Researchers in Texas and Singapore have developed a way to make urea for fertiliser that makes use of renewable electricity and saves on emissions from fossil fuels.
The commercial battery with the highest energy density is the lithium-thionyl chloride (Li-SOCl2) battery. Developed in the 1970s, this non-rechargeable battery is still widely deployed in military, space, utility metering and GPS tracking applications. It uses thionyl chloride as the catholyte, lithium metal as the anode and amorphous carbon as the cathode.
Commenting on the latest report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), UN Secretary-General António Guterres has declared it as nothing less than a ‘code red for humanity. The alarm bells are deafening, and the evidence is irrefutable’.
Researchers have tracked the steps taken in evolution to improve synthetic enzymes in the lab in an effort to better design future protein catalysts.
A more efficient and low-cost system for desalinating water using solar energy could be rolled out across the sun-rich but arid regions of Africa and the Middle East.
In the UK, about 90% of time is spent indoors on average, with today’s children known as the ‘indoor generation’. Now, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has announced £9m in funding over four years to better understand the environmental and health risks of indoor air pollution.
The UK government has unveiled its Hydrogen Strategy as part of its drive to a net-zero carbon economy by 2050. Working with industry, the government is aiming for 5GW of low carbon hydrogen production capacity by 2030 for use across the economy.
Scientists have developed a new type of catalyst consisting of nanoclusters of metal atoms. Read the C&I magazine news article.
An artificial intelligence system has predicted the 3D structures of more than 360,000 proteins, representing a ‘quantum leap for biology’ and paving the way for an acceleration in scientific research, according to experts.
A fungus that inflicts the most damaging disease of oilseed rape in the UK is becoming increasingly resistant to azole fungicides. This fall-off was confirmed in a new study of light leaf spot at Rothamsted Research, which reported that a mixture of azole plus QoI (pyraclostrobin) or SDHI (penthiopyrad) fungicides is required for robust disease control (Plant Pathology, doi: 10.1111/ppa.13441).