Lifeboat Foundation

Multilayer plastic materials are ubiquitous in food and medical supply packaging, particularly since layering polymers can give those films specific properties, like heat resistance or oxygen and moisture control. But despite their utility, those ever-present plastics are impossible to recycle using conventional methods.

About 100 million tons of multilayer thermoplastics — each composed of as many as 12 layers of varying polymers — are produced globally every year. Forty percent of that total is waste from the manufacturing process itself, and because there has been no way to separate the polymers, almost all of that plastic ends up in landfills or incinerators.

Now, University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers have pioneered a method for reclaiming the polymers in these materials using solvents, a technique they’ve dubbed Solvent-Targeted Recovery and Precipitation (STRAP) processing. Their proof-of-concept is detailed today (November 20, 2020) in the journal Science Advances.

Builder eBob —

A new generation of machines is automating a tech-averse industry.

Researchers pitted the biggest computer chip in the world against a supercomputer to simulate combustion—and the megachip won the race by a mile.

Your hand will give up before this pen does.

When the Mini Vision Urbanaut is parked, the dashboard can turn into a daybed among other lounging-related abilities in the concept car.

After years of underplaying soft threats like disease and climate change, the national-security establishment faces calls for a new approach in light of Covid-19 crisis.

Scientists studying the aerodynamics of infectious disease share steps to curb transmission during indoor activities. Credit: Kelby Kramer and Gerald J. Wang VIRTUAL MEETING (CST), November 22, 2020 — Wear a mask. Stay six feet apart. Avoid large gatherings. As the world awaits a safe and effective vaccine, controlling the COVID-19…

China plans to launch an unmanned spacecraft to the moon this week to bring back lunar rocks — the first attempt by any nation to retrieve samples from Earth’s natural satellite since the 1970s.

The Chang’e-5 probe, named after the ancient Chinese goddess of the moon, will seek to collect material that can help scientists understand more about the moon’s origins and formation. The mission will test China’s ability to remotely acquire samples from space, ahead of more complex missions.

If successful, the mission will make China only the third country to have retrieved lunar samples, following the United States and the Soviet Union decades ago.

Scientists working with data from the Sloan Digital Sky Surveys’ Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) have discovered a “fossil galaxy” hidden in the depths of our own Milky Way.

This result, published today (November 20, 2020) in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, may shake up our understanding of how the Milky Way grew into the galaxy we see today.

“APOGEE lets us pierce through that dust and see deeper into the heart of the Milky Way than ever before.” —