Show Notes 16 September 2022
Story 1: Scientists Create Diamonds from Plastic Bottles
Source: ElectronicsWeekly.com Story by David Manners
Link: https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/business/diamonds-from-plastic-bottles-2022-09/
Source: New Atlas Story by Michael Irving
Link: https://newatlas.com/science/plastic-diamonds-uranus-rain-x-ray-laser/
- Okay, up front, we’re not talking about diamonds for jewelry, but microscopic nanodiamonds for industrial purposes.
- Industrial nanodiamonds are extremely small with a size of about 4 to 5 billionths of a meter that are used, for example, in abrasives and polishing agents.
- Nanodiamonds are also crucial in the advancement of quantum mechanics, biotechnology, and any other number of fields.
- Nanodiamonds to date can be produced by impact events such as an explosion or meteoritic impacts. Other than explosions, methods of synthesis include hydrothermal synthesis, ion bombardment, laser bombardment, microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition techniques, ultrasound synthesis, and electrochemical synthesis.
- More fun facts:
- A collection of pure diamond nanoparticles is a grayish looking powder – nothing like the gleaming diamond you might have imagined.
- Detonation nanodiamonds were first made in 1963 by three Russian scientists at the All-Union Research Institute of Technical Physics in the Soviet Union.
- In collaboration with scientists in Germany and France, researchers at Stanford University’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have created nanodiamonds from the same common plastic used to make plastic bottles!
- And here’s how they did it:
- They used the world’s most powerful X-ray laser [called the Linac Coherent Light Source] to briefly heat a sample of the ordinary plastic used to make plastic bottles to 10,800°F.
- This super heating process generated a shockwave that compressed the plastic for a few billionths of a second.
- And this compression was equal to a million times the Earth’s atmospheric pressure.
- This extreme compression caused the plastic’s carbon and hydrogen atoms to re-arrange themselves to start forming nanodiamonds, with the oxygen in the plastic acting as a catalyst.
- In specific, the effect of the oxygen [within the plastic] was to accelerate the splitting of the carbon and hydrogen [atoms] and thus encourage the formation of nanodiamonds.
- This breakthrough offers a new manufacturing alternative for creating industrial nanodiamonds.
- And here’s a fun sidenote of interest – Essentially, the Stanford team simulated the same conditions believed to be on the planet Uranus where many experts speculate diamonds weighing millions of carats are constantly forming.
Story 2: Synthetic Milk May Soon Start Showing Up at Your Market
Source: ScienceAlert.com Story by Milena Bojovic
Link: https://www.sciencealert.com/synthetic-milk-is-coming-and-it-could-radically-shake-up-dairy
- With more than 80 percent of the world’s population regularly consuming dairy products there has been an increasing push to move beyond animal-based food systems to more sustainable forms of food production.
- We’ve had oat milk, almond milk, and other plant-based alternatives to dairy milk for years. But for me, none of them can replace the taste and texture of real cow’s milk.
- But developers of a new alternative, synthetic milk, say it has the same biochemical make up as milk from cows – delivering the same taste, look, and feel of dairy milk.
- One of the leading process technologies behind synthetic milk comes from Australia’s National Science Agency, CSIRO, which stands for Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization.
- They’ve developed a process that starts with yeast and uses “precision fermentation” to produce the same proteins found in milk from cows.
- The Australian research team says these proteins give dairy milk many of its key properties and contribute to its creamy texture and frothing ability.
- To create the final synthetic milk product the scientists added minerals, sugars, fats, and flavors to the proteins derived from yeast.
- And right now, using this technology innovation Australian start-up company Eden Brew is producing synthetic milk targeting consumers increasingly concerned about climate change and animal welfare.
- And in the United States the Perfect Day company today supplies animal-free protein made from microflora which refers to bacteria and microscopic algae and fungi
- Their microflora can then be used to make ice cream, protein powder, and milk.
Story 3: Scientists Recently Made Biodegradable Batteries Out of Crab Shells
Source: Gizmodo.com Story by Molly Taft
Link: https://gizmodo.com/batteries-made-from-crabs-chitosan-1849490333
- First, here’s the problem – Today’s batteries are incredibly complex to recycle because of their electrolytes.
- Inside lead-acid and lithium-ion batteries is a liquid or paste-like substance called an electrolyte – which makes a battery work.
- An electrolyte substance sits between the two electric terminals at either end of a battery, which helps ions move back and forth between the positively and negatively charged terminals to generate electricity.
- Electrolytes are not biodegradable, and they can even be dangerous, sometimes exploding or causing fires.
- To tackle this problem the University of Maryland’s Center for Materials Innovation recently announced that they have created biodegradable electrolytes using a material found in the shells of crabs called chitin.
- Chitin is what makes the shells of crustaceans tough and strong.
- And chitin can also be made into a derivative called chitosan, which the University of Maryland researchers combined with zinc to create a new electrolyte substance to power a battery that they say remains almost entirely energy efficient after 400 hours of use.
- What’s more, unlike traditional battery electrolytes, the crustacean shell component of this new alternative electrolyte will completely break down when buried in soil in about five months, leaving the zinc component behind in the ground that can be harvested and reused.
- And when it comes to supply – it’s estimated that about 1.4 million tons of crabs are consumed worldwide each year. That’s a lot of shells going to waste!
Story 4: Brain Stimulation May Boost Long-term, Working Memory in Older Adults
Source: MedicalNewsToday.com
- Researchers estimate that about 40% of people ages 65 and older experience memory loss.
- While medications and other treatment options can help with memory loss due to aging, there is currently no cure for the condition.
- Recently, researchers from Boston University announced that by applying noninvasive electrical stimulation to the brain over a certain time span it can help improve long-term and working memory in adults over 65 years old.
- For this study, the Boston University team tested a noninvasive type of electrical stimulation called transcranial alternating current stimulation.
- The scientists used this form of electrical stimulation to deliver oscillating electrical currents through electrodes placed on the heads of 150 people between the ages of 65 and 88.
- Study participants received about 20 minutes of transcranial alternating current stimulation treatment for 4 consecutive days.
- So far, the results are very promising. The memory gains participants experienced were still detectable 1 month after the stimulation treatment series.
- And going forward the Boston University research team is investigating to see if they can use noninvasive stimulation tools to improve cognition in schizophrenia, restore memory for Alzheimer patients, and even reduce symptoms of anxiety.