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‘Most realistic’ plant-based steak revealed | Food | The Guardian

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The "most realistic" plant-based steak to date has been revealed, mimicking the texture and appearance of a real cut of meat.

The fake steak's ingredients include pea, seaweed and beetroot juice, which are extruded into fine fibres to recreate muscle tissue. Its producer, the Spanish company Novameat, says the steak will be available in some restaurants in Spain and Italy this year before scaling up in 2021.

The enormous impact of cattle and other livestock on the environment has led a swathe of companies to create plant-based alternatives to meat, with the Beyond Meat burger and Greggs sausage roll among the vegan successes. But recreating the texture of whole cuts of meat is far more challenging than ground meat.
Avoiding meat and dairy is 'single biggest way' to reduce your impact on Earth
"I started with steak I think because it is the holy grail of plant-based meat," said Giuseppe Scionti, founder of Novameat. "It is the most difficult." The company unveiled a 3D-printed steak in 2018, but the new steak has both the firm, fibrous texture and meaty appearance of a real steak, he said, making it the "most realistic" to date.

The company is still experimenting with the taste, but Scionti said the company' can use the ingredients already used to create convincing beefy burgers from plants. He expects a final formulation in the next few months.

The key to the new steak is patented micro-extrusion technology that produces fibres between 100 and 500 microns in diameter. This allows the complex structure of real meat to be replicated, with muscle fibres and fat entwined. Existing extrusion technology produces much larger fibres.

The 50g steak produced cost $1.50 (£1.15) to make, similar in price to current supermarket steak in the UK. But Scionti said the cost will drop when the process is scaled up. The company plans to commission a pilot plant in 2021 which can produce 50kg of steak per hour. But to reach a mass market, the company plans to licence its technology to existing food manufacturers who can develop their own recipes.

Some plant-based alternatives to meat have been criticised for being as high in fat and salt as the food they are intended to replace. Scionti said plant-based alternatives do not contain cholesterol or the hormones and antibiotics often found in real meat. In future, he said, beneficial ingredients such as omega-3 fatty acids could be added.

Novameat is not alone in developing plant-based steaks, with Israel-based Redefine Meat being a leading competitor. Unlike Novameat's product, the Israeli company's meat has been publicly tasted, receiving positive feedback, but the firm has not yet revealed a textured steak.

Others include Atlast Food, which is using a fungus fibres to create textures similar to meat, and Emergy Foods. Another Israeli company, Aleph Farms, has produced a steak from real beef cells cultured in a laboratory, which, the firm says, will have a much lower environmental footprint than real meat.

There is definitely a role for technology that can structure both plant-based and lab-grown meat into more complex products, said Rosie Wardle, at the Jeremy Coller foundation and advisor for CPT Capital, which has invested in Redfine Meat. "I've eaten early versions of the Redefine products and they were truly delicious," she said.

Novameat has attracted investment from New Crop Capital, a firm that also invests in some of the best known plant-based and lab-grown meat companies, including Beyond Meat, Memphis Meat and Mosa Meat.

David Welch, at the Good Food Institute, which works with scientists and entrepreneurs to create alternatives to animal products, said: "To meet the growing global demand for meat with more sustainable plant-based products, we need to deliver the taste, texture, and appearance that meat eaters want."

He said new technologies such as Novameat's bioprinting are useful: "They give plant-based meat manufacturers a wider array of tools to mimic all types of meat and seafood." Scionti said the company aims to produce pork and salmon in the future.

Recent scientific studies have found that huge reduction in meat-eating in rich nations is essential to cut greenhouse gas emissions and fight the climate crisis.

"We believe it is important to provide an alternative," said Scionti, who spent a decade researching tissue engineering at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia in Barcelona and other institutions. "This will help in the long term to decrease the need for land, water, energy and, of course, reduce the emissions coming from animal agriculture.

"We want to be better than the other companies," he said. "But we are all in the same boat. We want to be remembered for doing something good at this moment when the planet needs alternatives to meat. "
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'Most realistic' plant-based steak revealed

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The "most realistic" plant-based steak to date has been revealed, mimicking the texture and appearance of a real cut of meat. The fake steak's ingredients include pea, seaweed and beetroot juice, which are extruded into fine fibres to recreate muscle tissue.

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Air pollution from Heathrow detected in central London | The Independent

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Air pollution from Heathrow airport is being blown more than 11 miles into central London, a ground-breaking new study has found.

Researchers from King's College London have, for the first time, measured ultra-fine particles across four major European cities.

They found airports were a significant source of ultra-fine air pollution particles.

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While traffic pollution remains the most dominant source of pollution, the study, published in Environment International, found London had the highest concentration of ultra-fine particles compared to other cities with the greatest concentration coming when wind was blowing from the airport towards the city centre.

London is surrounded by airports, the busiest being Heathrow with 480,000 plane journeys in 2018. The airport is just over 11 miles from the air monitoring station in North Kensington used by researchers for the study. A second station was based on Marylebone Road.

Dr Ioar Rivas, research fellow and author of the study, said: "We expected traffic emissions to be an important source of ultra-fine particles in cities but we now know that airport emissions, even if located at the outskirts of the city, can travel far enough and reach populations in urban areas away from the airport."

Most air pollution studies have looked at the levels of larger particles, smaller than 2.5 micrometres, but this latest study looked at smaller ultra-fine particles less than 0.1 micrometres in size.

The smaller the particle, the deeper it can penetrate into the lungs, and ultra-fine particles have been linked to brain cancer.

The research was carried out in London​, Barcelona Helsinki, and Zurich between 2007 and 2017.

Cars contributed the most air pollution across all four cities, ranging between 71 per cent and 94 per cent.

Dr Gary Fuller, senior lecturer in air pollution measurement, added: "Cities around Europe have polices to reduce airborne particles from traffic that should also reduce people's exposure to ultra-fine particles, but aircraft emissions are not being addressed in the same way."

The research team now plans to study the effects of the different sources of ultra-fine particles on mortality and hospital admissions.

Meanwhile, researchers from the Barcelona Institute for Global Health have also linked exposure to ambient air pollution with lower bone-mass levels in humans.

The research, published in JAMA Network Open, looked at the bone health of more than 3,700 people from 28 villages outside the city of Hyderabad, in southern India.

Each participant was assessed using a type of radiography that measures bone density as well as having the bone mass calculated. The results of the study showed that exposure to ambient air pollution, particularly to fine particles, was associated with lower levels of bone mass.

Lead researcher Otavio Ranzani said: "This study contributes to the limited and inconclusive literature on air pollution and bone health. Inhalation of polluting particles could lead to bone-mass loss through the oxidative stress and inflammation caused by air pollution."

Cathryn Tonne, coordinator of the study, added: "Our findings add to a growing body of evidence that indicates that particulate air pollution is relevant for bone health across a wide range of air pollution levels, including levels found in high-income and low-and-medium income countries."

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Air pollution from Heathrow detected in central London

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Air pollution from Heathrow airport is being blown more than 11 miles into central London, a ground-breaking new study has found. Researchers from King's College London have, for the first time, measured ultra-fine particles across four major European cities. They found airports were a significant source of ultra-fine air pollution particles.

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Revealed: microplastic pollution is raining down on city dwellers | Environment | The Guardian

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Microplastic pollution is raining down on city dwellers, with research revealing that London has the highest levels yet recorded.

The health impacts of breathing or consuming the tiny plastic particles are unknown, and experts say urgent research is needed to assess the risks.

Only four cities have been assessed to date but all had microplastic pollution in the air. Scientists believe every city will be contaminated, as sources of microplastic such as clothing and packaging are found everywhere.

Recent research shows the whole planet appears to be contaminated with microplastic pollution. Scientists have found the particles everywhere they look, from Arctic snow and mountain soils, to many rivers and the deepest oceans. Other work indicates particles can be blown across the world.

The level of microplastic discovered in the London air surprised scientists. "We found a high abundance of microplastics, much higher than what has previously been reported," said Stephanie Wrightfrom Kings College London, who led the research. "But any city around the world is going to be somewhat similar."

"I find it of concern - that is why I am working on it," she said. "The biggest concern is we don't really know much at all. I want to find out if it is safe or not."

About 335m tonnes of new plastic is produced each year and much leaks into the environment. The research, published in the journal Environment International, collected the microplastics falling onto the roof of a nine-storey building in central London. This ensured that only microplastic from the atmosphere was collected.

They were found in all eight samples, with deposition rates ranging from 575 to 1,008 pieces per sq metre per day, and 15 different plastics were identified. Most microplastics were fibres made of acrylic, most likely from clothing. Just 8% of the microplastics were particles, and these were mostly polystyrene and polyethylene, both commonly used in food packaging.

The rate of microplastic deposition measured in London is 20 times higher than in Dongguan, China, seven times higher than in Paris, France and nearly three times higher than Hamburg, Germany. The researchers do not know the reason for the variation, but differences in experimental methods are likely to be partly responsible.

The microplastic particles in London were between 0.02mm and 0.5mm. These are large enough to be deposited on to the airways when inhaled and would be swallowed in saliva. Smaller particles that can get into the lungs and bloodstream represent the greatest potential health hazard. These were seen in the samples but their composition could not be identified with current technology.

The serious health damage caused by the pollution particles emitted by traffic and industry are well known. A comprehensive global review earlier in 2019 concluded that air pollution may be damaging every organ and virtually every cell in the human body.

But the potential health impacts of inhaling plastic particles from the air, or consuming them via food and water, are unknown. People eat at least 50,000 microplastic particles per year, according to one study.

Plastics can carry toxic chemicals and harbour harmful microbes, and the limited research done to date has shown harm to some marine creatures. The only assessment of microplastic in human lungs, published in 1998, found inhaled fibres were present in cancerous lung specimens.

"These studies showing just how much plastic is in the air are a wake-up call," said Steve Allen, at the EcoLab research institute near Toulouse, France, and whose own work has shown microplastic air pollution in remote mountain areas. "The [London research] is a very well done study showing incredibly high numbers of airborne microplastics.

"Currently we have very little knowledge on what effect this airborne pollution will have on humans," he said. "But with what we do know it is pretty scary to think we are breathing it in. We need urgent research."

Johnny Gasperi, at the Université Paris-Est, said the research shows a widespread contamination of the air by microplastics. He said the London study showed that microplastic deposition did not depend on the strength or direction of the wind, suggesting the city itself was the most likely source.

Melanie Bergmann, at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Germany, said more research on the potential health effects of microplastic pollution was very important. "We do not currently know what proportion of inhaled microplastics actually penetrates the deep lung," she said.

The European commission's chief scientific advisers said in a report in April: "The evidence [on the environmental and health risks of microplastics] provides grounds for genuine concern and for precaution to be exercised."

Microplastics are also found in drinking water and in August an assessment by the World Health Organization found no evidence to date of harm but said more research was needed.

Cutting microplastic pollution requires changing how plastic is used and disposed of, said Wright: "You can't clean it up, so it is about stopping it at source." Allen said: "This is not a problem that is going to go away anytime soon."
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Revealed: microplastic pollution is raining down on city dwellers

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Microplastic pollution is raining down on city dwellers, with research revealing that London has the highest levels yet recorded. The health impacts of breathing or consuming the tiny plastic particles are unknown, and experts say urgent research is needed to assess the risks.

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Most dolphins are are 'right-handed' say researchers.

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Most dolphins are are 'right-handed' say researchers.

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The Guardian | 27th November 2019

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Dolphins, like humans, have a dominant right-hand side, according to research.

About 90% of humans are right-handed but we are not the only animals that show such preferences: gorillas tend to be right-handed, kangaroos are generally southpaws, and even cats have preferences for a particular side - although which is favoured appears to depend on their sex.

Now researchers have found common bottlenose dolphins appear to have an even stronger right-side bias than humans.

"I didn't expect to find it in that particular behaviour, and I didn't expect to find such a strong example," said Dr Daisy Kaplan, co-author of the study from the Dolphin Communication Project, a non-profit organisation in the US.
On a roll: blue whales switch 'handedness' when rolling to scoop food
Researchers studying common bottlenose dolphins in the Bahamas say the preference shows up in crater feeding, whereby dolphins swim close to the ocean floor, echolocating for prey, before shoving their beaks into the sand to snaffle a meal.

Writing in the journal Royal Society Open Science, Kaplan and colleagues say the animals make a sharp and sudden turn before digging in with their beaks.

Crucially, however, they found this turn is almost always to the left, with the same direction taken in more than 99% of the 709 turns recorded between 2012 and 2018.

The researchers say the findings indicate a right-side bias, since a left turn keeps a dolphin's right eye and right side close to the ocean floor.

The team found only four turns were made to the right and all of these were made by the same dolphin, which had an oddly shaped right pectoral fin. However the Kaplan said it was unlikely this fin was behind the right turns: two other dolphins had an abnormal or missing right fin yet still turned left.

It is not the first time researchers have found evidence of a right-side bias in cetaceans. Grey and humpback whales tend to roll to the right when foraging on the seafloor, while common bottlenose dolphins tend to lie on their right when beaching themselves to chase fish on to muddy river banks. Dusky dolphins, meanwhile, circle their prey with their right side facing their quarry.
Mammals prefer to cradle babies on the left, study demonstrates
The team suggests a number of possible reasons behind the latest findings, including that it might make it easier for the dolphins to swallow prey as their food channel, which splits to pass around their larynx, is wider on the right than the left side.

Research has also suggested dolphins produce echolocating clicks with the phonic lips on the right side of their head, meaning it could be advantageous if this side is kept nearer to the ocean floor.

While Kaplan said further evidence was needed, she pointed to the Ganges river dolphin, which is practically blind and relies heavily on echolocation. "It turns out they almost always swim right-side down when they are echolocating," she said.

Another possibility is linked to brain processing: as in humans, sensory information picked up by one side of the dolphin body is processed by the opposite side of the brain. The team says if visual and echolocation information is largely processed by the left hemisphere of the dolphin brain, animals might perform better at foraging if information is picked up by the right eye and ear.

Dr James Herbert-Read, a biologist at Cambridge University, said the study added to a growing body of evidence that many species show handedness in particular tasks.

While he added that further work was needed to unpick whether such biases had benefits, for example boosting foraging success, he said the strength of the dolphins' preference was notable.

"This strength - approximately 99% of turns by individuals were to the left - appears to be stronger than the left-/right-hand preferences in humans," he said. "It's rare to see such strong and consistent lateralisation between individuals within a population."
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Most dolphins are 'right-handed', say researchers

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Dolphins, like humans, have a dominant right-hand side, according to research. About 90% of humans are right-handed but we are not the only animals that show such preferences: gorillas tend to be right-handed, kangaroos are generally southpaws, and even cats have preferences for a particular side - although which is favoured appears to depend on their sex.

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Battery breakthrough revolutionises recharge times for electric cars | The Independent

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Engineers have discovered a way to recharge electric cars in just 10 minutes, overcoming one of the biggest obstacles with electric vehicles.

Electric cars currently take longer than an hour to fully recharge, with the original Tesla Model S taking 75 minutes to achieve a full charge.

Researchers at Pennsylvania State University developed a lithium-ion battery capable of adding 200 to 300 miles of driving range to an electric car in 10 minutes by charging it at an elevated temperature.

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"In addition to fast charging, this design allows us to limit the battery's exposure time to the elevated charge temperature, thus generating a very long cycle life," said senior author Chao-Yang Wang, a mechanical engineer at Penn State University.

"The key is to realise rapid heating; otherwise, the battery will stay at elevated temperatures for too long, causing severe degradation ... The 10-minute trend is for the future and is essential for adoption of electric vehicles because it solves the range anxiety problem."

The extremely fast charging process could be carried out without causing significant damage to the battery, meaning it could sustain 2,500 charging cycles - the equivalent of half a million miles of travel. Typical lithium-ion batteries would only last around 60 charges using the new method.

The discovery comes just weeks after the inventors of the first lithium-ion battery were awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

The combined work of John Goodenough, Stanley Whittingham and Akira Yoshino led to the first commercially viable lithium-ion battery being produced in 1985. They are now used in everything from mobile phones to laptops, as well as the rapidly growing electric vehicle industry.

The researchers now hope to improve this charge time to just five minutes.

"We are working to charge an energy-dense electric vehicle battery in five minutes without damaging it," Mr Wang said.

"This will require highly stable electrolytes and active materials in addition to the self-heating structure we have invented."

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Groundbreaking battery to cut electric car charging times from 75 minutes to just 10 minutes

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Engineers have discovered a way to recharge electric cars in just 10 minutes, overcoming one of the biggest obstacles with electric vehicles. Electric cars currently take longer than an hour to fully recharge, with the original Tesla Model S taking 75 minutes to achieve a full charge.

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Russian eagle with GPS collar runs up ‘astronomical’ data charge for scientists after flying out of country | The Independent

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Migrating eagle with GPS collar runs up 'astronomical' data roaming charge

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A Russian eagle being monitored by scientists via a GPS tracker has cost them a small fortune in roaming charges - after it flew out the country. The migrating bird, named Min, was fitted with a device designed to text its coordinates back to researchers.

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Nobel prize in medicine awarded to hypoxia researchers

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Three scientists have shared this year's Nobel prize in physiology or medicine for discovering how the body responds to changes in oxygen levels, one of the most essential processes for life.

William Kaelin Jr at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard University in Massachusetts, Sir Peter Ratcliffe at Oxford University and the Francis Crick Institute in London, and Gregg Semenza at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, worked out how cells sense falling oxygen levels and respond by making new blood cells and vessels.

Beyond describing a fundamental physiological process that enables animals to thrive in some of the highest-altitude regions on Earth, the mechanism has given researchers new routes to treatments for anaemia, cancer, heart disease and other conditions.

Ratcliffe was summoned from a lab meeting in Oxford to take the call from Stockholm. "I tried to make sure it wasn't some friend down the road having a laugh at my expense," he told the Guardian. "Then I accepted the news and had a think about how I was going to reorder my day."

Ratcliffe had spent the weekend working on an EU synergy grant and had not imagined his morning taking such a turn. "When I got up this morning I didn't have any expectation or make any contingency plans for the announcement at all," he said.

On finishing the call he returned to his meeting and, at the request of the Nobel committee, carried on without a word. At least one scientist had her suspicions, however, having noticed he had left a coffee in the room and returned with a tea. "She's a scientist, so trained to draw deductions from the things she observes," Ratcliffe said. "I'd decided I needed a little less agitation rather than more."

The three laureates will share the 9m Swedish kronor (£740,000) prize equally, according to the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. Asked what he intended to do with the windfall, Ratcliffe said: "I'll be discussing that with my wife in private. But it'll be something good." A party was on the cards, he said, but not immediately. "I'm trying to stay sober because it's going to be a busy day."

Kaelin said he was half-asleep when his phone went. "I was aware as a scientist that if you get a phone call at 5am with too many digits, it's sometimes very good news, and my heart started racing," he said. "It was all a bit surreal."

The trio won the prestigious Lasker prize in 2016. In work that spanned more than two decades, the researchers teased apart different aspects of how cells in the body first sense and then respond to low oxygen levels. The crucial gas is used by tiny structures called mitochondria found in nearly all animal cells to convert food into useful energy.

The scientists showed that when oxygen is in short supply, a protein complex that Semenza called hypoxia-inducible factor, or HIF, builds up in nearly all the cells in the body. The rise in HIF has a number of effects but most notably ramps up the activity of a gene used to produce erythropoietin (EPO), a hormone that in turn boosts the creation of oxygen-carrying red blood cells.

Randall Johnson, a professor of molecular physiology and pathology at Cambridge University, said this year's Nobel laureates "have greatly expanded our knowledge of how physiological response makes life possible".

He said the role of HIF was crucial from the earliest days of life. "If an embryo doesn't have the HIF gene it won't survive past very early embryogenesis. Even in the womb our bodies need this gene to do everything they do."

The work has led to the development of a number of drugs such as roxadustat and daprodustat, which treat anaemia by fooling the body into thinking it is at high altitude, making it churn out more red blood cells. Roxadustat is on the market in China and is being assessed by European regulators.

Similar drugs aim to help heart disease and lung cancer patients who struggle to get enough oxygen into their bloodstream. More experimental drugs based on the finding seek to prevent other cancers growing by blocking their ability to make new blood vessels.

Venki Ramakrishnan, the president of the Royal Society, said the prize was "richly deserved" by all three winners. "Oxygen is the vital ingredient for the survival of every cell in our bodies. Too little or too much can spell disaster. Understanding how evolution has equipped cells to detect and respond to fluctuating oxygen levels helps answer fundamental questions about how animal life emerged."

Ratcliffe praised the team he worked with in the years it took to decipher how cells adapted to changes in oxygen levels. "At first, none of us knew precisely what we were doing," he said. "But there was a lot of enthusiasm."
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Nobel prize in medicine awarded to hypoxia researchers

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Three scientists have shared this year's Nobel prize in physiology or medicine for discovering how the body responds to changes in oxygen levels, one of the most essential processes for life.

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Nobel prize in physics awarded to cosmology and exoplanet researchers

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Three scientists have been awarded the 2019 Nobel prize in physics for groundbreaking discoveries about the evolution of the universe and the Earth's place within it.

James Peebles, from Canada, has been awarded half of the 9m Swedish kronor (£740,000) prize for his theoretical discoveries about the evolution of the universe. The Swiss astronomers Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz share the other half of the prize for their discovery of the first planet beyond our solar system.

Peebles was rewarded for laying a foundation for modern cosmology, including his realisation that faint microwave radiation that filled the cosmos 400,000 years after the Big Bang contains crucial clues to what the universe looked like at this primitive stage and how it has evolved over the subsequent 13bn years.

Mayor and Queloz have been recognised for their joint discovery in 1995 of the first exoplanet, 50 light years away in the constellation of Pegasus. The planet, 51 Pegasi b, is a gaseous ball about 150 times more massive than Earth and has a scorching surface temperature of about 1,000C.

Queloz, who holds posts at the University of Geneva and the University of Cambridge, told a press briefing at London that he had been expecting a call about a grant he was working on when the news came through.

"I couldn't think at all, I had a complete blackout because emotionally it was extremely intense," he said. By mid-afternoon he had not yet managed to get his former supervisor and fellow laureate Mayor on the phone, which he said was "typical Michel".

The pair discovered the exoplanet using a sophisticated technique known as Doppler spectroscopy, which measures the tiny wobble of a star that occurs as the star-planet pair move around a common centre of gravity. This wobbling movement alternately blueshifts and redshifts the light from the star.

When Queloz and Mayor set up the search it was with low expectations of finding anything because any planets massive enough to create a measurable Doppler shift were expected to have such long orbits that the wobble would take years to detect. Surprisingly, though, they found a huge planet sitting extremely close to its host star, with an orbit of just four days.

"Because it was so near in to its star, no one really believed it," said Queloz, adding that it took several years to convince the world that the finding was real.

Since then, astronomers having found more than 4,000 exoplanets in an incredible range of sizes, forms and orbits. Learning about these strange and varied worlds beyond our solar system has transformed understanding of how planets formed and given new focus to the question of whether there could be alien life out there somewhere.

Queloz said the sheer numbers of planets made it hard to believe that ours was the only one to host life.

"We may find out that life is extremely rare. We know life is special, but we may not acknowledge how special or rare it is," he said. "It's not impossible that in the next 20 to 30 years there will be new kinds of equipment that would be able to answer this question. Whether they will find something is open."

Peebles is credited with developing the theoretical tools that allowed scientists to perform a cosmic inventory of what the universe is made from, showing that ordinary matter makes up just 5% of its known contents, with the rest being dark matter and dark energy.

"We still must admit that the dark matter and dark energy are mysterious," Peebles told the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on Tuesday. "There are still many open questions ... what in the world is this dark matter?"

Looking back over his career spanning half a century, Peebles, who is the Albert Einstein professor emeritus of science at Princeton University, said he had never set out with a grand plan.

"I could think of one or two things to do in cosmology. I just did them and kept going," he said. "The prizes and awards, they are charming, much appreciated, but that's not part of your plans. You should enter science because you are fascinated by it."

Prof Sir Martin Rees, Britain's astronomer royal, described Peebles as the world's "most influential and respected leader of empirical cosmology, with a sustained record of achievement spanning half a century."

He said: "The study of exoplanets is perhaps the most vibrant field of astronomy. We now know that most stars are orbited by retinues of planets. There may be a billion planets in our galaxy resembling the Earth (similar in size and at a distance from their parent star where liquid water can exist). This takes us a step towards the fascinating question of detecting evidence for life on the nearest of these exoplanets."

On Monday, two Americans, William Kaelin and Gregg Semenza, and Britain's Peter Ratcliffe won the Nobel prize for physiology or medicine for discovering details of how the body's cells sense and react to low oxygen levels, providing a foothold for developing new treatments for anaemia, cancer and other diseases.

The winner of the Nobel prize for chemistry will be announced on Wednesday, two literature prizes will be awarded on Thursday, and the peace prize on Friday. This year, two literature prizes will be handed out because last year's was suspended after a scandal rocked the Swedish Academy.
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Nobel prize in physics awarded to cosmology and exoplanet researchers

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Three scientists have been awarded the 2019 Nobel prize in physics for groundbreaking discoveries about the evolution of the universe and the Earth's place within it. James Peebles, from Canada, has been awarded half of the 9m Swedish kronor (£740,000) prize for his theoretical discoveries about the evolution of the universe.

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Nobel Prize for Chemistry | October 2019

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Nobel Prize for Chemistry | October 2019

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Nobel prize in chemistry awarded for work on lithium-ion batteries

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The Nobel prize in chemistry has been awarded to three scientists for their work in developing lithium-ion batteries.

John B Goodenough of the University of Texas at Austin, M Stanley Whittingham of Binghamton University and Akira Yoshino of Meijo University will receive equal shares of the 9m Swedish kronor (£74o,000) prize, which was announced by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm on Wednesday. At 97 years old, Goodenough is the oldest laureate to receive a Nobel prize in any discipline.

Lithium-ion batteries have long been tipped for the award, not least since they have proved pivotal in the development of the high-tech world we inhabit. Far lighter and more compact that earlier types of rechargeable battery, they are found in everything from mobile phones to laptops and electric cars.

This is the 111th Nobel prize in chemistry - the first was awarded in 1901. Only five women have been awarded the prize, and only one person - Frederick Sanger - has won it twice (although Marie Curie and Linus Pauling both won a Nobel prize in chemistry and a Nobel prize in another category).

Prof Saiful Islam, a researcher in the field at the University of Bath and who gave the 2016 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, welcomed the news, saying the trio's work helped to power the portable revo.

I'm delighted that John B. Goodenough, M. Stanley Whittingham and Akira Yoshino have been awarded the Chemistry Nobel Prize for the development of lithium-ion batteries which have power the portable revolution and will play a big part in next-generation electric vehicles.

In my view, this award is long overdue and it's great to see that this important area of materials chemistry has been recognised.

On Monday, William Kaelin, Sir Peter Ratcliffe and Gregg Semenza won the 2019 Nobel prize in physiology or medicine for their work on understanding how cells adapt to low levels of oxygen, and on Tuesday the physics prize was shared between James Peebles, Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz for their work on cosmology and the discovery of the first exoplanet.

Two literature awards are being given this year as last year's prize was postponed in light of a scandal that resulted in a rape conviction - they will be announced on Thursday. The peace prize winner will be announced on Friday, followed by economics on Monday.
More details to follow... Topics

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Nobel prize in chemistry awarded for work on lithium-ion batteries

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The Nobel prize in chemistry has been awarded to three scientists for their work in developing lithium-ion batteries. John B Goodenough of the University of Texas at Austin, M Stanley Whittingham of Binghamton University and Akira Yoshino of Meijo University will receive equal shares of the 9m Swedish kronor (£74o,000) prize, which was announced by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm on Wednesday.

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Sir William Ramsay: How a Scottish chemist changed the periodic table forever.  OCTOBER 2nd 2019

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Google is paying tribute to the life and research of Scottish chemist Sir William Ramsay with a Doodle on what would have been his 167th birthday.

Born in Glasgow on 2 October 1852, Ramsay is best known for his eventual discovery of what are known as the noble gases.

Ramsay became involved in the study of chemistry from an early age, before earning his doctorate at the University of Tübingen in Germany.

After returning home, Ramsay worked in various positions at numerous colleges, before eventually taking the post of Chair of Inorganic Chemistry at University College, London, in 1887.

As chair, Ramsay continued his research on liquids and vapours, which he published in numerous papers and books.

However, when Ramsay learned that British physicist Lord Rayleigh had observed nitrogen in the earth's atmosphere had a higher atomic weight than nitrogen in the lab, his research took on a different focus.

After coming to the conclusion that a previously unknown gas existed in the atmosphere, Ramsay and Lord Rayleigh eventually announced the joint discovery of argon, a chemically inert gas.

During his research, Ramsay also discovered helium - which led to his team's subsequent identification of additional noble gases neon, krypton, and xenon.

The discovery of the noble gases was notable for both reshaping the periodic table and for their real-life usefulness. Google points out that helium was used in lighter-than-air travel, while argon was used to conserve the filaments in light bulbs.

As a result of his advancements, Ramsay was considered by many the "greatest chemical discoverer of his time".

In addition to being knighted in 1902, he was named the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1904.

Sir William Ramsay died on 23 July 1916, after changing the periodic table forever.

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Who was Sir William Ramsay and how did he change the periodic table?

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Google is paying tribute to the life and research of Scottish chemist Sir William Ramsay with a Doodle on what would have been his 167th birthday. Born in Glasgow on 2 October 1852, Ramsay is best known for his eventual discovery of what are known as the noble gases.

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It's #Strike4Climate Day today!        SEPTEMBER 20th 2019

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It's #Strike4Climate Day today!        SEPTEMBER 20th 2019

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Scientists set out how to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2030

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Greenhouse gas emissions could be halved in the next decade if a small number of current technologies and behavioural trends are ramped up and adopted more widely, researchers have found, saying strong civil society movements are needed to drive such change.

Solar and wind power, now cheaper than fossil fuels in many regions, must be scaled up rapidly to replace coal-fired generation, and this alone could halve emissions from electricity generation by 2030, according to the Exponential Roadmap report from an international group of experts.

If the rapid uptake of electric vehicles in some parts of the world could be sustained, the vehicles could make up 90% of the market by 2030, vastly reducing emissions from transport, it said.

Avoiding deforestation and improving land management could reduce emissions by the equivalent of about 9bn tonnes of carbon dioxide a year by 2030, according to the report, but contradictory subsidies, poor planning and vested interests could stop this from happening.

Key to any transition will be the growing social movements that are pressing for urgent action on climate breakdown. By driving behavioural change, such as moving away from the overconsumption of meat and putting pressure on governments and companies, civil movements have the power to drive the transformation needed in the next decade, say the report's authors.

Christiana Figueres, a former top climate official at the UN, said: "I see all evidence that social and economic tipping points are aligning. We can now say the next decade has the potential to see the fastest economic transition in history."

The experts identified 36 developments that would produce the emission cuts needed, from renewable energy to changes in food production, the design of cities, and international transport, such as shipping. All of them are judged possible to achieve by 2030.

"While the scale of transformation is unprecedented, the speed is not," said Johan Rockström, the director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. "This is now a race against time, but businesses and even entire industries have made many significant transitions in less than 10 years."

Social movements will be a top priority because consumers can put pressure on the companies whose goods they buy, and public support makes it possible for political leaders to adopt bolder policies. Countries including the UK, France, Sweden and Norway have adopted a net-zero-carbon target for 2050.

Owen Gaffney, the director of strategy at the Stockholm Resilience Centre, a co-author of the report, called on digital platforms such as Facebook, Amazon and Google to play a part.

"Given that [these platforms] are now mediating behaviour and consumption, they might do more to support societal goals, for example around advertising and the promotion of high-carbon [activities]. Governments might look here too as a place for policy innovation."

He said governments also needed to do more to support behavioural change, from dietary choices to making public transport more available.

However, the detailed policy measures required to meet 2050 net-zero-carbon targets have yet to be worked out by national governments. The report's authors believe they can demonstrate that taking action now across sectors such as energy generation, buildings, transport and food production and consumption will make it possible. Putting off taking action will result in higher costs and make more rapid change necessary in the future, they say.

The report did not examine the potential costs but Gaffney pointed to a study last year by the New Climate Economy that estimated the economic benefit of a lower-carbon future at $26tn (£21tn) by 2030. The UK's Committee on Climate Change has estimated the cost of reaching net zero at 1-2% of GDP by 2050.

The need to move to net zero carbon by 2050 - effectively reducing most of the world's output of carbon dioxide emissions, and increasing the absorption of carbon by vegetation and other means - is based on the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

In its report last year, the body of leading climate scientists found there would be dire effects if temperatures were to exceed 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, and found reducing carbon to near zero by mid-century was the best way to avoid this.

The organisations behind the Exponential Roadmap report included academic institutes, green campaigning groups and private sector companies.
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Scientists set out how to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2030

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Greenhouse gas emissions could be halved in the next decade if a small number of current technologies and behavioural trends are ramped up and adopted more widely, researchers have found, saying strong civil society movements are needed to drive such change.