Six researchers have been awarded the 2022 OWSD-Elsevier Foundation Award for Early-Career Women Scientists in the Developing World for their contributions to research that is helping tackle climate change and advancing the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Researchers at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) have developed a system based on computer vision techniques that allows automatic analysis of biomedical videos captured by microscopy in order to characterise and describe the behaviour of the cells that appear in the images.

Precise manipulation and transportation of micro-sized droplets is a challenging task, yet crucial for biomedical and industrial applications. A research team led by a scholar from the City University of Hong Kong (CityU) has successfully developed a novel droplet manipulation method called “WRAP” which can transport droplets of different sizes and compositions by electromagnets or programmable electromagnetic fields. The research team believes that this innovative method has great potential in developing next-generation microfluidics and in the detection of respiratory droplets bearing COVID-19 and other pathogens landed on the surface.

Researchers at the University of Copenhagen have found several hundred different chemical substances in tap water stored in reusable plastic bottles. Several of these substances are potentially harmful to human health. There is a need for better regulation and manufacturing standards for manufacturers, according to the chemists behind the study.