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Categories: Environmental: Water, Physics: Optics
Published Filtering pollution: A microfluidic device for collecting microplastics via acoustic focusing



Microplastics (MPs), plastic debris smaller than 5 mm, indirectly harm the environment. They are traditionally collected and removed from water by filtering through meshes, which is inefficient. Researchers have now developed a high-enrichment microfluidic device that utilizes acoustic focusing to collect and remove 10--200 ?m MPs from wastewater without recirculation. Its collection rates and enrichment ratios ranged approximately from 70--90% and 50--100, respectively on test samples.
Published A neuromorphic visual sensor can recognize moving objects and predict their path



The new smart sensor uses embedded information to detect motion in a single video frame.
Published A solar hydrogen system that co-generates heat and oxygen



Researchers have built a pilot-scale solar reactor that produces usable heat and oxygen, in addition to generating hydrogen with unprecedented efficiency for its size.
Published Temperature, drought influencing movement of Plains bison



Temperature and severe drought can drive movement among herds of Plains bison, says a recent study. The team's GPS-backed data suggests that conserving the once-endangered species could depend on accounting for the climate extremes that Plains bison will likely encounter moving forward.
Published Recovering rare earth elements in environmental water



A research group has succeeded in selectively recovering trace rare earth elements in synthetic seawater and environmental water, such as hot spring water, using baker's yeast with a phosphate group added. The phosphorylated yeast is expected to be utilized as a material for recovering useful metals and removing toxic metals, thereby contributing to the realization of a metal resource-circulating society.
Published Scientists develop new way to measure wind



Atmospheric scientists have developed an algorithm that uses data from water vapor movements to measure wind. This could help predict extreme events like hurricanes.
Published Nature-based management is making rivers more resilient



Nature-based management is making rivers more resilient. New research shows progress in Australia towards United Nations goals, making rivers more able to recover from flood, drought and other impacts. In July 2022, the 120-kilometre Wollombi Brook, which flows north into the Hunter Valley in New South Wales, suffered one of its biggest floods on record. And it held up remarkably well, says Professor Kirstie Fryirs of the School of Natural Sciences at Macquarie University. 'Yes, there was widespread inundation, but the flood waters were slower and the vegetation prevented large scale erosion and sediment movement. 'All the hard work that a very active community put into nature-based rehabilitation for more than 20 years, such as continuous streamside revegetation, played a role in this outcome.' It is one of the best examples in Australia of sustainable environmental restoration in the management of rivers, she says
Published Processing data at the speed of light



Scientists have developed an extremely small and fast nano-excitonic transistor.
Published Laser light hybrids control giant currents at ultrafast times



The flow of matter, from macroscopic water currents to the microscopic flow of electric charge, underpins much of the infrastructure of modern times. In the search for breakthroughs in energy efficiency, data storage capacity, and processing speed, scientists search for ways in which to control the flow of quantum aspects of matter such as the 'spin' of an electron -- its magnetic moment -- or its 'valley state', a novel quantum aspect of matter found in many two dimensional materials. A team of researchers has recently discovered a route to induce and control the flow of spin and valley currents at ultrafast times with specially designed laser pulses, offering a new perspective on the ongoing search for the next generation of information technologies.
Published Scientists create high-efficiency sustainable solar cells for IoT devices with AI-powered energy management



Researchers have created environmentally-friendly, high-efficiency photovoltaic cells that harness ambient light to power internet of Things (IoT) devices.
Published Shift to 'flash droughts' as climate warms



'Flash droughts' have become more frequent due to human-caused climate change and this trend is predicted to accelerate in a warmer future, according to new research.
Published The hidden culprit behind nitrogen dioxide emissions



A research team assesses neighborhood-scale NO2 exposure using a European satellite. High-rise apartment complexes are a significant source of emissions that should be considered in the development of clean air policies.
Published Luminous molecules



Twisted molecules play an important role in the development of organic light-emitting diodes. A team of chemists has managed to create these compounds with exactly the three-dimensional structure that they wanted. In so doing, they are smoothing the path for new and better light sources.
Published Your fork could someday be made of sugar, wood powders and degrade on-demand



Single-use hard plastics are all around us: utensils, party decorations and food containers, to name a few examples. These items pile up in landfills, and many biodegradable versions stick around for months, requiring industrial composting systems to fully degrade. Now, researchers have created a sturdy, lightweight material that disintegrates on-demand -- and they made it from sugar and wood-derived powders.
Published How did Earth get its water?



Our planet's water could have originated from interactions between the hydrogen-rich atmospheres and magma oceans of the planetary embryos that comprised Earth's formative years.
Published Backscattering protection in integrated photonics is impossible with existing technologies



Researchers raise fundamental questions about the proposed value of topological protection against backscattering in integrated photonics.
Published Critical observations of sinking coasts



Using satellite-obtained data from 2007-21, researchers mapped the entire East Coast to demonstrate how the inclusion of land subsidence reveals many areas to be more vulnerable to floods and erosion than previously thought.
Published World's biggest cumulative logjam, newly mapped in the Arctic, stores 3.4 million tons of carbon



Throughout the Arctic, fallen trees make their way from forests to the ocean by way of rivers. Those logs can stack up as the river twists and turns, resulting in long-term carbon storage. A new study has mapped the largest known woody deposit, covering 51 square kilometers (20 square miles) of the Mackenzie River Delta in Nunavut, Canada, and calculated that the logs store about 3.4 million tons (about 3.1 million metric tons) of carbon.
Published As rising temperatures affect Alaskan rivers, effects ripple through Indigenous communities



Six decades of river gage data gathered from nine rivers in Alaska highlight the cumulative and consequential impacts of climate change for local communities and ecosystems in the Arctic.
Published How an African bird might inspire a better water bottle



An extreme closeup of feathers from a bird with an uncanny ability to hold water while it flies could inspire the next generation of absorbent materials.