Flue2Chem: Science-based industries join forces for first time to address UK net zero targets

Business Announcement

SOCIETY OF CHEMICAL INDUSTRY

 

IMAGE: THE FLUE2CHEM PROJECT IS LED BY UNILEVER AND FACILITATED BY SCI, IN PARTNERSHIP WITH BASF, TATA STEEL, CRODA, JOHNSON MATTHEY, UPM-KYMMENE, HOLMEN, THE UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD, THE UNIVERSITY OF SURREY, CARBON CLEAN, PROCTOR & GAMBLE, THE CENTRE FOR PROCESS INNOVATION, THE CONFEDERATION OF PAPER INDUSTRIES, AND RECKITT. WITH SUPPORT FROM INNOVATE UK FUNDING, THE CROSS-SECTOR COLLABORATION FLUE2CHEM WILL WORK TO CONVERT INDUSTRIAL WASTE GASES IN THE UK TO CREATE MORE SUSTAINABLE CHEMICALS FOR CONSUMER PRODUCTS, A MOVE WHICH IS ESSENTIAL IN HELPING THE UK REACH NET ZERO BY 2050. view more 

CREDIT: SCI (THE SOCIETY OF CHEMICAL INDUSTRY)

• Industry giants from £73 billion UK sector, including Unilever, BASF and Tata Steel, embark on a first of its kind cross-sector collaboration to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
   
• Currently, fossil feedstocks extracted from coal, oil and gas, are used to make a range of consumer goods from electronics to cleaning products
   
• With support from Innovate UK funding, the cross-sector collaboration ‘Flue2Chem’ will work to convert industrial waste gases in the UK to create more sustainable chemicals for consumer products, a move which is essential in helping the UK reach net zero by 2050

Key industrial players representing the UK’s £73 billion chemicals and pharmaceuticals industry sector have signed a collaboration agreement to launch ‘Flue2Chem’ – a collaborative programme to transform the sustainability of the UK’s consumer products industry and reduce greenhouse gas emissions on a demonstration scale.

SCI (Society of Chemical Industry), Unilever and 13 other organisations have secured funding for a two-year programme to develop a new value chain to convert industrial waste gases into sustainable materials for consumer products. 

The £5.4 million project, which has been granted £2.68 million from Innovate UK via UKRI’s Transforming Foundation Industries (TFI) Challenge, will aim to help the UK reach its net zero targets. 

One goal is to seek to demonstrate how the UK could cut 15–20 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions a year. 

The aim of the consortium is to enable the use of waste gases from foundation industries such as the production of metals, glass, paper and chemicals to generate an alternative source of carbon for UK consumer product production. 

This comes at a time when most of the carbon used to produce plastics, cosmetics, synthetic textiles, and many other products is extracted from coal, oil and gas. If the UK is to reach its net zero target by 2050, industries must find an alternative source for the carbon in these goods.

Aside from the technical aspects of the project, the business model development will frame the economic incentives that will likely be required to make the model work. The project will bring together partners from across the whole supply chain to achieve this. 

Currently the UK imports large amounts of carbon-containing feedstocks each year for use in the consumer goods industry. Securing an alternative domestic source of carbon for these goods is one way in which these sectors can contribute to net zero targets, while also building a new UK value chain. 

David Bott, SCI’s Head of Innovation said:

‘This is an excellent example of the power of collaborative working. It is an important step for the UK and SCI’s vision of furthering the application of chemistry and related sciences into industry for public benefit.

‘The new business model will aim to reduce the need for imported fossil fuel material. Instead, the consortium will build a new, more sustainable supply chain whilst also mitigating waste emissions. The group will develop methods for using carbon captured from waste streams of other industries and transform them into affordable raw materials for consumer products.’

Project lead Ian Howell, Unilever’s Home Care Science & Technology R&D Director and Chair of SCI’s Sustainable Materials for Consumer Products Group explained:

‘This is a game-changing opportunity to accelerate action and rewire the chemicals value chain to be less reliant on fossil fuels. It’s a bold ambition and one that, at Unilever, we have been publicly calling for action over the last two years. No single company can do this alone, so to have the power of 15 manufacturers and academics marks a significant step forward not only for the UK, but globally too.’

Bruce Adderley, Innovate UK Challenge Director for the Transforming Foundation Industries Challenge, added:

‘Underpinned by circular economy thinking, the Foundation Industries and their supply chain partners are bringing forward a range of new innovations as they move towards a sustainable competitive future. But these need to be demonstrated at scale if they are to be rapidly deployed in the UK and taken to international markets. That is why we are delighted to be able to support projects like Flue2Chem which have huge potential to address decarbonisation through multi-industry collaboration focused on resource and energy efficiency.’

In addition to SCI, Unilever, BASF and Tata Steel, the other consortium partners are: UPM-Kymmene, Holmen, Croda, Johnson Matthey, The University of Sheffield, The University of Surrey, Carbon Clean, Procter & Gamble, Centre for Process Innovation, Confederation of Paper Industries, and Reckitt. These organisations encompass the capture, transformation and use of the carbon emissions in industry

The Flue2Chem project is led by Unilever and facilitated by SCI, in partnership with BASF, Tata Steel, Croda, Johnson Matthey, UPM-Kymmene, Holmen, the University of Sheffield, the University of Surrey, Carbon Clean, Proctor & Gamble, the Centre for Process Innovation, the Confederation of Paper Industries, and Reckitt. With support from Innovate UK funding, the cross-sector collaboration Flue2Chem will work to convert industrial waste gases in the UK to create more sustainable chemicals for consumer products, a move which is essential in helping the UK reach net zero by 2050.

CREDIT

SCI (The Society of Chemical Industry)

Medication administration errors can induce fear, sadness ang guilt among healthcare professionals

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN FINLAND

Despite evidence showing that the causes of medication errors can be traced back to multiple factors in the healthcare setting, healthcare professionals still often feel the blame on them. In a new study, healthcare professionals described a variety of negative emotions when reporting medication administration errors, most commonly feelings of fear, disturbed mood, sadness, and guilt. However, immediate reassurance and guidance from seniors and colleagues helped them cope with the situation effectively.

“How the workplace responds to the error is clearly linked to the emotional impact it can have on the healthcare professional who made the error. Adequate support and guidance may not only help solve the problem at hand, but also prevent further medication errors and encourage an open reporting culture,” says the first author of the study, Doctoral Researcher Sanu Mahat from the University of Eastern Finland.

The study was conducted in collaboration between the University of Eastern Finland and King’s College London. The findings were published in BMC Health Services Research.

Data for the study was obtained from the National Reporting and Learning System (NRLS) for England and Wales and included medication administration errors reported in 2016 in a total of 72,390 incident reports. The researchers analysed those incident reports where healthcare professionals expressed negative emotions in relation to the error, in total 93 reports.

The key negative emotions expressed by healthcare professionals were categorised into feelings of fear, disturbed mood, sadness, and guilt. They also included extreme negative emotional expressions, such as being devastated and questioning one’s own professional competence.

“The use of such intense and traumatic language can be a reflection of how much the healthcare professionals concerned were impacted and even emotionally wrecked after making an error. Incident reporting by healthcare professionals in this study indicated that unintentional harm caused due to medication administration errors and even near misses can affect the healthcare professional involved in error emotionally, increasing their risk of becoming the second victim,” Mahat says.

Workplace factors such as high workload and poor nurse staffing are known to contribute to medication administration errors. However, emotional distress caused by errors can also further affect the quality and safety of patient care.

The authors point out that immediate negative feelings experienced by healthcare professionals after getting involved in medication administration incidents can have long-lasting and potentially traumatising impacts on their mental health. In the absence of support, self-blame seems to assume greater prominence.

“Hence, it should be paramount to tailor appropriate support from persons in-charge and colleagues and to promote an open culture where errors are treated fairly. In addition, system triggers surrounding medication administration errors need to be understood and prevented,” Mahat concludes.

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JOURNAL

BMC Health Services Research

DOI

10.1186/s12913-022-08818-1 

ARTICLE TITLE

Negative emotions experienced by healthcare staff following medication administration errors: a descriptive study using text-mining and content analysis of incident data.

Uncovering the secrets of electron-eating microorganisms

A new research project is aiming to improve our understanding of so-called electro-trophic microorganisms, which can convert green electricity and CO2 to high-value products

Grant and Award Announcement

AARHUS UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: ASSISTANT PROFESSOR JO PHILIPS view more 

CREDIT: AARHUS UNIVERSITY

A large number of microorganisms have the inherent ability to convert electricity and CO2 to high-value chemical products via electrosynthesis. These electro-trophic microorganisms absorb energy in the form of electrons, which they can use to convert CO2 into biofuels, for example.

We have known about the process for years, it is completely natural, and the microbes belong to a large number of microbial groups. The same microorganisms also have the ability to break down metal via microbial corrosion.

However, the precise electro-trophic mechanism is still unknown territory, and neither do we know why certain microorganisms are electro-trophic and others are not.

Assistant Professor Jo Philips from the Department of Biological and Chemical Engineering at Aarhus University has received a grant from the Villum Foundation's Young Investigator programme to study these questions in the project Some-like-it-low. There could be great potential for both microbiological Power-to-X and new tools to avoid microbial corrosion.

"Using the electro-trophic properties of microorganisms shows great promise for a wide range of applications, but we need a full understanding of the underlying mechanisms. Today, we know very little about what determines whether or not a microbe is electro-trophic, and this lack of understanding prevents the development of microbial electrochemical technologies," says Jo Philips.

The Some-like-it-low project will focus on the hypothesis, that electro-trophic microbes are capable of consuming molecular hydrogen, H2, at low levels.

“Our research group here at Aarhus University, Microbial Electrosynthesis, is currently proving the hypothesis, that H2 is a key intermediate in this process. With Some-like-it-low, we’re able to extend this research to a much wider range of other highly relevant microbes and to use new techniques for investigating the electro-trophic mechanism,” Jo Philips says.

She continues:

“I have always been fascinated by microbes as they have so many intriguing properties which could be of use to solve some of the major issues of our time. I really hope, that this research will bring new insights into some of these remarkable microbes.”

Jo Philips is originally from Belgium and did her PhD in Bioscience Engineering at KU Leuven, where she worked on bioremediation of contaminated soils. From 2012 to 2014 she was a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Microbiology at University of Massachusetts before going back to Belgium as a postdoc at Ghent University. In 2018 she got a position as tenure track assistant professor at Aarhus University.

Jo Philips is heading the Microbial Electrosynthesis research group at Aarhus University, which will carry out the Some-like-it-low project. The Villum Foundation has awarded DKK 6 million (EUR 0.8 million) to the project, which is set to start in summer 2023.

Physicists observe rare resonance in molecules for the first time

The findings could provide a new way to control chemical reactions.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

If she hits just the right pitch, a singer can shatter a wine glass. The reason is resonance. While the glass may vibrate slightly in response to most acoustic tones, a pitch that resonates with the material’s own natural frequency can send its vibrations into overdrive, causing the glass to shatter.

Resonance also occurs at the much smaller scale of atoms and molecules. When particles chemically react, it’s partly due to specific conditions that resonate with particles in a way that drives them to chemically link. But atoms and molecules are constantly in motion, inhabiting a blur of vibrating and rotating states. Picking out the exact resonating state that ultimately triggers molecules to react has been nearly impossible.

MIT physicists may have cracked part of this mystery with a new study appearing in the journal Nature. The team reports that they have for the first time observed a resonance in colliding ultracold molecules.

They found that a cloud of super-cooled sodium-lithium (NaLi) molecules disappeared 100 times faster than normal when exposed to a very specific magnetic field. The molecules’ rapid disappearance is a sign that the magnetic field tuned the particles into a resonance, driving them to react more quickly than they normally would.

The findings shed light on the mysterious forces that drive molecules to chemically react. They also suggest that scientists could one day harness particles’ natural resonances to steer and control certain chemical reactions.

“This is the very first time a resonance between two ultracold molecules has ever been seen,” says study author Wolfgang Ketterle, the John D. MacArthur Professor of Physics at MIT. “There were suggestions that molecules are so complicated that they are like a dense forest, where you would not be able to recognize a single resonance. But we found one big tree standing out, by a factor of 100. We observed something completely unexpected.”

Ketterle’s co-authors include lead author and MIT graduate student Juliana Park, graduate student Yu-Kun Lu, former MIT postdoc Alan Jamison, who is currently at the University of Waterloo, and Timur Tscherbul at the University of Nevada.

A middle mystery

Within a cloud of molecules, collisions occur constantly. Particles may ping off each other like frenetic billiard balls or stick together in a brief yet crucial state known as an “intermediate complex” that then sets off a reaction to transform the particles into a new chemical structure.

“When two molecules collide, most of the time they don’t make it to that intermediate state,” says Jamison. “But when they’re in resonance, the rate of going to that state goes up dramatically.”

“The intermediate complex is the mystery behind all of chemistry,” Ketterle adds. “Usually, the reactants and the products of a chemical reaction are known, but not how one leads to the other. Knowing something about the resonance of molecules can give us a fingerprint of this mysterious middle state.”

Ketterle’s group has looked for signs of resonance in atoms and molecules that are super-cooled, to temperatures just above absolute zero. Such ultracold conditions inhibit the particles’ random, temperature-driven motion, giving scientists a better chance of recognizing any subtler signs of resonance. 

In 1998, Ketterle made the first ever observation of such resonances in ultracold atoms. He observed that, when a very specific magnetic field was applied to super-cooled sodium atoms, the field enhanced the way the atoms scattered off each other, in an effect known as a Feshbach resonance. Since then, he and others have looked for similar resonances in collisions involving both atoms and molecules.

“Molecules are much more complicated than atoms,” says Ketterle. “They have so many different vibrational and rotational states. Therefore, it was not clear if molecules would show resonances at all.”

Needle in a haystack

Several years ago, Jamison, who at the time was a postdoc in Ketterle’s lab, proposed a similar experiment to see whether signs of resonance could be observed in a mixture of atoms and molecules cooled down to a millionth of a degree above absolute zero. By varying an external magnetic field, they found they could indeed pick up several resonances amid sodium atoms and sodium-lithium molecules, which they reported last year.

Then, as the team reports in the current study, graduate student Park took a closer look at the data.

“She discovered that one of those resonances did not involve atoms,” Ketterle says. “She blew away the atoms with laser light, and one resonance was still there, very sharp, and only involved molecules.”

Park found that the molecules seemed to disappear — a sign that the particles underwent a chemical reaction — much more quickly than they normally would, when they were exposed to a very specific magnetic field.

In their original experiment, Jamison and colleagues applied a magnetic field that they varied over a wide, 1,000-Gaussian range. Park found that molecules of sodium-lithium suddenly disappeared, 100 times faster than normal, within a tiny sliver of this magnetic range, at about 25 milli-Gaussian. That’s equivalent to the width of a human hair compared to a meter-long stick.

“It takes careful measurements to find the needle in this haystack,” Park says. “But we used a systematic strategy to zoom in on this new resonance.”

In the end, the team observed a strong signal that this particular field resonated with the molecules. The effect enhanced the particles’ chance of binding in a brief, intermediate complex that then triggered a reaction that made the molecules disappear.

Overall, the discovery provides a deeper understanding of molecular dynamics and chemistry. While the team does not anticipate scientists being able to stimulate resonance, and steer reactions, at the level of organic chemistry, it could one day be possible to do so at the quantum scale.

“One of the main themes of quantum science is studying systems of increasing complexity, especially when quantum control is potentially in the offing,” says John Doyle, professor of physics at Harvard University, who was not involved in the group’s research. “These kind of resonances, first seen in simple atoms and then more complicated ones, led to amazing advances in atomic physics. Now that this is seen in molecules, we should first understand it in detail, and then let the imagination wander and think what it might be good for, perhaps constructing larger ultracold molecules, perhaps studying interesting states of matter.”

This research was supported, in part, by the National Science Foundation, and the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research.

###

Written by Jennifer Chu, MIT News Office

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JOURNAL

Nature

ARTICLE TITLE

“A Feshbach resonance in collisions between triplet ground state molecules”

The bubbling universe: A previously unknown phase transition in the early universe

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN DENMARK

 

IMAGE: AI GENERATED ILLUSTRATION OF COLLIDING BUBBLES IN EARLY UNIVERSE view more 

CREDIT: BIRGITTE SVENNEVIG, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN DENMARK

Think of bringing a pot of water to the boil: As the temperature reaches the boiling point, bubbles form in the water, burst and evaporate as the water boils. This continues until there is no more water changing phase from liquid to steam.

This is roughly the idea of what happened in the very early universe, right after the Big Bang, 13.7 billion years ago.

The idea comes from particle physicists Martin S. Sloth from the Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics Phenomenology at University of Southern Denmark and Florian Niedermann from the Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics (NORDITA) in Stockholm. Niedermann is a previous postdoc in Sloth’s research group. In this new scientific article, they present an even stronger basis for their idea.

Many bubbles crashing into each other
- One must imagine that bubbles arose in various places in the early universe. They got bigger and they started crashing into each other. In the end, there was a complicated state of colliding bubbles, which released energy and eventually evaporated, said Martin S. Sloth.

The background for their theory of phase changes in a bubbling universe is a highly interesting problem with calculating the so-called Hubble constant; a value for how fast the universe is expanding. Sloth and Niedermann believe that the bubbling universe plays a role here.

The Hubble constant can be calculated very reliably by, for example, analyzing cosmic background radiation or by measuring how fast a galaxy or an exploding star is moving away from us. According to Sloth and Niedermann, both methods are not only reliable, but also scientifically recognized. The problem is that the two methods do not lead to the same Hubble constant. Physicists call this problem “the Hubble tension”.

Is there something wrong with our picture of the early universe?
- In science, you have to be able to reach the same result by using different methods, so here we have a problem. Why don't we get the same result when we are so confident about both methods?, said Florian Niedermann.

Sloth and Niedermann believe they have found a way to get the same Hubble constant, regardless of which method is used. The path starts with a phase transition and a bubbling universe - and thus an early, bubbling universe is connected to "the Hubble tension".

- If we assume that these methods are reliable – and we think they are – then maybe the methods are not the problem. Maybe we need to look at the starting point, the basis, that we apply the methods to. Maybe this basis is wrong.

An unknown dark energy
The basis for the methods is the so-called Standard Model, which assumes that there was a lot of radiation and matter, both normal and dark, in the early universe, and that these were the dominant forms of energy. The radiation and the normal matter were compressed in a dark, hot and dense plasma; the state of the universe in the first 380.000 years after Big Bang.

When you base your calculations on the Standard Model, you arrive at different results for how fast the universe is expanding – and thus different Hubble constants.

But maybe a new form of dark energy was at play in the early universe? Sloth and Niedermann think so.

If you introduce the idea that a new form of dark energy in the early universe suddenly began to bubble and undergo a phase transition, the calculations agree. In their model, Sloth and Niedermann arrive at the same Hubble constant when using both measurement methods. They call this idea New Early Dark Energy – NEDE.

Change from one phase to another – like water to steam
Sloth and Niedermann believe that this new, dark energy underwent a phase transition when the universe expanded, shortly before it changed from the dense and hot plasma state to the universe we know today.

- This means that the dark energy in the early universe underwent a phase transition, just as water can change phase between frozen, liquid and steam. In the process, the energy bubbles eventually collided with other bubbles and along the way released energy, said Niedermann.

- It could have lasted anything from an insanely short time – perhaps just the time it takes two particles to collide – to 300,000 years. We don't know, but that is something we are working to find out, added Sloth.

Do we need new physics?
So, the phase transition model is based on the fact that the universe does not behave as the Standard Model tells us. It may sound a little scientifically crazy to suggest that something is wrong with our fundamental understanding of the universe; that you can just propose the existence of hitherto unknown forces or particles to solve the Hubble tension.

- But if we trust the observations and calculations, we must accept that our current model of the universe cannot explain the data, and then we must improve the model. Not by discarding it and its success so far, but by elaborating on it and making it more detailed so that it can explain the new and better data, said Martin S. Sloth, adding:

- It appears that a phase transition in the dark energy is the missing element in the current Standard Model to explain the differing measurements of the universe's expansion rate.

  

AI generated illustration of colliding bubbles in the universe

CREDIT

Birgitte Svennevig, University of Southern Denmark

SIDE BAR: How fast is the universe expanding?

The Hubble constant is a value for how fast the universe is expanding.

In Martin S. Sloth and Florian Niedermann's model, the Hubble constant is 72. Approximately. After all, large distances are being calculated, so we must allow for uncertainty of a few decimals.

What does 72 mean? It means 72 km per second per Megaparsec. Megaparsecs are a measure of the distance between, for example, two galaxies, and one megaparsec is 30,000,000,000,000,000,000 km. For every megaparsec between us and, for example, a galaxy, the galaxy moves away from us at 72 km per second.

When you measure the distance to galaxies by supernovas, you get a Hubble constant of approx. 73 (km/s)/megaparsec. But when measuring on the first light particles (the cosmic background radiation), the Hubble constant is 67.4 (km/s)/megaparsec.

When Sloth and Niedermann changed the basis of these calculations by introducing the existence of a new, early, dark energy that undergoes a phase transition – as described in the article – both types of calculations come to a Hubble constant of about 72.

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JOURNAL

Physics Letters B

DOI

10.1016/j.physletb.2022.137555 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Computational simulation/modeling

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Hot new early dark energy: Towards a unified dark sector of neutrinos, dark energy and dark matter

Free research materials at a click

Open Science Spotlight opens the treasure chest of research: The University of Konstanz's new online section presents free and open data, publications as well as educational resources.

Business Announcement

UNIVERSITY OF KONSTANZ

Are you looking for free learning materials or texts because you want to expand your knowledge in your spare time? Are you a journalist or researcher who would like to dive deeper into a topic and therefore need access to the original data? Or are you a doctoral researcher about to write your first paper and are searching for authentic examples of the peer review process?  Then you should definitely browse through the University of Konstanz’s new Open Science Spotlight. The OSS showcases open access (OA) publications, open research data, software and open educational resources published by the university’s researchers and lecturers, thus making it easy for everyone to explore the university's research.
 

“Many of our members are very active in the field of Open Access publishing, following highest open science standards. There is a real treasure trove of open science materials at the University of Konstanz, and the Open Science Spotlight will help to lift it and bring it to light,” says Christine Peter, Vice Rector for Sustainability, Information and Communication Technology at the University of Konstanz.
 

Well-structured and in two languages
The OSS is available in an English and a German edition. Short features describe what kind of materials on which topic are freely available and contain direct links for downloads. Filter options on the home page make it easier to search for specific formats. Currently, selectable formats include different OA text formats (articles, books and entire journals), freely available datasets, software and code as well as open educational resources and open peer reviews.

A few examples:
 

• The free data from a survey provide information on how people in Germany have been dealing with the social and political consequences of the coronavirus pandemic.
• A freely accessible platform with software applications allows the processing, analysis and display of complex animal movement data.
• A video collection of over 200 physics lecture experiments explains physical principles. The material may be reused.

Open Science: a key issue
Open Science is a key issue for the University of Konstanz: It was one of the first universities in Germany to adopt an Open Science Policy, and in the renowned CWTS Leiden Ranking it has consistently been ranked as the German university with the highest proportion of open access publications. Together with other measures, such as the university's own document and research data repositories KOPS and KonDATA, the OSS will further strengthen the University of Konstanz's pioneering role in the field of open science.

 

Key facts:
 

• The University of Konstanz launched the "Open Science Spotlight" (OSS), a new section of its online magazine campus.kn
• The OSS showcases open access publications, open research data, open-source software and open educational resources published by the university’s researchers and lecturers.
• Materials can be filtered by eight categories:
  • OA articles
  • OA books
  • OA journals
  • Open research data
  • Open educational resources
  • Open-source software
  • Open scripts
  • Open peer review
• The OSS is available in an English and a German edition.

 

Contact:

University of Konstanz

Communications and Marketing

Email: kum@uni-konstanz.de

 

- uni.kn/en

Tel Aviv University establishes the first satellite observatory for quantum optical communication

An Israeli first: One of world’s most advanced satellite observatories

Business Announcement

TEL-AVIV UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: THE GROUND STATION'S TELESCOPE view more 

CREDIT: TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY

The Center for Quantum Science and Technology at Tel Aviv University has built the first ground station in Israel – and among the most advanced in the world – for tracking, sensing, hyperspectral imaging, and optical and quantum communication with satellites in orbit around the Earth. The station includes a satellite observatory dome with a diameter of 4.25 meters, a tracking system, a primary high-speed camera and secondary tracking cameras, laser equipment, single-photon detectors, and a tracking robot that can carry two telescopes simultaneously. At this stage, the robot arm holds a 24-inch telescope, and in the next stage, the observatory will be equipped with another telescope designed for photography in the infrared range, as well as thermal and hyperspectral cameras.

Video about the ground station:

https://youtu.be/atZD3sUypYA

“The ground station is designed for observing satellites, which are small bodies 400-500 kilometers high that move at about 30,000 kilometers an hour,” says Prof. Yaron Oz, head of the Center for Quantum Science and Technology at Tel Aviv University. “The ability to track satellites is a very precise skill. The satellite passes by very quickly, and during this time you have to photograph it in the center of the image and in several different ranges of the electromagnetic spectrum in order to learn details about it. This is the first and only satellite observatory in Israel, and it is among the most advanced in the entire world.” 

In addition to regular optical communication, which uses lasers or LEDs of different wavelengths, the new ground station will also enable the conduction of experiments in quantum optical communication. Advanced communications use the quantum properties of individual photons to transmit encrypted information.

“Theoretically speaking, quantum communication is completely encrypted,” explains Prof. Oz. “It is impossible to launch a cyber attack and copy the information, because in quantum mechanics there is a principle that prevents copying. As soon as a third party tries to intercept a message, they destroy the original signal – for example, by changing the polarization of the photons – and both communicating parties will know that someone tried to listen in on them. That's how it works in theory. In practice, there are quite a few research questions that need to be answered. For example, what do we do with interference in a signal that is not created as a result of attempted eavesdropping, but rather, for example, from the weather? Should we use qubits or qudits, photons that have more than two states? And more generally, how much information can be transmitted this way within the limited transmission time in which the satellite passes over the ground station? The list of unanswered questions is long. It must be understood that quantum communication is a completely experimental field. There are protocols from experiments conducted in laboratories, but the only country that has successfully demonstrated such communication is China, which did so already in 2016. The Americans also apparently succeeded in this, but they published nothing about it in scientific journals. Apart from these two superpowers, a few countries like Germany, Singapore, and now Israel are preparing to demonstrate this capability.”

In the first phase of the project, the Tel Aviv University researchers will try to establish optical communication followed by quantum communication between ground stations, between ground stations and drones, and then between ground stations and a satellite of one of their international partners. Within two to three years, the researchers hope to raise the funds to build a dedicated “blue and white” quantum satellite.

“We are employing the ‘tower and stockade’ method,” says Prof. Oz. “In the beginning, we will place a transmitter on the roof of the second building of the School of Physics, in an attempt to produce an immune quantum key with a rate of hundreds to thousands of bits per second, with the aim of learning and improving the positioning, switching and synchronization capabilities of the light sources and the single-photon detectors. Later, we would like to reduce the size of the transmission system and integrate it into an airborne system, initially with drones, and establish a network of quantum communications. Ultimately, we would also like to launch our own satellite, which will try to establish quantum communication with the ground station and with a similar satellite in Singapore.”

Prof. Ady Arie of the Fleischman Faculty of Engineering, Prof. Haim Suchowski and Prof. Erez Etzion of the Raymond and Beverly Sackler School of Physics, director of the optical ground station Michael Tzukran, and research students Dr. Georgi Gary Rozenman, Yuval Reches and Tomer Nahum are also participating in the groundbreaking project. The project is being funded by the university’s Center for Quantum Science and Technology, led by Prof. Yaron Oz and under the administrative management of Ms. Ronit Ackerman, and by the Israel Space Agency under the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology.

Left to right- Dr. Georgi Gary Rozenman Michael Tzukran

CREDIT

Tel Aviv University

Genomic methods aid study of Seattle 2017-2022 Shigella outbreak

Analysis of the outbreak shed light on its origins and transmission patterns and helped assess treatment and infection control.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON SCHOOL OF MEDICINE/UW MEDICINE

 

IMAGE: SHIGELLA COLONIES ON A CHROMAGAR PLATE CULTURE MEDIUM ARE TEAL, WHILE E. COLI COLONIES ARE PINK. THIS PHOTOGRAPH FROM THE HARBORVIEW MEDICAL CENTER MICROBIOLOGY LAB IN SEATTLE WAS TAKEN JAN. 30, 2023. view more 

CREDIT: JASON MATSUMOTO, HARBORVIEW MICROBIOLOGY LAB

A genomic study of a sustained, multidrug-resistant Shigellosis outbreak in Seattle enabled scientists to retrace its origin and spread. Additional analysis of the gut pathogen and its transmission patterns helped direct approaches to testing, treatment, and public health responses.  

The genomic reconstruction of the 2017-2022 outbreak and a review of the patient care and public health interventions used are reported Jan 30 in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.

“The aim of the study,” the Seattle researchers noted, “was to better understand the community transmission of Shigella and spread of antimicrobial resistance in our population, and to treat these multi-drug resistant infections more effectively.”

Shigella outbreaks are more frequent in countries without sufficient public health and sanitation resources.  But the researchers called Shigella an opportunistic pathogen that can also emerge in regions of high-income countries when conditions allow.

They explained that sustained Shigella outbreaks in urban areas pose a substantial public health challenge for populations trying to cope with harsh living conditions and lack of hygiene facilities.

The lead authors on the paper are Dr. Giannoula S. Tansarli of the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, and Dr. Dustin R. Long, of the Division of Critical Care Medicine, Department of Anesthesiology, both at the University of Washington School of Medicine.

The senior and corresponding author is Dr. Ferric C. Fang, professor of laboratory medicine and pathology and of microbiology at the UW medical school.  He oversees the clinical microbiology lab at Harborview Medical Center and conducts basic science research on how bacteria cause disease. He was assisted by his UW Medicine colleague Dr. Stephen J. Salipante, a molecular genetics pathologist and an expert on next-generation DNA sequencing technologies.

Shigellosis is caused by Shigella bacteria, which can produce inflammation in the lining of the intestine. Its symptoms include fever, stomach cramps and diarrhea, and, in the worse cases, dysentery and dehydration. Some people with Shigellosis become severely ill and require hospitalization.  Shigellosis is highly contagious. The transmission of just a few bacteria is sufficient to cause disease.

From 2017 to 2022, all 178 cases of Shigella identified by the clinical labs at Harborview Medical Center and UW Medical Center were characterized by species identification, susceptibility testing, and whole genome sequencing. For the study, the researchers retrospectively examined the demographics and the clinical outcomes of the infected patients.  

Of the 178 cases, 78, or 45.6%, were in men who have sex with men, and 88, or 51.5% were in persons experiencing homelessness. About half of the Shigella isolates were resistant to multiple antibiotics.

The researchers also had data on 143 patients who received antimicrobial therapy. Despite the high presence of drug resistant Shigella, nearly 70 percent of patients were found to have received suitable antimicrobial therapy for their Shigella infection. The researchers added that rapid diagnostics and culturing of the bacteria for patients seeking care for severe diarrhea, along with assessment of risk factors and detailed local understanding of the populations affected, led to high rates of appropriate treatment. The approach to care improved over time, as clinicians gained more experience with the disease.

The genomic analysis portion of the study revealed sequential outbreaks of several distinct lineages of two species of Shigella, S. flexneri and S. sonnei. The various at-risk populations were found to carry Shigella of different lineages with different drug-resistance traits.  This information helped clinicians develop effective treatment guidelines.

How did this Shigella outbreak appear in Seattle? The researchers’ genomic findings suggest that it came originally from international travelers from areas where Shigella was common. It then spread locally and quickly among at-risk groups.

The researchers explained that multi-drug resistant Shigella has become a growing global health concern with many outbreaks worldwide. Most of these have affected men who have sex with men. A variety of gut pathogens can be transmitted between men in this way.

However, in the past few years Shigellosis outbreaks also have occurred among people experiencing homelessness in West Coast cities of the United States and Canada.

Whole-genome sequencing enabled the researchers to determine that new S. sonnei and S. flexneri  strains first appeared in Seattle among men who have sex with men. This was quickly followed by transmission within the local population of people experiencing homelessness. This was evidenced by the significant increase in Shigellosis after 2020 in the Seattle-King County area among this population.

The outbreaks were worse in winter, a seasonal characteristic of Shigella which might be due to greater overcrowding in shelters and other locations during cold weather. Dr. Fang noted that Shigellosis cases caused by a different S. sonnei strain are now being encountered in Seattle this winter.

The Seattle outbreaks followed patterns characteristic of those reported earlier in other countries.

Several public health measures were instituted to limit the spread of Shigella. The first was to check for possible sources for contracting Shigella. Signs were placed to discourage people from drinking water from decorative fountains in downtown Seattle. Local homeless service providers received prevention resources and guidance. Outreach teams visited encampments and overnight shelters to offer health education and improve the availability of clean water, toilets, handwashing stations, and other sanitation measures.

Many public facilities, such as restrooms, sinks, and drinking fountains, had been closed as part of the COVID-19 pandemic response. Public health officials requested early re-opening of these facilities near encampments and districts where people lived on the streets. They also increased environmental cleaning of alleyways in downtown Seattle that had been used in lieu of restrooms.

The authors noted that the study of the Shigella outbreak in Seattle represented the collaborative efforts of local health-care facilities, clinical and academic laboratories, antimicrobial stewardship, infection control, and public health teams.

The study received no outside funding, and the researchers declared no competing interests.

 

 

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JOURNAL

The Lancet Infectious Diseases

DOI

10.1016/S1473-3099(22)00879-9 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Genomic reconstruction and directed interventions in a multidrug-resistant Shigellosis outbreak in Seattle, WA, USA: a genomic surveillance study