“Our finding reverses the previous perception that silkworm silk cannot compete with spider silks on mechanical performance,” says senior author Zhi Lin, a biochemist at Tianjin University. Historically, silkworm silk has been used in fashion as a source of luxury robes and apparel fitting of royalty, but today, silk-based materials are more likely to be …
Re-spun silkworm silk is 70% stronger than spider silk Read More »
When exposed to winds with a velocity as low as two metres per second (m/s), the device can produce a voltage of three volts and generate electricity power of up to 290 microwatts, which is sufficient to power a commercial sensor device and for it to also send the data to a mobile phone or …
Sea ice, by reflecting the majority of the sun’s energy back to space, helps regulate ocean and air temperatures and influences ocean circulation. Its area and thickness is of critical importance to Earth’s climate. The new finding is the result of work led by researcher Melinda Webster of the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute. …
Hydrogen is considered a promising alternative to fossil fuels. It can be produced from water using electricity. If the electricity comes from renewable sources, it is called green hydrogen. But it would be even more sustainable if hydrogen could be produced directly with the energy of sunlight. In nature, light-driven water splitting takes place during …
New research led by the University of Washington offers a possible explanation. The study, recently published in Geophysical Research Letters, suggests that climate change is, in the short term, favoring La Niñas. “The Pacific Ocean naturally cycles between El Niño and La Niña conditions, but our work suggests that climate change could currently be weighing …
They’ve done an amazing job with photovoltaic cells which convert sunlight directly into energy. And still, with all the research, history and science behind it, there are limits to how much solar power can be harvested and used — as its generation is restricted only to the daytime. A University of Houston professor is continuing …
Solar harvesting system has potential to generate solar power 24/7 Read More »
“The world needs more and better options for extracting the energy and molecular value from its waste plastics,” said co-lead author Susannah Scott, Distinguished Professor and Mellichamp Chair of Sustainable Catalytic Processing at UC Santa Barbara. Conventional plastic recycling methods result in low-value plastic molecules and, thus, offer little incentive to recycle the mountains of …
Scientists crack upcycling plastics to reduce greenhouse gas emissions Read More »
A team of scientists, led by Professor Adam Scaife from the University of Exeter, has used state-of-the-art mathematical modelling to show how fluctuations in the length of the day can be predicted more than a year in advance — significantly longer than currently possible. The team suggest this long-range forecasting also originates from a new …
Key breakthrough links changes in length-of-day with climate prediction Read More »
The research team led by Professor Yutaka Amao from the Research Center for Artificial Photosynthesis at Osaka Metropolitan University has successfully synthesized 3-hydroxybutyrate, a raw material for poly-3-hydroxybutyrate (PHB) — a strong water-insoluble polyester used for packaging materials — from acetone and CO2. With a visible light-driven catalytic system utilizing sunlight and two biocatalysts, the …
Success in synthesizing biodegradable plastic materials using sunlight and CO2 Read More »
But a new process developed at the University of California, Berkeley, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) could change all that. The process uses catalysts to break the long polyethylene (PE) polymers into uniform chunks — the three-carbon molecule propylene — that are the feedstocks for making other types of high-value plastic, such as …
Process converts polyethylene bags, plastics to polymer building blocks Read More »
