Birmingham in the UK.With about 20 per cent of road accidents worldwide caused by sleep deprivation, researchers hope the discovery may inform future tests to quickly and simply identify sleep deprived drivers.“There is strong evidence that less than five hours’ sleep is associated with unsafe driving, but driving after being awake for 24 hours, which is what we detected here, would be at least comparable to more than double the Australian legal limit of alcohol performance wise,” Anderson added.The test may be also ideal for future...

Read More........→May 03, 2024

The Car Fueled Entirely by the Sun Takes Huge Step Towards Production

credit – Aptera, via XOne of the most hotly anticipated concept cars in recent history, the Aptera solar-powered car took a large step towards reality recently as the first-ever production-grade body arrived at the company’s headquarters in San Diego.This three-wheeler is advertised as containing 34 square feet of solar paneling that actually powers the car as it drives or while it’s parked, but so many aspects are completely new in a commercial automobile designed for mass production that extra precautions and preparations are needed before it can hit the road.“We had so much fun last week celebrating a company milestone—the arrival of Aptera’s first production body in San Diego,” the company wrote in a post on X. “Now Team Aptera is back to work finalizing the cable routing, connectors, and placement of components in preparation for our first [production-intent] builds.”According to Elektrek, the company has ordered all the parts for its production-intent battery packs, and other non-structural components are currently being “validated” in Italy by the company’s supply partner.The suspension, safety equipment, and drivetrain are yet to be finalized for production models. Still, the company has gone further than many before them, because the design they are currently finalizing is not meant to be an eye-raiser or science project,...

Read More........→April 27, 2024

University of Delaware professor wins top bio-innovation prize

Aditja Kunjapur PHOTO: AAAS.orgBiomolecular engineer Aditya Kunjapur, assistant professor at the University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware, recently won the 2024 BioInnovation Institute & Science Prize for Innovation,Kunjapur and his colleagues have found a way to create bacteria that build and incorporate a key amino acid into their own proteins, making it easier to fight infections.For this work toward building a better platform for possible ifuture bacterial vaccines, Kunjapur is the winner of the 2024 BioInnovation Institute & SciencePrize for Innovation, the American Association for the Advancement of Science announced April 5, in a news item on aaas.org.“The prize seeks to reward scientists who deliver research at the intersection of the life sciences and entrepreneurship,” it noted.“Dr. Kunjapur’s outstanding research demonstrates the potential to engineer live bacterial cells to produce and incorporate nitrated amino acids into antigenic proteins, thus shining a spotlight on these proteins for the human immune system,” Michael Funk, senior editor at Science is quoted saying in the new release. “This work provides a platform for antigen engineering that is adaptable, specific, and amenable to safety controls.”Vaccines against bacterial infections would likely decrease the need for antibiotic medicines, which in turn...

Read More........→April 23, 2024