Functional architecture that builds itself

Nanocomponents as organic dyes or nanoparticles bind to the surface of the chips and form 3D molecular architectures.
Photo Credit: Christoph Hohmann / LMU

Imagine hundreds of Lego bricks coming together and spontaneously forming, say, a house. And then, before you know it, the whole play mat is filled with hundreds of houses. Although this does not work in real life, it can be accomplished effortlessly at the molecular level – provided the conditions are right. Nature has mastered the principle of self-organization by exploiting intermolecular forces and electrostatic attraction. In this way, complex 3D structures with a specific function are seemingly formed by magic. Light-harvesting complexes for photosynthesis or hydrophobic, self-cleaning lotus leaves are two examples. “It’s exactly this principle of self-assembly that we’re adapting for our purposes and using to develop methods for functionalizing surfaces on the nanometer scale. To do this, we combine lithographic methods with DNA origami, enabling us to construct ordered 3D nanostructures,” explains Dr. Irina Martynenko, a postdoctoral researcher in physics professor Tim Liedl’s research group at LMU. The research team has now published its results in the journal Nature Nanotechnology. “The fields of application for nano- and micro-structured substrates are extremely diverse, ranging from microchips and biosensors to solar cells. This makes the principle of self-assembly so advantageous,” observes Martynenko.

Scientists develop a new model for understanding sudden death in epilepsy

Image Credit: geralt

Researchers at the University of Michigan have developed a model for studying one type of familial epilepsy, opening the door to understanding—and eventually targeting—the mechanisms that lead to the disorder and its associated fatalities.

The research, published in the journal Annals of Neurology, has already revealed important insights into interactions between breathing, heart rate and brain activity during fatal seizures.

Mutations in a gene called DEPDC5 are a common cause of familial focal epilepsy and increase the risk of sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP), a devastating consequence of epilepsy that ranks second only to stroke in potential life-years lost due to neurological diseases. But scientists have been unable to determine the underlying processes that lead to SUDEP in DEPDC5-related epilepsy.

“Without a clear understanding of the precise mechanisms that drive SUDEP, it is extremely difficult to predict its occurrence in patients,” said Yu Wang, associate professor of neurology at the U-M Medical School who also works with epilepsy patients at Michigan Medicine. “Having an accurate model that we can study at the molecular level is essential for understanding the complex pathophysiology of this condition and identifying therapeutic targets.”

How can the use of plastics in agriculture become more sustainable?

Photo Credit: Mark Stebnicki

It is impossible to imagine modern agriculture without plastics. 12 million tons are used every year. But what about the consequences for the environment? An international team of authors led by Thilo Hofmann from the Division of Environmental Geosciences at the University of Vienna addresses this question in a recent study in Nature Communication Earth and Environment. The research shows the benefits and risks of using plastics in agriculture, and identifies solutions that ensure their sustainable use. 

Once celebrated as a symbol of modern innovation, plastic is now both a blessing and a curse of our time. Plastic is ubiquitous in every sector, and agriculture is no different. Modern agriculture, which is responsible for almost a third of global greenhouse gas emissions and is a major drain on the planet's resources, is inextricably linked to plastic. The new study from the University of Vienna was conducted by Thilo Hofmann, environmental psychologist Sabine Pahl and environmental scientist Thorsten Hüffer, along with international co-authors. Their research reveals that plastic plays a multi-faceted role: from mulch films that protect plants to water-saving irrigation systems, plastic is deeply embedded in our food production.

How OSIRIS-REx is helping scientists study the sonic signature of meteoroids

A Sandia National Laboratories solar-powered hot air balloon taking flight bears sensors including a GPS tracker and reusable infrasound sensor. This flight supported past infrasound research at Sandia.
 Photo Credit: Sandia National Laboratories

In the high desert of Nevada, Elizabeth Silber watched NASA’s Sample Return Capsule from OSIRIS-REx descend into Earth’s atmosphere on Sunday, but unlike most scientists, she wasn’t there for the asteroid rocks.

Silber, a physicist at Sandia National Laboratories, is working with researchers from Sandia and Los Alamos national laboratories, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, TDA Research Inc., the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the University of Hawaii and the University of Oklahoma in a campaign to record and characterize the infrasound and seismic waves generated by the capsule as it moved through Earth’s atmosphere at hypersonic speed, about 26,000 miles per hour. This was the largest observational campaign of any hypersonic event in history, and Silber hopes the data will improve scientists’ ability to use infrasound to detect meteoroids and other objects moving at hypersonic speeds.

Scientists currently use infrasound, a low-frequency sound wave that is generally inaudible to humans, to detect and observe volcanic activity, earthquakes and explosions. Silber said infrasound can also be observed when meteoroids enter Earth’s atmosphere, but atmospheric conditions like wind can distort the signal, and there’s usually relatively little information available about the incoming meteoroid to help with data analysis.

Copper-based catalysts efficiently turn carbon dioxide into methane

Soumyabrata Roy is a Rice University postdoctoral research associate in materials science and nanoengineering and the study’s lead author.
Photo Credit: Gustavo Raskosky/Rice University

Technologies for removing carbon from the atmosphere keep improving, but solutions for what to do with the carbon once it’s captured are harder to come by.

The lab of Rice University materials scientist Pulickel Ajayan and collaborators developed a way to wrest the carbon from carbon dioxide and affix it to hydrogen atoms, forming methane ⎯ a valuable fuel and industrial feedstock. According to the study published in Advanced Materials, the method relies on electrolysis and catalysts developed by grafting isolated copper atoms on two-dimensional polymer templates.

“Electricity-driven carbon dioxide conversion can produce a large array of industrial fuels and feedstocks via different pathways,” said Soumyabrata Roy, a research scientist in the Ajayan lab and the study’s lead author. “However, carbon dioxide-to-methane conversion involves an eight-step pathway that raises significant challenges for selective and energy-efficient methane production.

“Overcoming such issues can help close the artificial carbon cycle at meaningful scales, and the development of efficient and affordable catalysts is a key step toward achieving this goal.”

Could seaweed hold the key to the fountain of youth?

Photo Credit: Kindel Media

Scientists from Flinders University have discovered rich anti-aging properties in South Australian brown seaweed that significantly increase collagen levels in the skin and protect against the deterioration of both collagen and elastin.

“We found that extracts from South Australian brown seaweed have huge potential to be used to help slow the effects of aging on our skin,” says Professor Wei Zhang, College of Medicine and Public Health.

“Collagen acts as a building block for bones, teeth, muscles, skin, joints and connective tissue, while elastin gives skin its elasticity and strength – and both these proteins are popularly promoted by the beauty industry as essential for the appearance of healthy skin,” he says.

Professor Zhang explains the Flinders team has found that extracts from SA’s brown seaweed not only stimulated the growth of collagen, but also inhibited a process called glycation, which leads to the deterioration of collagen and elastin.

“So far anti-glycation agents haven’t been strong enough to have a major impact on anti-aging, so our discovery is really exciting as we can see the potential to develop stronger anti-glycation extracts from brown seaweed.”

Fighting Climate Change Isn’t an Automatic Win for Environmental Justice

Photo Credit: SD-Pictures

Some simulated pathways for reducing emissions in the U.S. maintained or exacerbated existing racial inequities

In the United States in 2017, people of color were exposed to 10% more particulate matter air pollution compared to white people. This well-documented inequity has been baked into the fabric of American life by racist housing policies like redlining and has left a legacy of negative health outcomes for communities of color across the nation.

The kind of sweeping cuts to greenhouse gas emissions needed to fight climate change are expected to improve air quality because burning fossil fuels also produces air pollution. But a new study from researchers at the University of California San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography and School of Global Policy and Strategy shows that while reducing greenhouse gases will likely improve overall air quality, reducing emissions could maintain or even exacerbate environmental inequality.

The study, published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and supported by the National Science Foundation as well as the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, used computer models to simulate more than 300 paths to reduce emissions that all achieved the U.S. Paris Climate Agreement goal of a 50-52% net greenhouse gas emissions reduction from 2005 levels by 2030. While all the simulated paths to reducing emissions improved overall air quality, some actually widened the air quality gap between people of color and white people in the U.S.

“These disparities can go up or down depending on how you implement climate policy,” said climate scientist Pascal Polonik, 2023 Scripps PhD graduate and lead author of the study. “It’s not a given that any climate policy that succeeds in reducing emissions also succeeds when it comes to environmental justice.”

Screening in zebrafish identifies a drug to potentially improve recovery from spinal cord injury

Zebra fish
Photo Credit: © Center for Regenerative Therapies Dresden / Technische Universität Dresden

Scientists from the Center for Regenerative Therapies Dresden (CRTD) at TUD Dresden University of Technology, the University of Edinburgh, and the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre in Montreal, investigated potential drugs to improve recovery from spinal cord injury. After testing over a thousand molecules, they identified cimetidine, an existing drug, to improve spinal repair in zebrafish and mice. Their work uncovers a promising route to new treatments and highlights the potential of zebrafish to screen for molecules that aid in spinal repair. The work was published in the journal Theranostics.

Sudden impacts to the spinal cord, such as those caused by a car accident, can cause lifelong injuries. The healing of an injury can be prolonged or even prevented by inflammation caused by an overreaction of the body’s immune system. Reducing inflammation with existing anti-inflammatory drugs suppresses the immune response as a whole, inhibiting the immune cells that are beneficial and promote injury repair.

In a new study, scientists from the Center for Regenerative Therapies Dresden (CRTD) at TUD Dresden University of Technology, the University of Edinburgh, and the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre tested more than a thousand drugs in zebrafish larvae for their ability to prevent excessive inflammation during an immune response. Through this screening process, the research team identified an existing drug – cimetidine – that improved spinal cord repair in zebrafish.

Brain receptor patterns separate sensory and cognitive networks

Receptor patterns define key organizational principles in the brain, scientists have discovered.
Photo Credit: Pete Linforth

An international team of researchers, studying macaque brains, have mapped out neurotransmitter receptors, revealing a potential role in distinguishing internal thoughts and emotions from those generated by external influences.

The comprehensive dataset has been made publicly available, serving as a bridge linking different scales of neuroscience - from the microscopic to the whole brain.

Lead author Sean Froudist-Walsh, from the University of Bristol’s Department of Computer Science explained: “Imagine the brain as a city. In recent years, brain research has been focused on studying its roads, but in this research, we've made the most detailed map yet of the traffic lights - the neurotransmitter receptors - that control information flow.

“We've discovered patterns in how these 'traffic lights' are arranged that help us understand their function in perception, memory, and emotion.

“It's like finding the key to a city's traffic flow, and it opens up exciting possibilities for understanding how the normal brain works.

“Potentially in the future, other researchers may use these maps to target particular brain networks and functions with new medicines.

Clean, sustainable fuels made ‘from thin air’ and plastic waste

Carbon capture from air and its photoelectrochemical conversion into fuel with simultaneous waste plastic conversion into chemicals. 
Photo Credit: Ariffin Mohamad Annuar

Researchers have demonstrated how carbon dioxide can be captured from industrial processes – or even directly from the air – and transformed into clean, sustainable fuels using just the energy from the sun.

The researchers from the University of Cambridge developed a solar-powered reactor that converts captured CO2 and plastic waste into sustainable fuels and other valuable chemical products. In tests, CO2 was converted into syngas, a key building block for sustainable liquid fuels, and plastic bottles were converted into glycolic acid, which is widely used in the cosmetics industry.

Unlike earlier tests of their solar fuels technology however, the team took CO2 from real-world sources – such as industrial exhaust or the air itself. The researchers were able to capture and concentrate the CO2 and convert it into sustainable fuel.

Although improvements are needed before this technology can be used at an industrial scale, the results, reported in the journal Joule, represent another important step toward the production of clean fuels to power the economy, without the need for environmentally destructive oil and gas extraction.