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Hello Nature readers, |
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(Gabriella Bocchetti) | |||||
The month’s best science imagesUsing a 3D printer, researchers have built minuscule tower blocks for bacteria, creating a system that can generate electricity from sunlight and water. The tiny pillars — coloured green in this electron-microscopy image — are just 600 micrometres high and have a branching, densely packed structure that provides surfaces for the bacteria to grow on. They are made of metal oxide nanoparticles, so that they can act as electrodes harvesting waste electrons that the bacteria generate during photosynthesis. “The electrodes have excellent light-handling properties, like a high-rise apartment with lots of windows,” says bioinorganic chemist and co-author Jenny Zhang. They “allow for a balance between lots of surface area and lots of light — like a glass skyscraper”. The technique proved more efficient than other methods of producing bioenergy from photosynthesis. Reference: Nature paper |
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Tree cooling goes beyond carbonTropical forests have a crucial role in cooling Earth’s surface by extracting carbon dioxide from the air. But only two-thirds of their cooling power comes from their ability to suck in CO2 and store it. The other one-third comes from their ability to create clouds, humidify the air and release cooling chemicals. When scientists analysed these ‘biophysical’ effects alongside carbon storage, they found that the world’s tropical forests collectively cool the surface of the planet by around 1 °C. Nature | 5 min readReference: Frontiers in Forests and Global Change paper |
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Robotic boat to map Tongan volcanoAn uncrewed boat will soon begin surveying the underwater volcano Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha’apai in the Pacific Ocean to understand exactly what happened when it erupted in January. The explosion sent a giant plume of ash into the upper atmosphere and triggered a tsunami that damaged buildings on nearby Tonga. A 12-metre-long robotic boat, Maxlimer, will map the shape of the volcano’s submerged opening over several weeks. A crewed ship from New Zealand, the RV Tangaroa, will help to investigate, but for safety reasons will spend limited time over the volcano’s opening. BBC | 5 min readRead more: Why the Tongan eruption will go down in the history of volcanology (Nature | 8 min read) |
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Population shifts reshape nations“Japan is ageing so rapidly that if current trends continue, the nation could eventually disappear altogether”, writes Jennifer Sciubba in her data-packed book 8 Billion and Counting. The twenty-first century “is less a story about exponential population growth than it is a story about differential growth — marked by a stark divide between the world’s richest and poorest countries”, she writes. Nature | 6 min read |
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Video: soft robot made of magnetic slimeA controllable blob made of polymer mixed with particles of neodymium magnet could crawl around your body to engulf harmful objects, such as button batteries, that were accidentally swallowed. The prototype “magnetic turd” can also grasp and reconnect cut wires and squeeze through narrow 1.5-millimetre channels. “It’s very much like mixing water with [corn] starch at home,” says engineer and co-author Li Zhang. “When you touch it very quickly, it behaves like a solid. When you touch it gently and slowly, it behaves like a liquid.” The Guardian | 3 min readReference: Advanced Functional Materials paper |
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Marine biologist Laura Aiudi is working on a net that saves the lives of endangered species — but still protects the livelihood of fishermen. She holds a net designed to allow turtles to escape: it has a hole at the top they can swim out of. The net is dubbed TED — short for ‘turtle excluder device’. “I love this work,” says Aiudi. “I’m from a fishing family … I’m used to the smell of fish.” (Nature | 3 min read) See more shots from this story on the Nature instagram account. (Elisabetta Zavoli for Nature) |
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Quote of the day“Even the mention of T. rex can launch what would be a ho-hum scientific disagreement into a battle over fossiliferous minutiae.”Let’s take a break from our obsession with Tyrannosaurus rex, suggests palaeontology writer Riley Black. (Slate | 7 min read) |
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