‘Zero-carbon’ cement made by feeding concrete construction waste into existing steel recycling processes could potentially slash carbon emissions for both cement and steel industries. The approach is the ‘first cement recycling method proposed to date’, according to the team, and could offer a solution to one of the world’s most pressing decarbonisation challenges. Estimates suggest […]

Scientists in the US have designed a hapten conjugate to inoculate against the harmful pharmacological effects of xylazine, a common animal tranquiliser that is increasingly mixed into street opioids. Adding xylazine to opioids such as fentanyl and heroin prolongs their euphoric and sedative effects, stretching illicit drug supplies with a cheaper but potent ingredient. Xylazine […]

Europe’s largest applied research organisation, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, has added its voice to calls to axe the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT). In a damming paper, the Fraunhofer, which has been involved in seven of the Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) set up by the EIT, says it ‘fails to provide added value’ to Europe’s […]

Yeast has been engineered to perform the complete biosynthesis of QS-21, a potent and highly sought-after saponin-based adjuvant that boosts the immune response to certain vaccines. The work represents one of the longest biosynthetic pathways ever transplanted into an organism, introducing 38 enzyme-encoding genes from six different species into yeast. The approach promises to enable […]

The UK government has proposed new measures to ‘further crack down on student visas’, but has stopped short of closing the graduate visa route. Many in the higher education sector have expressed relief that the graduate visa will stay after the government’s rapid review of the route as part of a series of measures to […]

The 1952 Nobel prize in chemistry medal awarded to British biochemist Richard Synge for or his groundbreaking invention of partition chromatography more than a decade earlier will be auctioned off at the end of May. Partition chromatography can separate chemicals distributed between two liquid phases and it transformed the emerging field of molecular biology in […]

A powerful explosion followed by a massive fire, apparently due to a boiler blast, ripped apart the Amudan Chemicals factory in Dombivli, on the outskirts of Mumbai, India, killing at least 10 people and injuring 68 on the afternoon of 23 May. ‘All the workers in the immediate vicinity of the accident epicentre were [killed […]

In this mini-series of blog posts we have followed the history of the English investigators of and writers on the phenomenon of declination or variation of the magnetic compass. Magnetic variation is the fact that although a magnetic needle aligns north/south the north that it points to, the magnetic north pole, is not the same […]

Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) is to invest €104 million (£88 million) in scientific research to support over 600 positions at four research centres. The new centres focus on neurological diseases, the bioeconomy, dairy and advanced manufacturing. The SFI’s announcement noted that the funds will support 17 host and partner institutions that, so far, have collaborated […]

Best-in-class emitter materials for organic solid state lasers have been discovered by laboratories spread across the world that were coordinated by an artificial intelligence. The researchers believe the technique could provide a blueprint for running experiments in parallel and thereby accelerating the discovery of other materials. In recent years, the development of robotics and artificial […]