Experimental two-electrode setup showing the photoelectrochemical cell illuminated with simulated solar light.
Credit: Katarzyna Sokól

New research in the field of semi-artificial photosynthesis. They used natural sunlight to convert water into hydrogen and oxygen using a mixture of biological components and humanmade technologies. The research could now be used to revolutionise the systems used for renewable energy production.

A new paper, published in Nature Energy, outlines how academics at the Reisner Laboratory in Cambridge developed their platform to achieve unassisted solar-driven water-splitting. Their method also managed to absorb more solar light than natural photosynthesis...

Researchers have designed a synthetic small protein that wraps around a metal core composed of iron and sulfur. This protein can be repeatedly charged and discharged, allowing it to shuttle electrons within a cell. Such peptides may have existed at the dawn of life, moving electrons in early metabolic cycles.
Image: Vikas Nanda

The primordial peptide may have appeared 4 billion years ago. How did life arise on Earth? Rutgers researchers have found among the first and perhaps only hard evidence that simple protein catalysts – essential for cells, the building blocks of life, to function – may have existed when life began. Their study of a primordial peptide, or short protein, is published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the chemist Günter W...

Artist’s impression of the monster galaxy COSMOS-AzTEC-1. This galaxy is located 12.4 billion light-years away and is forming stars 1,000 times more rapidly than our Milky Way galaxy. ALMA observations revealed dense gas concentrations in the disk, and intense star formation in those concentrations. Credit: National Astronomical Observatory of Japan

An international team of astronomers from Japan, Mexico and the University of Massachusetts Amherst studying a “monster galaxy” 12.4 billion light years away today report that their instruments have achieved a 10 times higher angular resolution than ever before, revealing galaxy structural details previously completely unknown. They also were able to analyze dynamic properties that could not be probed before.

Monster galaxy COSMOS-AzTEC-1 is lo...

An ipad that fits your pocket: introducing a roll-up tablet with flexible screen real estate. Credit: Queen’s University

A Queen’s University research team has taken a page from history, rolled it up and created the MagicScroll – a rollable touch-screen tablet designed to capture the seamless flexible screen real estate of ancient scrolls in a modern-day device. Led by bendable-screen pioneer Dr. Roel Vertegaal, this new technology is set to push the boundaries of flexible device technology into brand new territory.

The device is comprised of a high-resolution, 7.5″ 2K resolution flexible display that can be rolled or unrolled around a central, 3D-printed cylindrical body containing the device’s computerized inner-workings...