Category: Innovation

Scientists have developed a cost-effective method to recycle certain electronic waste using whey protein. This approach allows for easy gold recovery from circuit boards, costing 50 times less than the value of the recovered gold—figures that appeal to large-scale businesses. Traditional e-waste recycling methods can’t match these savings, making this method potentially scalable.

Professor Raffaele Mezzenga from ETH Zurich discovered that whey protein, a byproduct of dairy manufacturing, can create sponges that attract ionized gold. Electronic waste contains valuable metals like copper, cobalt, and gold, used extensively in electronics for their conductive properties.

Mohammad Peydayesh, Mezzenga’s colleague, first denatured whey proteins under acidic conditions and high temperatures, forming protein nanofibrils in a gel. After drying the gel, they created a sponge from these fibrils. To extract gold, they soaked 20 salvaged motherboards in an acid bath until the metals dissolved into ionized compounds. The sponge then attracted these ions, and a heat treatment aggregated the gold into 22-carat flakes for easy removal.

They extracted 450 milligrams of gold, worth about $38.70 at current market value, though the nuggets contained around 9% copper. Further smelting could purify the gold, reducing its weight slightly.

The true financial value lies in the bottom line—50 times the cost of energy and materials. The scientists plan to market this technology quickly and explore if other food waste byproducts can be used to make the protein fibril sponge.

E-waste is a growing global problem, requiring energy-intensive machinery for recycling. The benefits of recycling these materials include preventing long-term landfill waste, the loss of the precious metals to said landfills, and reducing the demand for new mining operations.

Pedestrian deaths by car surged 19 percent from 2019 to 2022, with three-quarters of fatalities occurring after dark, according to AAA. In response, automotive technology supplier Magna, a mobility technology company, is addressing this issue with thermal technology, now installed on 1.2 million vehicles and counting.

Originally named “Night Vision” and introduced on the 2005 BMW 7 Series, Magna’s thermal sensing product can see the road ahead up to four times farther than typical headlights. Currently available on 40 different vehicle models across 13 manufacturers—this technology aims to reduce pedestrian and cyclist deaths.

How It Works
A microbolometer, or an uncooled thermal sensor, which began as military technology in the late 1970s, was declassified after the 1991 Gulf War. Thermal imaging has since been adopted by many industries such as municipal firefighting services to see through smoke and is now widely used in the security sector.

Magna’s latest generation of thermal technology offers improved road coverage, enhanced detection capabilities, and a clearer image through fog, smoke, snow squalls, or complete darkness. Unlike visible light, thermal cameras are unaffected by headlights or sun glare, making them a robust solution against distracted driving. Its ability to see through smoke or fog and can also help avoid disasters like when fog caused a 158-car pileup in Louisiana last year.

An infrared video camera mounted in front of the vehicle detects temperature differences as small as 1/10th of a degree, creating a highly detailed thermal image of the road. Using convolutional neural networks, the software generates three-dimensional data for image classification and object recognition.

The system can detect animals, pedestrians, cyclists, buses, and more up to 100 meters and beyond and alert the drivers of the hazards.

Magna’s camera, once too large to fit in a trunk, is now the size of a golf ball and set to get even smaller. The next-gen thermal sensing technology, debuting next year, will include 360-degree visual range for better visibility in all directions, addressing back-over accidents and extending detection to up to three football fields, thus increasing stopping time and potentially saving more lives.

Here is an interesting video demonstrating this feature:

Scientists have discovered a way to repair brain cells affected by Timothy syndrome, a rare genetic disorder.

A study published in the journal Nature found that a drug called antisense oligonucleotide enabled human neurons to develop normally despite carrying a mutation due to Timothy syndrome. “It’s the beginning of a new era for many of these diseases that we first thought were untreatable,” said Dr. Huda Zoghbi, a professor at Baylor College of Medicine, to NPR.

Timothy syndrome is caused by a mutation of a single gene in a person’s DNA. The new drug uses an antisense nucleotide, a small piece of synthetic genetic material, to alter the proteins made by a cell, according to NPR.
The antisense nucleotide for Timothy syndrome was designed to replace a defective protein with a healthy version, effectively counteracting the mutation responsible for the disorder. This approach could potentially be used to treat other genetic disorders, including those that cause schizophrenia, epilepsy, ADHD, and autism spectrum disorder.

Recently we wrote about both hydrogen power and the new eVTOL flying taxi’s. Now, those two worlds have collided in a fascinating way.

A flying-car-like vertical takeoff aircraft created by Joby Aviation has completed a groundbreaking 523-mile test flight using hydrogen power. The aircraft, which reportedly emitted only water vapor, is being promoted as a more environmentally friendly alternative to traditional gas-powered jets for mid-range, regional travel. Although there are ongoing concerns about the long-term viability of hydrogen power at scale, this test flight demonstrates that it is possible to retrofit existing electric aircraft with hydrogen fuel cells to extend their range effectively.

Joby is among several companies developing air taxi services using vertical takeoff and landing vehicles (VTOLs). Previously, Joby focused on fully electric battery-powered aircraft with a range of about 100 miles, designed for intra-city transport and trips to major airports. For the new test flight, Joby modified a pre-production prototype of its battery-electric aircraft with a liquid hydrogen fuel tank and fuel system. This hydrogen-powered VTOL successfully completed a 523-mile flight above Marina, California, with no in-flight emissions and landed with 10% of its hydrogen fuel remaining.

Joby accelerated its hydrogen power exploration in 2022 by acquiring hydrogen-powered aircraft startup H2Fly, which completed the first piloted flight of a liquid hydrogen-powered electric aircraft last year. Since then, two other California startups have tested hydrogen fuel for propeller planes, with Universal Hydrogen reportedly flying at altitudes up to 10,000 feet and speeds around 170 knots (195 mph). Joby’s test flight, however, marks the first reported instance of a VTOL aircraft completing a test flight using hydrogen power.

“Traveling by air is central to human progress, but we need to find ways to make it cleaner,” Joby CEO JoeBen Bevirt said in a press release. “With our battery-electric air taxi set to fundamentally change the way we move around cities, we’re excited to now be building a technology stack that could redefine regional travel using hydrogen-electric aircraft.”

Hydrogen power has the potential to extend the range of VTOLs, making regional travel between cities more feasible. Joby envisions a future where hydrogen VTOLs could transport commuters between cities like Baltimore and Boston or Nashville and New Orleans. These hydrogen-powered aircraft could utilize much of the same infrastructure currently being built for electric models.

Despite the promising environmental benefits, hydrogen power remains significantly more expensive to produce than its electric or fossil fuel counterparts. Nonetheless, proponents believe it could help reduce CO2 emissions in the transportation sector. Aircraft accounted for around 2% of global CO2 emissions in 2022, according to the International Energy Agency, and this percentage is expected to rise as air travel rebounds from the Covid-19 pandemic.

In summary, hydrogen power could reduce emissions and extend the range of VTOLs, presenting a promising future for cleaner regional air travel. However, the high production costs of hydrogen fuel continue to pose a significant challenge.