Environment

Linked lanthanides shine light on crystal engineering, New technique reveals hidden genome, Red, white and blue alerts for dangerous bacteria & Windows gain competitive edge over global warming. Read all in the September's Editor's Choice plus this month's Asia Research News 2022 magazine pick - Floating sensors to gather ocean data.

Asia Research News monitors the latest research news in Asia. Some highlights that caught our attention this week are the effects of extreme weather becoming more likely due to climate change and leading to sinking cities, putting googly eyes on cars that help pedestrian safety, and how many ants there are on Earth.

Asia Research News monitors the latest research news in Asia. Some highlights that caught our attention this week are the best way to calm a crying baby, technology to sot sex in bovine semen, and a prosthesis for breast cancer patients made from an aquatic plant.

Even a small temperature drop in the tropical climate of Singapore increases the risk of heart attack among people aged 65 and above, say researchers from Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore’s National Environment Agency and collaborators.

Researchers have made perovskite solar cells more efficient and stable, A new cause of Parkinson's related cell death, Hibernating superpower is in the blood, Common mechanism for cancer and atherosclerosis, COVID-19 antibody skin-based test. Read all in the August's Editor's Choice plus an Interview with Prof Sutee Yoksan on The story behind the new dengue vaccine & this month's Asia Research News 2022 magazine pick - The evolutionary history of puddle frogs.

Scientists show that there is a close association between clinical cases of COVID-19 and viral loads in wastewater, with the viral loads picking up to two days before the cases were detected.

Osaka Metropolitan University researchers have successfully synthesized fumarate (fumaric acid), a raw material for unsaturated polyester resin, by combining carbon dioxide (CO2) with pyruvate (derived from biomass), using two biocatalysts: malate dehydrogenase and fumarase. Fumarate is currently used to make biodegradable plastic like polybutylene succinate from petroleum. However, this research has enabled the synthesis of fumarate without petroleum, consuming only CO2 and biomass-derived pyruvate.

- Joint research team of DGIST and Korea Institute of Industrial Technology developed the first technology that removes microplastics in water through triboelectric nanogenerator - Expected to solve the problem of various microtoxic particles in water including microplastics, which have emerged as a huge environmental concern

Researchers from the Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo have used thermal treatments to improve modern recycling of concrete. This work will add value to construction waste and contribute to sustainable development

When the evolution of towns and of roads are modeled together, the natural landscape alone is enough to predict the actual arrangement of real towns.

Exposure to persistent organic pollutants in pet cats lowers blood thyroid hormone levels and causes chronic oxidative stress.

Three of the nuclear power plants that supplied Tokyo, Japan with its electricity have been shut down since 2003. To understand the long-term implications of this change to Tokyo’s power grid, researchers studied how CO2 emissions in the city differed since the power plant closures.

A series of drone images taken by researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and partners may show the world’s most endangered turtle, Swinhoe’s softshell turtle (Rafetus swinhoei).

An international team of scientists from India and Singapore has successfully developed a novel method to recycle waste cigarette filters for use in making the triboelectric nano generator, a clean energy generating device.

Important, yet often neglected: Tadpoles play a critical role in the ecology of aquatic habitats. On 279 pages, a new book presents descriptions for 99 species from the southeast Asian island of Borneo, covering all species commonly found, as well as representatives of the more cryptic ones. LIB-scientist Alexander Haas and his team of international collaborators worked over 20 years on its completion and just released “A Guide to the Tadpoles of Borneo”.

A novel practical way of modelling cracking and toughening of fibre composite materials has been developed. The novel approach also revealed new insights on the fracture behaviour of fibres reinforcing a composite laminate during intralaminar cracking. The new way can be used to complement inspection of laminated structures that are used as primary structures in many industries.

Daniel Murdiyarso of CIFOR-ICRAF becomes the first-ever Indonesian scientist to receive the prestigious Honorary Doctorate from the University of Helsinki

Themed “Roll Back Dengue” and organised as a hybrid event, the three-day summit will congregate dengue community including over 200 clinicians, researchers, government public health leaders and policymakers across Asia

Asia Research News monitors the latest research news in Asia. Some highlights that caught our attention this week are a wormlike robot, shady spider sales, and different ways of keeping a healthy heart.

Giants in History: Palaeontologist Yichun Hao (1920 – 2001) co-authored the first Chinese textbooks on palaeontology and micropalaeontology.

Humanity is “at a crossroads” when it comes to managing drought and accelerating mitigation must be done “urgently, using every tool we can,” says a new report from the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).

Giants in History: Thai physician and conservationist Boonsong Lekagul (15 December 1907 – 9 February 1992) made major contributions to the preservation of his country’s wildlife by founding organizations including the Association for the Conservation of Wildlife (ACW), writing about Thailand’s natural heritage, and supporting conservation initiatives.

The Education University of Hong Kong has received four silver medals and two bronze at the 48th International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva in March 2022. The exhibition is a renowned event to showcase innovations and inventions from all over the world. The award-winning inventions cover a variety of areas: behavioural and cognitive therapy, music education, environmental detection, image captioning and product search engines.

Media Advisory: Experts from the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry weigh in on the “State of the World’s Forests 2022"

Coconut husk (CH), a solid biowaste derived from coconut, is typically used in household items, such as doormats. Recent studies have shown that CH is rich in lignocellulose, which can make for energy-related applications of CH. To this end, a global team of researchers, in a new study, make use of CH to develop self-powered energy storage and harvesting devices, achieving high energy density and output performance, and opening doors to a circular economy.

Genome profiling of Staphylococcus argenteus strains unveiled cross-contamination among Japanese retail foods and slaughterhouses.

An international team of researchers from India and Singapore has successfully developed a novel coating with enhanced water repellent properties using natural material from the waste crab shell.

• Effects of gestational bisphenol A exposure were compared between rat dams and their offspring. • Bisphenol A affected the dams' circadian rhythm, immune response, and insulin resistance. • Nevertheless, at the multi-omics levels (transcriptome and lipidome), the impact on the dams was less than on their offspring. • Multi-variates analysis successfully differentiated the multi-omics effects between dams and their offspring.

Helping solve social and global environment issues with agriculture, forestry, and oceanography research combined with the latest technologies

Milling rice to separate the grain from the husks, produces about 100 million tons of rice husk waste globally each year. Scientists searching for a scalable method to fabricate quantum dots have developed a way to recycle rice husks to create the first silicon quantum dot LED light. Their new method transforms agricultural waste into state-of-the-art light-emitting diodes in a low-cost, environmentally friendly way.