Closing the carbon cycle: Unraveling the roles of light and heat in CO2 photocatalysis
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 16-Apr-2026 10:16 ET (16-Apr-2026 14:16 GMT/UTC)
Photocatalytic conversion of carbon dioxide to methane offers a promising route for carbon recycling, but its low efficiency and unclear mechanisms limit its practical use. Researchers at Chiba University have now examined how light-driven and heat-driven processes work together in Ru–Ni–ZrO2 catalysts, achieving record methane production rates. This work clarifies the reaction pathway and highlights new strategies for designing more efficient systems to convert CO2 into fuels and valuable chemicals.
Scientists find an exception in the Montreal Protocol for the use of ozone-depleting feedstocks could set the recovery of the ozone layer back seven years.
Kyoto, Japan -- The larynx, also known as the voice box, is home to your vocal folds and is the reason you can talk and sing while manipulating the pitch and volume of your voice. The vocal folds, which are part of the larynx, are covered with mucosa, or mucous membranes.
Besides vocalization, the larynx also serves other essential functions such as breathing, airway protection, and swallowing. For this reason, any kind of damage resulting in laryngeal dysfunction, or vocal cord dysfunction, can severely disrupt a person's life and lead to symptoms such as voice disorders, chronic cough, or aspiration.
"Vibration of the vocal fold in the larynx plays a crucial role in voice production," says Japanese researcher Koichi Omori. "However, these tissues are difficult to regenerate after injury or the surgical removal of head or neck tumors, which can significantly affect a patient's quality of life."
A new economic report analysing the financial impact of sequencing all complex life in the UK and Ireland has shown a huge return on investment and expected growth in scientific research.
Restoring both walking and sensation to patients with paraplegia is an ambitious goal—but a team of researchers from the Keck School of Medicine of USC, the University of California, Irvine (UCI) and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) is now one step closer. With $8 million in funding from the highly competitive National Science Foundation CyberPhysical Systems program, the team is building a fully implantable brain-computer interface (BCI) that allows patients to use their thoughts to control wearable robotic legs, known as a robotic exoskeleton. The system is designed to help patients walk while also restoring the sensation of walking. In the first full test, the BCI was about 92% accurate at both reading step signals from the brain and delivering artificial walking sensation. Existing brain-computer interfaces that restore walking send signals in just one direction, from brain to device. The team’s early proof-of-concept study, done in a patient with epilepsy who had electrodes implanted as part of her medical care, shows it is possible to build a bidirectional, or two-way, system. During the demonstration, the patient sat on her hospital bed with the device by her side (future versions will be small enough to implant inside the body), while one of the researchers wore the robot exoskeleton. When the patient mimed taking a step, the device signaled the exoskeleton, sending the researcher on a walk around the intensive care unit. The system correctly detected brain signals indicating the intent to walk about 92% of the time. The demonstration helped the researchers earn an Investigational Device Exemption from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which allows them to test the device in a clinical trial for patients with paraplegia. They aim to implant electrodes for 30 days as a time, using that window to test and refine the system’s capabilities.
CU Boulder engineers found that staple-shaped particles can tangle together to form materials that are both strong and tough, yet can quickly come apart when shaken or vibrated. This approach could lead to new materials for buildings, robotics and manufacturing that are durable, adaptable and easy to disassemble or recycle.