The fact that plastics pollute the environment and generate problems has been well-researched in many areas. However, there is little information on the impacts of plastics on climate and biodiversity. In an overview study for the journal Environment International, an interdisciplinary research team from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) has analysed the impacts of plastics on the three planetary crises of climate change, biodiversity loss and environmental pollution. They are calling for plastics regulations that account for the multifaceted impacts of plastics in these three crises. The negotiations on the UN Global Plastics Treaty to be conducted from 25 November in Busan (South Korea) represent an opportunity to introduce such regulations.    

A new study published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Neurotrauma shows that intravenous administration of immunomodulatory nanoparticles after traumatic brain injury (TBI) can limit the development of an inflammatory cascade that typically leads to substantial secondary damage. The nanoparticles limited inflammatory cell infiltration and reduced both behavioral decline and lesion size without any noticeable toxicity in mice.

The doctoral training and associated research program of early career researchers in the Research Training Group "Control of structure formation in soft matter at and through interfaces" (RTG 2516) was approved by the German Research Foundation (DFG) for a next round of funding. The DFG will provide some EUR 5.2 million including the program allowance for another four and half years, starting in January 2025. The RTG 2516 was established in 2020 to train a new generation of scientists for successful careers in academic or industrial research and development environments.

The research team, including master’s student Ryota Kishi, Assistant Professor Kazuhiro Hikima, and Professor Atsunori Matsuda from the Department of Electrical and Electronic Information Engineering, and Professor Hiroyuki Muto from the Institute of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Toyohashi University of Technology; along with Specially Appointed Associate Professor (at the time) Hirofumi Tsukasaki and Professor Shigeo Mori from the Department of Materials Science at Osaka Metropolitan University, successfully synthesized the sulfide-based solid electrolyte Li₁₀GeP₂S₁₂ with practical room-temperature ionic conductivity by optimizing the heat treatment process in the solution method. The Li₁₀GeP₂S₁₂ synthesized solution method exhibits unique electrochemical properties compared to ball-mill-synthesized samples, such as a (1) small particle size with high grain boundary resistance and (2) surface layer from the organic solvent that is highly stable with respect to Li-In anodes. The results of this research were published online in ACS Applied Energy Materials on September 25, 2024.

In the research, they aim to reduce the synchronization cost by quantifying and analyzing the tradeoff between consistency and synchronization cost. 

Dr. Hyang-Tag Lim's research team at the KIST has implemented a quantum computing algorithm that can estimate interatomic bond distances and ground state energies with chemical accuracy using fewer resources than conventional methods, and has succeeded in performing accurate calculations without the need for additional quantum error mitigation techniques.