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Reading time 4 min. Progress with organoids A team at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has induced stem cells to emulate the development of the human heart. The result is a sort of "mini-heart" known as an organoid. It will permit the study of the earliest development phase of our heart and facilitate research on diseases.

University of Queensland researchers are analysing compostable takeaway food packaging for potentially polluting chemicals. Associate Professor Sarit Kaserzon from UQ's Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences (QAEHS) said little is known about the substances used in compostable paper or cardboard products and how they may impact the environment.

These highly stable metal-organic frameworks could be useful for applications such as capturing greenhouse gases. Previous image Materials known as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have a rigid, cage-like structure that lends itself to a variety of applications, from gas storage to drug delivery. By changing the building blocks that go into the materials, or the way they are arranged, researchers can design MOFs suited to different uses.

Research team at the University of Göttingen develops novel process using inexpensive cobalt . Green hydrogen is regarded as the clean energy carrier of the future: It can be produced decentrally and with the help of renewable forms of energy such as solar or wind energy without releasing climate-damaging carbon dioxide.

For his PhD research, Bas van Gorkom developed a new way to measure defects in perovskite - a material used to make solar cells more efficient. Solar energy is becoming an increasingly popular source of renewable energy. Current solar panels with silicon as their primary component are affordable and reliable.

Study by the University of Bonn provides the first precise insight into important remodeling processes in adipose tissue For more than 50 years, it has been suspected that fat cells constantly remodel the lipids they store. Researchers at the University of Bonn have now demonstrated this process directly for the first time using culture cells.

Tiny materials one hundred thousand times smaller than the width of a strand of hair could be used to improve solar cell technology. A study published this month in Advanced Materials shows that materials as small as 1.2 nanometres across could function in solar cells, which harvest energy from the sun.

From makeup to clothing and furniture, so-called "forever chemicals" are everywhere - including the paper bowls and containers used to package Canadian fast-food meals.

Modern energy storage systems are an important building block for a climate-friendly future. "Modern" means not only that their performance meets the demands of a high-tech society, but also that they can be produced and recycled sustainably. In the search for new resources, scientists sometimes hit upon surprising raw materials - for example brewery waste.

A team led by ETH Zurich chemical engineers Chih-Jen Shih and Andrew deMello have developed a rapid test system made of smart graphene paper. It only costs a few Swiss Rappen per test strip, is easy to use but is as accurate as lab measurements. The approach will impact more than just disease monitoring.

A Yale-led team of chemists has identified a tiny -device- that helps certain photosynthetic organisms collect sunlight. A Yale-led research team has discovered a molecular -device- found in nature that harvests a particular sliver of the sunlight spectrum in order to convert it into chemical energy.

Adapted from a UC Santa Barbara news release by Sonia Fernandez It's a tough job, but someone's got to do it. In this case, the "job" is the breakdown of lignin, the structural molecule that gives plants strength and rigidity. One of the most abundant terrestrial polymers (large molecules made of repeating subunits called monomers) on Earth, lignin surrounds valuable plant fibers and other molecules that could be converted into biofuels and other commodity chemicals - if we could only get past that rigid plant cell wall.

Bath scientists worked with the water industry and UK Health Security Agency to pilot the first UK public health surveillance system that analyses wastewater. Researchers analysing wastewater say that routine monitoring at sewage treatment works could provide a powerful early warning system for the next flu or norovirus epidemic, alerting hospitals to prepare and providing public health agencies with vital health information.

An artist's depiction of the interstellar comet 'Oumuamua, as it warmed up in its approach to the sun and outgassed hydrogen (white mist), which slightly altered its orbit. The comet, which is most likely pancake-shaped, is the first known object other than dust grains to visit our solar system from another star.

Researchers from the University of Twente developed a new composite material that outperforms the individual compounds by one to two orders of magnitude. The composite consists of several earth-abundant elements, that could potentially be used for efficient hydrogen generation without rare and precious metals like platinum.

Researchers from the Cluster of Excellence ct.qmat have achieved a significant milestone in the pursuit of energy-efficient quantum technologies by designing a ferromagnetic topological insulator. In 2019, an international research team headed by materials chemist Anna Isaeva, at that time a junior professor at ct.qmat (Complexity and Topology in Quantum Matter), caused a stir by fabricating the world's first antiferromagnetic topological insulator - manganese bismuth telluride (MnBi 2 Te4).

The Würzburg-Dresden Cluster of Excellence ct.qmat has designed a ferromagnetic topological insulator - a milestone on the way to energy-efficient quantum technologies. Back in 2019, an international research team led by materials chemist Anna Isaeva - then a junior professor at the Würzburg-Dresden Cluster of Excellence ct.qmat - Complexity and Topology in Quantum Materials - achieved a minor sensation with the fabrication of the first antiferromagnetic topological insulator manganese bismuth telluride (MnBi 2 Te4).

Synthesis gas and battery power from sunlight energy Plants use photosynthesis to harvest energy from sunlight. Now researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have applied this principle as the basis for developing new sustainable processes which in the future may produce syngas (synthetic gas) for the large-scale chemical industry and be able to charge batteries.

Biological fluids are made up of hundreds or thousands of different proteins (represented by space filling models above) that evolved to work together efficiently but flexibly. UC Berkeley polymer scientists are trying to create artificial fluids composed of random heteropolymers (threads inside spheres) with much less complexity, but which mimic many of the properties of the natural proteins (right), such as stabilizing fragile molecular markers.

Scientists at TU Ilmenau have succeeded in realizing and understanding in detail a molecular magnifying glass for the lattice vibrations of a two-dimensional material. The results of the work, which are the result of many years of intensive joint research with theoretical physicist Mads Brandbyge from TU Denmark, have just been published in Physical Review Letters , the most important journal for physics research.