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Categories: Chemistry: Inorganic Chemistry, Offbeat: Plants and Animals
Published Critical minerals recovery from electronic waste



A nontoxic separation process recovers critical minerals from electronic scrap waste.
Published Fossil frogs share their skincare secrets



Palaeontologists have solved a hundred-year-old mystery of how some fossil frogs preserve their fleshy parts -- it's all down to their skin. Palaeontologists studied 45-million-year-old fossil frogs from the Geiseltal site in central Germany. Remarkably, the fossils show full body outlines of the soft tissues. The team discovered that the excellent condition of the fossil frogs is due to preservation of ancient skin remnants.
Published Magnetic with a pinch of hydrogen



Magnetic two-dimensional materials consisting of one or a few atomic layers have only recently become known and promise interesting applications, for example for the electronics of the future. So far, however, it has not been possible to control the magnetic states of these materials well enough. A research team is now presenting an innovative idea that could overcome this shortcoming -- by allowing the 2D layer to react with hydrogen.
Published More economical and sustainable rechargeable batteries



Lithium salts make batteries powerful but expensive. An ultralow-concentration electrolyte based on the lithium salt LiDFOB may be a more economical and more sustainable alternative. Cells using these electrolytes and conventional electrodes have been demonstrated to have high performance. In addition, the electrolyte could facilitate both production and recycling of the batteries.
Published New copper-catalyzed C-H activation strategy



Inspired by what human liver enzymes can do, chemists have developed a new set of copper-catalyzed organic synthesis reactions for building and modifying pharmaceuticals and other molecules. The new reactions are expected to be widely used in drug discovery and optimization, as well as in other chemistry-based industries.
Published Lemur's lament: When one vulnerable species stalks another



What can be done when one threatened animal kills another? Scientists studying critically endangered lemurs in Madagascar confronted this difficult reality when they witnessed attacks on lemurs by another vulnerable species, a carnivore called a fosa.
Published Development of organic semiconductors featuring ultrafast electrons



Collaboration has led to the successful observation of these ultrafast electrons within conducting two-dimensional polymers.
Published Accelerating the discovery of new materials via the ion-exchange method



Researchers have unveiled a new means of predicting how to synthesize new materials via the ion-exchange. Based on computer simulations, the method significantly reduces the time and energy required to explore for inorganic materials.
Published Energy scientists unravel the mystery of gold's glow



EPFL researchers have developed the first comprehensive model of the quantum-mechanical effects behind photoluminescence in thin gold films; a discovery that could drive the development of solar fuels and batteries.
Published Octopus inspires new suction mechanism for robots



A new robotic suction cup which can grasp rough, curved and heavy stone, has been developed by scientists.
Published Paleontologists unearth what may be the largest known marine reptile



The fossilized remains of a second gigantic jawbone measuring more than two meters long has been found on a beach in Somerset, UK.
Published From defects to order: Spontaneously emerging crystal arrangements in perovskite halides



A new hybrid layered perovskite featuring elusive spontaneous defect ordering has been found, report scientists. By introducing specific concentrations of thiocyanate ions into FAPbI3 (FA = formamidinium), they observed that ordered columnar defects appeared in the stacked crystalline layers, taking up one-third of the lattice space. These findings could pave the way to an innovative strategy for adjusting the properties of hybrid perovskites, leading to practical advances in optoelectronics and energy generation.
Published Study finds iron-rich enamel protects, but doesn't color, rodents' orange-brown incisors



Chattering squirrels, charming coypus, and tail-slapping beavers -- along with some other rodents -- have orange-brown front teeth. Researchers have produced high-resolution images of rodent incisors, providing an atomic-level view of the teeth's ingenious enamel and its coating. They discovered tiny pockets of iron-rich materials in the enamel that form a protective shield for the teeth but, importantly, don't contribute to the orange-brown hue -- new insights that could improve human dentistry.
Published Two-dimensional nanomaterial sets record for expert-defying, counter-intuitive expansion



Engineers have developed a record-setting nanomaterial which when stretched in one direction, expands perpendicular to the applied force.
Published Making crops colorful for easier weeding



To make weeding easier, scientists suggest bioengineering crops to be colorful or to have differently shaped leaves so that they can be more easily distinguished from their wild and weedy counterparts. This could involve altering the crops' genomes so that they express pigments that are already produced by many plants, for example, anthocyanins, which make blueberries blue, or carotenoids, which make carrots orange. Then, they say, weeding robots could be trained to remove only the weeds using machine learning.
Published 'Nanostitches' enable lighter and tougher composite materials



In an approach they call 'nanostitching,' engineers used carbon nanotubes to prevent cracking in multilayered composites. The advance could lead to next-generation airplanes and spacecraft.
Published Trash to treasure -- researchers turn metal waste into catalyst for hydrogen



Scientists have found a way to transform metal waste into a highly efficient catalyst to make hydrogen from water, a discovery that could make hydrogen production more sustainable.
Published Older males out-compete young males outside breeding pairs, bird study shows



Young male blue tits are less successful in fathering offspring outside their breeding pair, not because of a lack of experience, but because they are outcompeted by older males, researchers report.
Published Cooler transformers could help electric grid



Simulations on the Stampede2 supercomputer of the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) are helping scientists engineer solutions to overheating of grid transformers -- a critical component of the electric grid.
Published Researchers advance pigment chemistry with moon-inspired reddish magentas



A researcher who made color history in 2009 with a vivid blue pigment has developed durable, reddish magentas inspired by lunar mineralogy and ancient Egyptian chemistry.