March 04, 2019

Good Morning,

Beetles are more than just bugs...and 4 stellar musicians. They could have seriously applications both in the medical and engineering fields.

Learn about this and more interesting stories from the scientific community in today's issue.

Until Next Time,
Erin

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*-- Scientists turn CO2 back into coal --*

Scientists in Australia have developed a way to turn carbon dioxide back into coal, a first. The breakthrough could pave the way for new carbon capture and storage technologies.

Most carbon capture methods involve compressing CO2 into liquid form to be pumped and stored underground. Despite progress, the best carbon capture and storage technologies still aren't economical. They also pose environmental concerns.

The new carbon-to-coal method could be used to more sustainable store captured carbon.

"To date, CO2 has only been converted into a solid at extremely high temperatures, making it industrially unviable," Torben Daeneke, researcher at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, said in a news release. "By using liquid metals as a catalyst, we've shown it's possible to turn the gas back into carbon at room temperature, in a process that's efficient and scalable."

To turn CO2 into coal, scientists developed a liquid metal catalyst that is highly conductive. The conversion process begins by dissolving the captured carbon dioxide in an electrolyte liquid. After a small amount of the catalyst is added, a current is run through the solution.

Chemical reactions caused solid flakes of carbon to separate from the solution. The process is efficient and scalable, but researchers acknowledge more work is needed before the method can be commercialized.

"While more research needs to be done, it's a crucial first step to delivering solid storage of carbon," Daeneke said.

Because the carbonaceous solids are stable, they could be compacted and buried in the ground. They could also be used as electrodes in batteries or engines.

"A side benefit of the process is that the carbon can hold electrical charge, becoming a supercapacitor, so it could potentially be used as a component in future vehicles," said Dorna Esrafilzadeh, research fellow at RMIT's School of Engineering. "The process also produces synthetic fuel as a by-product, which could also have industrial applications."

Researchers described their first of its kind CO2 conversion technology this week in the journal Nature Communications.

"While we can't literally turn back time, turning carbon dioxide back into coal and burying it back in the ground is a bit like rewinding the emissions clock," Daeneke said.

Though many climate scientists and policy makers have welcomed the assistance of carbon capturing technologies to slow global warming, most governments and policy groups, including the United Nations, insist that dramatically curbing the burning of fossil fuels is the only way to minimize the damage of climate change.

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*-- Material protecting beetle could have medical, engineering applications --*

Ground beetles spray chemical weapons at their enemies. To protect themselves from their own toxins, carabid beetles rely on a unique compound -- a compound new research suggests could have biomedical and bioengineering applications.

Most beetles in the Carabidae family feature an abdominal gland system that produces formic acid, phenolics and concentrated hydrogen peroxide. The gland system comprises three main components: toxin-producing lobes, a reservoir chamber and a long collecting duct connecting the two. Another small duct on the tip of the abdomen caps the opposite end of the reservoir chamber in most carabid species.

"We had no idea what these tissues were made of," Tanya Renner, an assistant professor of entomology at Pennsylvania State University, said in a news release.

To find out, Renner and her colleagues used a sophisticated imaging technique, autofluorescence-based laser scanning microscopy, to study the makeup of the gland system.

The images showed the beetles use an elastomeric protein resilin to transport a variety of defensive chemicals.

"They produce more than 250 different compounds to protect themselves," Renner said.

In other insects, the rubbery resilin material connects active anatomical components -- like flea leg joints or locust wing-hinges. Until now, scientists didn't know resilin formed gland tissues.

Adam Rork, doctoral student in entomology at Penn State, collected the beetle specimens from the university's agricultural research fields. Ground beetles are a beneficial insect for farmers. Their diet includes many pest species.

"While much work has been done to describe the morphology of these glands in many subfamilies, there has been little work done on their tissue composition," Rork said. "Our findings are crucial to understanding not only how these structures evolved, but also how they withstand the stress of containing and ejecting cytotoxic chemicals."

Renner, Rork and their research partners published their analysis of the gland system found ground beetles in the journal Anthropod Structure and Development.

The researchers estimate the resilin material's unique properties could prove useful in the fields of biomedicine and bioengineering. Naturally occurring elastic compounds, like those produced by spiders, have proven stronger and more resilient than synthetic equivalents.

"They persist and are often better than synthetics," Renner said. "Since it is impermeable, highly resistant to chemicals and flexible, resilin appears to be a strong candidate for a barrier material in applications where we need to keep two different chemicals away from each other but within the same environment."

And because resilin is similar to elastin, a rubber protein found in human, the material could be used to build new tissue for humans with degenerative diseases or injuries.