Scientists have developed a breakthrough “superfood” for honeybees by engineering yeast to produce the essential nutrients normally found in pollen. In controlled trials, colonies fed this specially designed diet produced up to 15 times more young, showing a dramatic boost in reproduction and overall health. As climate change and modern agriculture reduce the availability of natural pollen, this innovation could offer a practical way to support struggling bee populations.
Researchers at the University of Seville’s Food Color and Quality Laboratory have studied the effects of different cooking methods used for tomatoes and carrots (in the oven, microwave or air fryer, among others) on the amount of carotenoids that are potentially available for absorption by the body following the digestion of these foods. According to the study, the bioavailability index varies significantly depending on how these foods are cooked. Carotenoids are compounds of great importance due to their positive health effects.
In the case of carrots, the bioavailability of total carotenoids increased ninefold when cooked in the oven. For tomatoes, the highest bioavailability values were obtained by cooking them in either an air fryer (190 °C for 10 minutes) or a conventional oven (180 °C for 20 minutes). There were no significant differences between the two methods. Although the increase in bioavailability was more modest (a 1.5-fold increase), it was also significant compared to raw tomatoes.
The researchers also highlight that the increases in the bioavailability of the vitamin A precursor carotenoids in tomatoes (α-carotene and β-carotene) ranged from 26 to 38 times and 46 to 71 times, respectively, compared with those in raw carrots. Cooking is, therefore, a sometimes-overlooked strategy for combating vitamin A deficiency, one of the world’s most serious nutritional problems.
Research appearing in Communications Materials has shown that perovskite solar cells (PSCs) are remarkably resilient to dust during production, challenging the industry belief that high-performance solar technology must be manufactured in sterile and expensive cleanrooms. This discovery could reduce the need for ultra-clean factories, making solar cell production cheaper and more accessible worldwide.
PSCs are a new type of technology that uses a unique crystal structure to harvest light. They are thinner, lighter, and potentially much cheaper to produce than the traditional silicon panels found on roofs today. However, traditional silicon cells are incredibly fragile during the making process; even a single microscopic dust particle can ruin a cell. This forces manufacturers to use expensive, energy-hungry cleanrooms, creating a massive barrier to production in developing nations.
Researchers at Swansea University’s Faculty of Science & Engineering have now found that perovskite technology has a unique tolerance to common dust and debris.
Solar cells, devices that can convert sunlight into electricity, are now widely used in many countries worldwide. Over the past few years, energy engineers have been exploring alternative designs that could further boost these devices’ power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) and ensure that they continue operating reliably over time.
Researchers at Soochow University, Zhejiang Jinko Solar Co. Ltd. and other institutes introduced a new bifacial solar cell design that could overcome some of the limitations of a recently introduced type of solar cell that leverage components known as tunnel oxide passivating contacts (TOPCon). Their design, outlined in a paper published in Nature Energy, combines TOPCon structures with perovskites, a class of materials with a unique crystal structure that efficiently absorbs light.
“Our work is rooted in a fundamental limitation of current TOPCon solar cells,” Kun Gao and Prof. Xinbo Yang, first author and co-senior author of the paper, respectively, told Tech Xplore. “In industrial TOPCon devices, a boron-diffused p+ emitter is still used on the front side, which introduces significant recombination losses and limits further efficiency improvements. A natural strategy is to replace this emitter with localized TOPCon contact.”
Researchers at Cranfield University have created WANDER-bot, a low-cost, 3D-printed robot that is powered by wind energy. Designed to spend long durations in hostile, windy environments such as certain deserts, polar regions or even other planets, WANDER-bot doesn’t need a battery to power movement, enabling longer operations without having to pause and recharge.
Movement accounts for around 20% of battery use in most robots, so running on natural energy makes WANDER-bot an efficient solution for long-term exploration or mapping of unknown terrains. As a result, any electronic elements added to future versions for data collection or transmission purposes could have their own smaller, lighter power source. Using natural energy also counters the issue of performance degradation over time in traditional power sources, such as solar cells and radioisotope thermoelectric generators.
Designed by Dr. Saurabh Upadhyay and Sam Kurian, Research Associate in Space Engineering, the robot uses parts that are entirely 3D printed, with the design deliberately simple to allow for quick repair and replacement. This means that, in theory, you could print and construct WANDER-bot anywhere and make replacement parts in situ as needed, removing the need for time-consuming and costly resupply missions.
Cyanobacteria and algae are the major photosynthetic organisms in deserts because they survive desiccation, high solar radiation and extreme temperature fluctuations better than other plants. Under favourable conditions, desert cyanobacteria and algae evidently photosynthesise. However, our understanding of whether each group modulates this metabolic process in response to preceding harsh conditions remains limited. To find out the effect of aridity on the photosynthetic activity of desert cyanobacteria and algae, we compared their cellular biovolume-specific carbon dioxide (CO2) fixation in the hyper-arid and arid regions of a typical hot desert—the central Negev Desert. We found that the biovolume-specific CO2 fixation of both cyanobacteria and algae was highly variable rather than being constant.
El Nino strength is important, but the extraordinary, accelerating, warming of global sea surface temperatures is much more important.
See Super El Nino? – https://mailchi.mp/caa/super-el-nino-super-warming-is-the-main-issue
Also available on Substack: https://jimehansen.substack.com/p/super-el-nino-super-warming-is-the
Abstract. Models are converging on prediction of an El Nino beginning this year, peaking in early 2027. After overlooking the possibility of an El Nino this year, some reporting is jumping on a “Super El Nino” bandwagon. El Nino strength and frequency are important, especially the issue of whether these are modified by global warming. However, the more important knowledge that needs to be extracted from near-term global warming concerns interpretation of ongoing, extraordinary, acceleration of ocean surface warming. Impacts of this ocean warming include a factor of two greater warming over land, increased extreme precipitation, and poleward movement of subtropical conditions.
The fundamental advance in the past five years in understanding of global climate change is realization that equilibrium climate sensitivity is substantially larger than the long-standing best estimate of 3°C for doubled CO2. The underestimate was due to an implicit assumption that aerosol climate forcing changed negligibly during the period of rapid linear warming that began about 1970 and on heavy dependence of climate sensitivity assessments on observed warming of the past century. Multiple data sources now indicate that climate sensitivity is 4–5°C, which is consistent with aerosol-cloud modeling that reveals increasing aerosol cooling during the 1970–2005 period of rapid linear warming because of increased global spread of the aerosol sources. This explains why underlying climate sensitivity must be larger to account for the observed temperature rise.
Simulated lunar dirt can be turned into extremely durable structures, potentially paving the way to more sustainable and cost-effective space missions, a new study suggests. Using a special laser 3D printing method, researchers melted fake lunar soil—a synthetic version of the fine dusty material on the moon surface, called regolith simulant—into layers and fused it with a base surface to manufacture small, heat-resistant objects.
If utilized on the lunar surface, the material may help build sturdy, nontoxic habitats and tools for future astronauts, capabilities that would be vital to the NASA Artemis missions that aim to establish a long-term human presence on the moon by the end of the decade.
But to assess how well this new construction material may work in space, the team tested their fabrication process under a range of different environmental conditions, revealing that the overall quality of the material depends greatly on the surface onto which the soil is printed.
The Aydin Group at LMU Munich has unveiled a novel strategy for making perovskite solar cells more robust against extreme temperature fluctuations. To this end, the researchers led by Dr. Erkan Aydin, group leader at LMU’s Department of Chemistry and Pharmacy, combined two molecular approaches. Their goal was to stabilize both the grain structure within the perovskite material and the interfaces of the solar cells, with a particular focus on enhancing the interaction between the perovskite layer and the underlying substrate. This enables the solar cells to maintain stable performance under the extreme thermal cycling typical of Low Earth orbit (LEO), as well as in other harsh environmental conditions. Their results have been published in the journal Nature Communications.
Regarding the background: Perovskite solar cells are considered one of the most promising next-generation photovoltaic technologies. They are relatively inexpensive to manufacture and achieve high efficiencies.
However, their mechanical stability is an issue. In particular, when confronted with strong temperature fluctuations in LEO—for example, in the range between −80 and +80 degrees Celsius—materials inside the solar cell can expand and contract to varying extents. This creates mechanical stresses, which lead to cracks, delamination, or drops in performance.