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Categories: Chemistry: General, Computer Science: Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Published Eco-friendly and affordable battery for low-income countries



A battery made from zinc and lignin that can be used over 8000 times. This has been developed with a vision to provide a cheap and sustainable battery solution for countries where access to electricity is limited.
Published Avocado pruning residues used to produce more sustainable food packaging



A prototype of a more durable material increases the biodegradability of food packaging, partially replacing its bioplastic with cellulose fibers extracted from the branches and leaves of the avocado tree.
Published How to make ubiquitous plastics biodegradable



Polystyrene is made from styrene building blocks and is the most widely used plastic in terms of volume, for example in packaging. Unlike PET, which can now be produced and recycled using biotechnological methods, the production of polystyrene has so far been a purely chemical process. The plastic can't be broken down by biotechnological means, either. Researchers are looking for ways to rectify this: An international team decoded a bacterial enzyme that plays a key role in styrene degradation. This paves the way for biotechnological application.
Published Cats purrfectly demonstrate what it takes to trust robots



Would you trust a robot to look after your cat? New research suggests it takes more than a carefully designed robot to care for your cat, the environment in which they operate is also vital, as well as human interaction.
Published When consumers would prefer a chatbot over a person



Actually, sometimes consumers don't want to talk to a real person when they're shopping online, a new study suggests. In fact, what they really want is a chatbot that makes it clear that it is not human at all. In a new study, researchers found that people preferred interacting with chatbots when they felt embarrassed about what they were buying online -- items like antidiarrheal medicine or, for some people, skin care products.
Published Hide and seek between atoms: Find the dopant



Collaborative efforts decode the mechanism behind stabilizing cathode doping in electric vehicle batteries.
Published Research explores ways to mitigate the environmental toxicity of ubiquitous silver nanoparticles



Researchers have taken a key step toward closing the silver nanoparticles knowledge gap with a study that indicates the particles' shape and surface chemistry play key roles in how they affect aquatic ecosystems.
Published New 'forever chemical' cleanup strategy discovered



A method has been discovered to treat water heavily contaminated with unhealthful forever chemicals, known by chemists as PFAS or poly- and per-fluoroalkyl substances. It involves treating heavily contaminated water with ultraviolet (UV) light, sulfite, and a process called electrochemical oxidation. It breaks up strong fluorine-to-carbon bonds in the PFAS compounds and other concentrated organic compounds in heavily polluted water. The reaction also occurs at room temperature without a need for additional heat or high pressure. This method is expected to be useful in cleanups of PFAS pollution from decades of fire suppressant foam use at military facilities.
Published A better way to control shape-shifting soft robots



A new machine-learning technique can train and control a reconfigurable soft robot that can dynamically change its shape to complete a task. The researchers also built a simulator that can evaluate control algorithms for shape-shifting soft robots.
Published 2D all-organic perovskites: potential use in 2D electronics



Perovskites are among the most researched topics in materials science. Recently, a research team has solved an age-old challenge to synthesize all-organic two-dimensional perovskites, extending the field into the exciting realm of 2D materials. This breakthrough opens up a new field of 2D all-organic perovskites, which holds promise for both fundamental science and potential applications.
Published Robotic system feeds people with severe mobility limitations



Researchers have developed a robotic feeding system that uses computer vision, machine learning and multimodal sensing to safely feed people with severe mobility limitations, including those with spinal cord injuries, cerebral palsy and multiple sclerosis.
Published Generative AI that imitates human motion



Walking and running is notoriously difficult to recreate in robots. Now, a group of researchers has overcome some of these challenges by creating an innovative method that employs central pattern generators -- neural circuits located in the spinal cord that generate rhythmic patterns of muscle activity -- with deep reinforcement learning. The method not only imitates walking and running motions but also generates movements for frequencies where motion data is absent, enables smooth transition movements from walking to running, and allows for adapting to environments with unstable surfaces.
Published Getting dirty to clean up the chemical industry's environmental impact



The global chemical industry is a major fossil fuel consumer and climate change contributor; however, new research has identified how the sector could clean up its green credentials by getting dirty.
Published Chemists produce new-to-nature enzyme containing boron



Chemists created an enzyme with boronic acid at its reactive center. This approach can produce more selective reactions with boron, and allows the use of directed evolution to improve its catalytic power.
Published New study finds AI-generated empathy has its limits



Conversational agents (CAs) such as Alexa and Siri are designed to answer questions, offer suggestions -- and even display empathy. However, new research finds they do poorly compared to humans when interpreting and exploring a user's experience.
Published Disorder improves battery life



What determines the cycle life of batteries? And, more importantly, how can we extend it? An international research team has discovered that local disorder in the oxide cathode material increases the number of times Li-ion batteries can be charged and discharged.
Published An AI leap into chemical synthesis



Scientists introduce a large language model-based AI system that revolutionizes chemistry by integrating 18 advanced tools for tasks like organic synthesis and drug discovery.
Published 'Better than graphene' material development may improve implantable technology



Move over, graphene. There's a new, improved two-dimensional material in the lab. Borophene, the atomically thin version of boron first synthesized in 2015, is more conductive, thinner, lighter, stronger and more flexible than graphene, the 2D version of carbon. Now, researchers have made the material potentially more useful by imparting chirality -- or handedness -- on it, which could make for advanced sensors and implantable medical devices.
Published From fossils to fuel: Mozambique's Maniamba Basin's energy potential



In the ever-expanding search for energy resources, a new study has emerged from Mozambique's Maniamba Basin. Mozambique's Maniamba Basin could be a big source of natural gas.
Published Caterbot? Robatapillar? It crawls with ease through loops and bends



Engineers created a catapillar-shaped robot that splits into segments and reassembles, hauls cargo, and crawls through twisting courses.