Science & Technology

Transforming Plastic Waste into Edible Snacks Could a plastic bottle be turned into a biscuit? This intriguing question has been raised by researchers at Southern Illinois University (SIU) Carbondale, who are pursuing an innovative and potentially groundbreaking project: converting agricultural and plastic waste into edible ingredients. Their approach utilises microorganisms, such as bread yeast, to achieve this remarkable feat. So far, they have developed a snack called µBites (pronounced "microbaits"), which are protein-rich biscuits that could serve a crucial role both on Earth and in environments where food is scarce, such as deep space or even certain parts of the planet by mid-century. The initiative is part of NASA's Deep Space Food Challenge, which aims to develop creative recyclin...

Understanding Diabetes Type 2 Beyond Weight Norms When envisioning a patient with type 2 diabetes, it is common to picture someone who is overweight. This assumption is supported by the statistic that approximately nine out of ten individuals with type 2 diabetes in developed nations are classified as obese or overweight. However, this narrative shifts significantly in regions such as Africa, where approximately four out of ten adults diagnosed with type 2 diabetes are of a normal weight. In specific countries, like Ghana, this figure rises to six out of ten. Sabrina Esmail, a researcher from Amsterdam UMC, emphasises that this indicates an estimated 10 million individuals in Africa who do not conform to the conventional profile of diabetes patients. It is widely acknowledged that type 2 d...

A Growing Concern Over AI Use In the coming decades, it is likely that society will reflect on the years spanning from 2022 to 2026 with astonishment, questioning how the world allowed companies to launch generative artificial intelligence systems without sufficient oversight. These systems, made available to anyone with access to a screen—including minors, individuals with mental health issues, and those in vulnerable situations—have been likened to releasing a serpent into a cage full of mice. The absence of proper safeguards, parental controls, and assessments by qualified mental health professionals raises significant concerns. Over time, many of these companies, often inexperienced startups with little understanding of security and trust policies, have had to adapt to the consequences...

Last week, I unveiled the secrets of the physics behind the "Joule thief," an electrical circuit that extracts more energy from seemingly depleted batteries. The secret lay in the clever combination of a transformer and a transistor. However, the transistor deserves its own spotlight, as it may well be the most significant invention of the twentieth century. Life would be drastically different without transistors. For starters, personal computers and mobile phones would not exist, which in turn means that platforms like Amazon, video games, dating apps, messaging services, streaming, social media, Apple Pay, Google Maps, and even artificial intelligence would be absent. Cars contain billions of transistors, and they permeate every aspect of our lives. So, what exactly is a transistor? The ...

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope: Unlocking Cosmic Mysteries Unveiling the Invisible Universe For decades, the existence of an elusive substance has been a subject of fascination among astronomers. Known as dark matter, it is detectable only through its gravitational influence on visible objects and constitutes approximately 85% of the universe’s total matter. This enigmatic component envelops entire galaxies in expansive spheroids that intertwine to create the cosmic scaffold of our universe. Yet, the specifics of this grand architecture remain shrouded in mystery. The universe, propelled by a ghostly force termed dark energy, is in a state of perpetual change, expanding at an ever-accelerating pace. To shed light on these dark intergalactic phenomena, a new space telescope is set ...

When we think of occupations exposed to radiation, images of nuclear power plants, laboratories, or X-ray rooms often come to mind. However, a recent study reveals that the most affected professions are found at altitudes far above the ground. Flight attendants top the list, followed closely by pilots, as the occupations with the highest rates of radiation-related cancer deaths in the United States. This study, published on 17 August in JAMA Internal Medicine, examined over 12.7 million recorded deaths in the United States from 2020 to 2024 and compared 503 different occupations. After adjusting for factors such as age, sex, ethnicity, education, and marital status, it was found that approximately 6.9% of deaths among cabin crew and 6.7% among pilots were attributed to radiation-related ca...

Rethinking Housing in the Face of Natural Disasters The future of housing is often linked to the concept of smart cities and increasingly industrialised construction methods. However, when a hurricane, earthquake, or flood devastates a home, many reconstruction initiatives tend to rely on the market, turning to construction companies and standard housing models that remain unchanged despite varying climates, communities, and lifestyles. In contrast, Cooperación Comunitaria adopts a different approach. Since its inception in 2012, this Mexican organisation has been dedicated to supporting rural and indigenous communities in their efforts to rebuild their homes and enhance their safety. Founded on principles of architecture and civil engineering, the organisation emerged from a concern over ...

Advancements in Personalised Cancer Vaccines For many years, personalised medicine in the fight against cancer has revolved around identifying specific alterations within tumours and selecting from existing medications to target them effectively. However, a groundbreaking experimental vaccine developed by Moderna in collaboration with Merck takes this concept to a new level. Rather than choosing a treatment from a predefined list, this innovative approach manufactures a unique vaccine tailored to each patient, based on the specific mutations found in their own tumour, as detailed in recent scientific discussions. This week marked a significant milestone for this approach, as Intismeran autogene, a personalised messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine, demonstrated its ability to significantly reduce t...

The Rising Environmental Impact of Data Centres Within the most advanced data centres around the globe, energy-intensive calculations take place around the clock. Chatbots and various generative AI tools are engaged in a wide array of tasks, ranging from the mundane—such as curating social media images—to the critical, including providing relationship advice, analysing medical images for cancer diagnosis, generating code for developers, and detecting financial fraud for banks. As the popularity of AI tools has surged in recent years, so too have the associated environmental costs. Currently, data centres are responsible for an annual consumption of 414 terawatt-hours of electricity, which accounts for approximately 1.5% of global electricity use, as reported by the International Energy Age...

Exploring Robotic Innovation in Cambridge Recently, I ventured a mere fifteen minutes from my home to witness robots performing astonishing tasks, leaving me utterly captivated. My destination was the offices of a startup named Generalist AI, situated in Cambridge, Massachusetts. There, I observed robotic arms engaged in simple tasks such as stacking cups and placing blocks into containers, demonstrating an impressive ability to learn quickly, reminiscent of human capabilities. Impressive Adaptability of Robotic Arms The robotic arms showcased their proficiency in various tasks after merely watching a brief instructional video—remarkably, without any specific training for each individual task. One particularly striking example involved a robot instructed to sweep a block into a container u...