Lifeboat Foundation

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) see a realistic path forward to the manufacture of bio-derivable wind blades that can be chemically recycled and the components reused, ending the practice of old blades winding up in landfills at the end of their useful life.

The findings are published in the journal Science. The new resin, which is made of materials produced using bio-derivable resources, performs on par with the current industry standard of blades made from a thermoset resin and outperforms certain thermoplastic resins intended to be recyclable.

The researchers built a prototype 9-meter blade to demonstrate the manufacturability of an NREL-developed biomass-derivable resin nicknamed PECAN. The acronym stands for PolyEster Covalently Adaptable Network, and the manufacturing process dovetails with current methods.

A molecular biology research team at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine has become the first to map out how mitochondrial messenger RNA folds in human cells.

The research advances knowledge about the expression of genes in the mitochondria and paves the way for identification of therapeutic targets for mitochondrial neurodegenerative diseases.

“Dysfunctional mitochondria can cause devastating diseases, frequently with childhood-onset, known as mitochondrial encephalomyopathies. Despite advances in identifying genes responsible for these disorders, their pathophysiological mechanisms have been poorly understood,” said Antoni Barrientos, Ph.D., professor of neurology and biochemistry and molecular biology at the Miller School. “This was partly due to a lack of a full understanding of mitochondrial gene expression. Specifically, nothing was known about how mitochondrial messenger RNA folds and how that could influence its stability and translation in health and disease.”

Built by Natron Energy, the Edgecombe County facility is planned for 24 GWh of annual capacity, which would turn Natron from a startup into the first sodium-ion battery production juggernaut on US soil.

Sodium-ion batteries are cheaper, safer, with much longer lifespan and faster charging than conventional Li-ion packs.

Chinese companies are already using them in grid-level energy storage systems of local utilities, to balance their renewable energy mix. Some sodium-ion battery packs are even making their way into electric vehicles there, even though the chemistry offers lower energy density than Li-ion batteries.

U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) scientists confirm the identification of a new class of semiconductor nanocrystals with bright ground-state excitons, a significant advancement in the field of optoelectronics, in an article published in the American Chemical Society (ACS) journal ACS Nano.

The groundbreaking theoretical research could revolutionize the development of highly efficient light-emitting devices and other technologies.

Generally, the lowest-energy exciton in nanocrystals is poorly emitting, earning the name “dark” exciton. Because it slows the emission of light, the dark exciton limits the performance of nanocrystal-based devices like lasers or light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Scientists have long sought to overcome the dark exciton.

A journal of the UK-based Biochemical Society is retracting 25 papers after finding “systematic manipulation of our peer-review and publication processes by multiple individuals,” according to a statement provided to Retraction Watch.

The batch of retractions for Bioscience Reports is “the first time that we have issued this many retractions in one go for articles that we believe to be connected,” managing editor Zara Manwaring said in an email.

As academic publishing grapples with its papermill problem, many firms are retracting articles by the dozens, hundreds, or even thousands after discovering foul play.

Quantum computers have the potential to revolutionize our understanding of the world around us—and teach us how to manipulate it. The technology could enable the rapid design and development of life-saving drugs, simulate superconducting materials that would revolutionize technology and clean energy, and even offer insight into the underlying structure of space and time. Like the qubits that sit in superposition at the heart of quantum computers, the possibilities seem endless.

“Right now, you will find people who see quantum computing as a panacea,” says Susanne Yelin, a professor of physics in residence at Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences. “I am not one of them. But quantum computing could help us better understand fundamental physics, such as problems in condensed matter or particle physics. It could also advance quantum chemistry [which uses quantum physics to understand chemical systems]—and with it, better development of drugs and materials.”

At the Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (Harvard Griffin GSAS), PhD physics students Maddie Cain, on whose dissertation committee Yelin sits, and Dolev Bluvstein are working to make the promise of quantum computing a reality. In the laboratory of Professor Mikhail Lukin, Cain and Bluvstein push the boundaries of science, advancing the prospects of transformative applications that could reshape our world.

In rainbow trout, classification of ionocytes based on the expressed transporters is still in progress. The Nhe3-positive ionocytes expressing basolateral Nka and Nkcc1 and apical Nhe3b have been found in both freshwater-and seawater-acclimated rainbow trout. Colocalization of an Rh glycoprotein (Rhcg1, ammonium transporter) and Nhe3b at the apical membrane was also observed, suggesting ammonia-dependent Na⁺ uptake by Nhe3-positive ionocytes (Hiroi and McCormick 2012). The Nhe3-negative ionocytes, which also lack Nkcc1, are observed mainly in freshwater (Katoh et al. 2008; Hiroi and McCormick 2012). Ncc2, the apical Cl⁻ pathway in tilapia type-II ionocytes, is thought to be absent in the gill of salmonids (Hiroi and McCormick 2012). The Nhe3-positive ionocytes showed basolateral Nka and Nkcc1 both in freshwater and seawater, suggesting that Nhe3-positive ionocytes are analogous to tilapia types-III and-IV and could be equipped with apical Cftr in seawater (Hiroi and McCormick 2012; Takei et al. 2014). However, localization of Cftr proteins by immunohistochemistry has not been successful in salmonids even with homologous antibodies (Takei et al. 2014). The mRNA of slc26a6 has been reported to be highly expressed in the gills of freshwater-acclimated rainbow trout (Boyle et al. 2015; Leguen et al. 2015) and it is very likely that this transporter is responsible for the uptake of Cl⁻ in freshwater, but detailed localization of this protein in the gills has not been elucidated. In short, the molecules responsible for the Cl⁻ transport across the apical membrane have not been identified in both freshwater-and seawater-acclimated rainbow trout.

Salmonids possess two cftr genes, cftr1 and cftr2 (Chen et al. 2001), and it has been reported that the expression level of both genes increases in the gill of chum salmon Oncorhynchus keta after the transfer to seawater during the juvenile stage (Wong et al. 2019). Expression of cftr1 in the gills increased also in rainbow trout after seawater transfer (Gerber et al. 2018). On the other hand, dietary salt loading reduced cftr2 expression in the gill of rainbow trout in freshwater (Kolosov and Kelly 2016). At this time, it is not clear which of these two molecules is mainly responsible for hypo-osmoregulatory Cl⁻ secretion in the gills of salmonids.

The objective of the present study is to examine molecules responsible for the active transport of Cl⁻ in gill ionocytes of rainbow trout. To achieve this goal, we conducted tissue distribution analyses on the expression of slc26a6, cftr1, and cftr2 in rainbow trout acclimated to freshwater or seawater. Time-course changes in the expression of these genes were also examined during seawater transfer. We localized these proteins in the gill filaments of rainbow trout acclimated to freshwater or seawater by whole-mount immunohistochemistry.

We are made out of functions, and those functions are made out of functions, all the way down.

Even bacteria—the simplest life forms surviving today—are a product of many subsequent evolutionary steps.

IX. Ecology

Continue reading “In the Beginning, There Was Computation” »

A new technology can extract lithium from brines at an estimated cost of under 40% that of today’s dominant extraction method, and at just a fourth of lithium’s current market price. The new technology would also be much more reliable and sustainable in its use of water, chemicals, and land than today’s technology, according to a study published in Matter by Stanford University researchers.

Global demand for lithium has surged in recent years, driven by the rise of electric vehicles and renewable energy storage. The dominant source of lithium extraction today relies on evaporating brines in huge ponds under the sun for a year or more, leaving behind a lithium-rich solution, after which heavy use of potentially toxic chemicals finishes the job. Water with a high concentration of salts, including lithium, occurs naturally in some lakes, hot springs, and aquifers, and as a byproduct of oil and natural gas operations and of seawater desalination.

Many scientists are searching for less expensive and more efficient, reliable, and environmentally friendly lithium extraction methods. These are generally direct lithium extraction that bypasses big evaporation ponds. The new study reports on the results of a new method using an approach known as “redox-couple electrodialysis,” or RCE, along with cost estimates.