Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Category: sustainability – Page 4

As the global demand for sustainable energy solutions continues to grow, Lithuanian researchers have taken a step forward by developing a technology that not only transforms waste into valuable hydrogen but also eliminates a long-standing issue in gasification—the presence of tar. This new method offers an efficient and eco-friendly way to produce high-purity hydrogen from various waste materials, representing a significant advancement in clean energy production.

Hydrogen is a key element in the transition to cleaner energy. However, conventional gasification methods are often unable to ensure its high purity—synthesis gases contain very low concentrations of hydrogen.

This inefficiency limits the industrial application of hydrogen as a clean gas fuel, highlighting the need for more advanced production methods.

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Iodine is a crucial element in various industries, but it is one of the least abundant nonmetallic elements on Earth. Although seawater holds around 70% of the world’s iodine reserves, its low concentrations—approximately 60 ppb—make extraction challenging. Additionally, radioactive iodine, which is released during nuclear accidents, presents significant long-term risks to marine ecosystems and human health. Therefore, there is an urgent need for effective strategies to both extract iodine from seawater and address radioactive iodine pollution.

Now, a team at Hainan University has developed a supramolecular organic (SOF) for iodine capture from . This framework has demonstrated the ability to remove 79% of iodine pollution in a simulated contaminated environment. In natural seawater, it achieves an ultrahigh iodine adsorption capacity of 46 mg g−1 within a 20-day extraction period. The research is published in the journal Research.

“The sustainable extraction of iodine from seawater is not only vital to meet the increasing global demand but also essential for mitigating the ecological risks posed by pollution,” said senior author Ning Wang. “Innovative materials can contribute to the field by enhancing the selectivity and capacity for iodine extraction from seawater. Our findings showcase an effective strategy for fabricating multi-dimensional 3D SOF materials and also present a promising material for iodine capture from seawater.”

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Using a sediment core taken from the Great Blue Hole off the coast of the Central American state of Belize, researchers from the universities of Frankfurt, Cologne, Göttingen, Hamburg and Bern have analyzed the local climate history of the last 5,700 years.

Investigations of the sediment layers from the 30-meter-long core revealed that storms have increased over the long term and that tropical cyclones have become much more frequent in recent decades. The results were published under the title “An annually resolved 5700-year storm archive reveals drivers of Caribbean cyclone frequency” in the journal Science Advances.

The Great Blue Hole is up to 125 meters deep and approximately 300 meters wide, situated in the very shallow Lighthouse Reef, an atoll off the coast of Belize. The hole was formed from a stalactite cave that collapsed at the end of the last ice age and then became flooded by the as a result of the melting of the continental ice masses.

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We often never hear of many inventions, which is why Lifeboat is good at informing people.

Gregorio Zara (March 8, 1902–October 15, 1978) was a Filipino scientist best known as the inventor of the videophone, the first two-way electronic video communicator, in 1955. All told, he patented 30 devices. His other inventions ranged from an alcohol-powered airplane engine to a solar-powered water heater and stove.

Filipino scientist Gregorio Zara won 30 patents for his inventions, which included the first videophone and many breakthroughs in aeronautics.

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Researchers at Heriot-Watt University have made a discovery that could pave the way for a transformative era in photonic technology. For decades, scientists have theorized the possibility of manipulating the optical properties of light by adding a new dimension—time. This once-elusive concept has now become a reality thanks to nanophotonics experts from the School of Engineering and Physical Sciences in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Published in Nature Photonics, the team’s breakthrough emerged from experiments with nanomaterials known as transparent conducting oxides (TCOs)—a special glass capable of changing how light moves through the material at incredible speeds. These compounds are widely found in and touchscreens and can be shaped as ultra-thin films measuring just 250 nanometers (0.00025 mm), smaller than the wavelength of visible light.

Led by Dr. Marcello Ferrera, Associate Professor of Nanophotonics, of the Heriot-Watt research team, supported by colleagues from Purdue University in the US, managed to “sculpt” the way TCOs react by radiating the material with ultra-fast pulses of light. Remarkably, the resulting temporally engineered layer was able to simultaneously control the direction and energy of individual particles of light, known as photons, a functionality which, up until now, had been unachievable.

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About 100 million metric tons of high-density polyethylene (HDPE), one of the world’s most commonly used plastics, are produced annually, using more than 15 times the energy needed to power New York City for a year and adding enormous amounts of plastic waste to landfills and oceans.

Cornell chemistry researchers have found ways to reduce the environmental impact of this ubiquitous —found in milk jugs, shampoo bottles, playground equipment and many other things—by developing a machine-learning model that enables manufacturers to customize and improve HDPE materials, decreasing the amount of material needed for various applications. It can also be used to boost the quality of recycled HDPE to rival new, making recycling a more practical process.

“Implementation of this approach will facilitate the design of next-generation commodity materials and enable more efficient polymer recycling, lowering the overall impact of HDPE on the environment,” said Robert DiStasio Jr., associate professor of chemistry and chemical biology in the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S).

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