Extracting high-purity gold from electrical and electronic waste

A fibrous adsorbent selectively recovers high-purity gold from waste. Dramatically reduces the cost and time of the recovery process and enables material to be mass-produced and repeatedly recycled

NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

 

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PREPARATION AND PHYSICOCHEMICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE AMINATED POLYACRYLONITRILE FIBERS (PANFS). REPRESENTATIVE ILLUSTRATIONS OF PANF (A) BEFORE AND AFTER COUPLING REACTION OF VARIOUS ALKYLAMINE MOLECULES. DIFFERENT COLORS OF PANF AND AMINE-LADEN POLYMERIC FIBER (ALPF) REPRESENT DIFFERENT FUNCTIONAL GROUPS OF NITRILE AND ALKYLAMINES. (B) FT-IR SPECTRA OF PANF BEFORE AND AFTER COUPLING REACTION OF DIFFERENT ALKYLAMINES USING DIETHYLENETRIAMINE (DETA), TRIETHYLENETETRAMINE (TETA), TETRAETHYLENEPENTAMINE (TEPA), AND BRANCHED POLY(ETHYLENEIMINE) (BPEI). (C) XRD PATTERNS OF THE PANF AND AMINATED PANFS. (D) STRESS-STRAIN CURVES OF THE PANF AND AMINATED PANFS. (E) MAXIMUM ADSORPTION CAPACITY (QM) OF THE AMINATED PANFS FOR AU(III) IONS. INITIAL CONCENTRATION (CI) AND PH VALUE OF THE AU SOLUTION WERE 1000 MG/L AND 1, RESPECTIVELY. CONTACT TIME (T, MIN) BETWEEN THE ADSORBENT AND

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CREDIT: KOREA INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Korea relies on imports for most of its metal resources, and in recent years, due to resource depletion and rising raw material prices, 'circular resources' that recycle waste metal resources have emerged. In response, SK hynix has established a mid- to long-term plan to increase the percentage of copper, gold, etc. recovered and reused from waste generated in the semiconductor manufacturing process to more than 30% by 2030, and Samsung Electronics is running a collection program for used mobile phones in cooperation with E-circulation Governance, a non-profit corporation. The global circular economy market is expected to more than double in size from approximately $338 billion in 2022 to approximately $712 billion in 2026.

In this context, a team led by Dr. Jae-Woo Choi of the Water Resource Cycle Research Center at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) announced that they have developed a technology that can selectively recover high-purity gold from electrical and electronic waste containing various metals using textile materials.

Adsorbents for metal recovery are generally granular in shape to increase adsorption efficiency based on high specific surface area, but they are difficult to control underwater, resulting in low recovery rates and even secondary environmental pollution. On the other hand, fiber-like materials are easy to control underwater and can be made into various shapes through the weaving process, so they have high potential for industrial application. However, due to their thin thickness and low strength, they are easily broken when gold recovery is applied to the support.

KIST researchers have chemically immobilized alkaline molecules on the surface of polyacrylonitrile (PANF) fibers to improve both molecular gold recovery performance and structural stability. The amine-containing polymer fiber has a dramatically larger surface area, which can improve the adsorption performance of gold ions (Au) in waste by up to 2.5 times (from 576 mg/g to 1,462 mg/g) compared to the team's previously developed granular gold adsorption material.

The developed fibrous adsorbent not only showed a gold recovery efficiency of more than 99.9% in solutions obtained by leaching real CPUs, but also achieved a gold recovery efficiency close to 100% in a wide range of pH 1-4, which includes most waste liquids. It is particularly noteworthy that only gold ions can be recovered with a high purity of over 99.9%, even in the presence of 14 other metal ions coexisting in the solution. Furthermore, the gold recovery rate was maintained at 91% even after 10 uses, demonstrating excellent reusability.

"By enabling efficient and eco-friendly metal resource recovery, the fiber-type adsorbent developed by KIST can reduce Korea's dependence on resource imports and prepare for the risk of rising raw material prices," said Dr. Jae-Woo Choi. "We plan to expand the scope of future research to selectively recover various target metals in addition to gold, said Dr. Youngkyun Jung."

 

Au recovery performance of the ALPF. (a) Effect of pH in Au solution on the Au recovery performance of the ALPF. Ci, t, and adsorbent doses were 100 mg/L, 24 h, and 0.5 g/L, respectively. FESEM images of the ALPF surface after Au recovery at pH of (b) 3, (c) 6, (d) 9, and (e) 12, showing the Au(0) particles on the ALPF surface. Scale bar is 1 μm. (f) XRD patterns of the ALPF after Au recovery in the pH range of 2-12. (g-l) FESEM images of the ALPF after Au recovery at Ci of (g) 0.1, (h) 1, (i) 10, (j) 100, (k) 500, and (l) 1000 mg/L for 24 h with stirring at 200 rpm. pH was adjusted to 1. Scale bar is 20 μm. (m-q) FESEM-EDS mapping of the chemical elements distributions for the ALPF after Au recovery at Ci of 1000 mg/L: (m) overlap, (n) carbon, (o) nitrogen, (p) oxygen, and (q) gold. Scale bar is 20 μm. (r) Recovery efficiencies of the ALPF for Au recovery in a low Ci range of 0.1-100 mg/L. (s) Adsorption isotherm test result of the ALPF adsorbent. The experimentally obtained data were fitted by three representative isotherm equations of Langmuir, Freundlich, and Sips models. (t) Comparison of qm and optimum pH value for the ALPF adsorbent with those of the adsorbents best reported in the literature, classified by the adsorbent size (nano, micro, and milliscale) or shape (particle and fiber)

Applicability of the ALPF adsorbent for Au recovery processes. (a) Adsorption selectivity of the ALPF for Au(III) in the presence of coexisting metal ions including Cu(II), Pb(II), Cd(II), Mn(II), Ni(II), Co(II), Fe(II), Al(III), Cr(III), Zn(II), Na(I), K(I), Mg(II), and Ca(II). Ci of Au(III) was set to 10 mg/L, and those of other metal ions were set to 10, 100, and 1000 mg/L. Solution pH was adjusted to 1. (b) Purity of the recovered Au(0) by the ALPF. Inset shows an optical microscope image of the recovered Au(0). (c) Repetitive adsorption/desorption test of Au(III) using the ALPF adsorbent. Ci of Au(III) was set to 10 mg/L. Adsorption process was conducted for 24 h. Solution pH was adjusted to 1. Desorption process was conducted for 24 h using 0.5 acidic thiourea solution in 1.0 M HCl. (d) Deconvoluted HRXPS spectra of the ALPF for N 1s, showing the chemical change for amine groups of the ALPF adsorbent during the repetitive adsorption-desorption cycles. (e) Photograph of felts consisting of PANF (top) and ALPF (bottom), indicating that the fibrous adsorbent can be transformed into a desired shape. Scale bar is 2 cm. (f) Effect of the adsorbent shapes on the pressure drop in a column filled with the adsorbents. Each pressure drop in the column filled with the adsorbents was measured according to the volumetric flow rate

CREDIT

Korea Institute of Science and Technology

KIST was established in 1966 as the first government-funded research institute in Korea. KIST now strives to solve national and social challenges and secure growth engines through leading and innovative research. For more information, please visit KIST’s website at https://eng.kist.re.kr/

The research, which was funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT (Minister Jong-ho Lee) through the Leading Materials Innovation Project (2020M3H4A3106366) and the KIST Air Environment Complex Response Research Project (2E33081), was published in the international journal Chemical Engineering Journal.

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JOURNAL

Chemical Engineering Journal

DOI

10.1016/j.cej.2024.149602 

ARTICLE TITLE

Efficient and Selective Gold Recovery Using Amine-laden Polymeric Fibers Synthesized by a Steric Hindrance Strategy

 

Odor-causing bacteria in armpits targeted using bacteriophage-derived lysin

Bacteriophage therapy could be developed based on study’s results

OSAKA METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY

 

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NATIVE BACTERIA METABOLIZE SWEAT IN THE ARMPITS, CAUSING ODOR TO ARISE.

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CREDIT: OSAKA METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY

Body odor from the armpits comes from bacteria metabolizing sweat produced by the apocrine glands. These bacteria are native to our skin, but the odors produced differ among people. Generally, people use deodorants on their armpits, but perhaps there is a way to get rid of the bacteria.

To find out, a research team led by Osaka Metropolitan University Professor Satoshi Uematsu and Associate Professor Kosuke Fujimoto at the Graduate School of Medicine collected body fluid samples from the armpits of 20 men that were deemed healthy. In advance, a subjective olfactory panel classified them into two types of odors, with 11 having a more noticeable smell. The researchers analyzed the matter produced from bacterial metabolism and the DNA of the skin microflora and found an increased presence of odor-causing precursors in those 11 samples along with a proliferation of Staphylococcus hominis bacteria.

The team then synthesized a lysin from a bacteriophage, or virus that attacks bacteria, that infects S. hominis. During in vitro experiments, this lysin was found to target only S. hominis, not other bacteria normally present on the skin.

“We performed a large-scale metagenomic analysis of the skin microflora using the SHIROKANE supercomputer at the University of Tokyo and found that S. hominis is important in the development of odor,” said Assistant Professor Miho Uematsu in the Department of Immunology and Genomics. “The identification of the lysin that attacks S. hominis is also the result of the comprehensive genome analysis.”

Dr. Miki Watanabe, who is part of the Department of Immunology and Genomics and the Department of Dermatology added: “Axillary [armpit] odors are one of the few dermatological disorders in which bacteria are the primary cause. Although many patients suffer from axillary odors, there are few treatment options. We believe that this study will lead to a new therapy.”

The study was published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology.

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About OMU

Established in Osaka as one of the largest public universities in Japan, Osaka Metropolitan University is committed to shaping the future of society through “Convergence of Knowledge” and the promotion of world-class research. For more research news, visit https://www.omu.ac.jp/en/ and follow us on social media: X, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn.

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JOURNAL

Journal of Investigative Dermatology

DOI

10.1016/j.jid.2024.03.039 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Targeted lysis of Staphylococcus hominis linked to axillary osmidrosis using bacteriophage-derived endolysin

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

19-Apr-2024

COI STATEMENT

Authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Loma Linda University study reveals alarming rates of pediatric injuries from mechanical bull riding

Medical experts prompt urgent call for increased safety measures

Peer-Reviewed Publication

LOMA LINDA UNIVERSITY ADVENTIST HEALTH SCIENCES CENTER

A new study conducted by researchers at Loma Linda University Children’s Health has shed light on the alarming rates of pediatric injuries resulting from mechanical bull riding. The study, titled "Mechanical Bull Injuries in Pediatric Patients: A Call for Safety Regulations," highlights the urgent need for enhanced safety measures and regulations.

The findings were published in the journal Children's Health Care and revealed that mechanical bull riding poses a significant risk to children, with traumatic brain injuries being the most common outcome. 

“Mechanical bulls, even when advertised as ‘children friendly’ are far from safe and are a real public health concern,” said Martin G. Rosenthal, MD, assistant professor of surgery at Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital (LLUCH) and corresponding author of the study.

LLUCH has identified up to 35 cases over seven years, each resulting in severe injuries. Over 65% of these cases involved severe brain injuries, and more than half of all children required immediate surgical intervention. 

“Our study, one of the largest examining mechanical bull riding injuries in children, reveals that most injuries occur at private events where mechanical bulls are rented from vendors,” said Sina Asaadi, MD, MBA, a research fellow and lead author of the study. “This suggests that the actual number of injuries may be higher than reported, indicating potential underreporting.”

Long-term consequences of brain injuries include memory issues, severe headaches, nausea, seizures, and possible learning disabilities, to name a few.

Rehabilitation for these patients is intensive, involving physical, occupational, and speech therapies, sometimes extending over months and years. 

“Several other studies from southern California have reported similar findings and there appears to be a proclivity of these injuries occurring in our own backyard,” said Rosenthal.

The study highlights the need for:

• Mandatory safety measures, such as helmet use and protective gear, and parental consent, to mitigate risks.
• Enhanced awareness among clinicians, parents, and policymakers about the dangers of mechanical bull riding for children.
• Stricter regulations governing the operation and supervision of mechanical bull rides to prevent injuries.

Both Asaadi and Rosenthal are available for interviews to discuss the research findings.

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JOURNAL

Children s Health Care

DOI

10.1080/02739615.2024.2333765 

ARTICLE TITLE

Mechanical bull injuries in pediatric patients: a call for safety regulations

 CRYSTALOLOGY

Perfecting the view on a crystal’s imperfection

New research shines light on the properties and promise of hexagonal boron nitride, a material used in electronic and photonics technologies

ADVANCED SCIENCE RESEARCH CENTER, GC/CUNY

 

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RESEARCHERS IN THE LABS OF ASRC PROF. GABRIELE GROSSO (TOP, RIGHT) AND NSLS-II AT BROOKHAVEN NATIONAL LABORATORY (BOTTOM, RIGHT) USED ADVANCED INSTRUMENTATION AT THEIR RESPECTIVE FACILITIES TO UNCOVER HOW SINGLE PHOTON EMITTERS, WHICH HAVE IMPORTANT USED IN QUANTUM TECHNOLOGIES, EMERGE WITHIN HEXAGONAL BORON NITRIDE CRYSTALS.

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CREDIT: SHANTE BOOKER, CUNY ASRC AND KEVIN COUGHLIN, BROOKHAVEN NATIONAL LABORATORY

NEW YORK, April 23, 2024 — Single-photon emitters (SPEs) are akin to microscopic lightbulbs that emit only one photon (a quantum of light) at a time. These tiny structures hold immense importance for the development of quantum technology, particularly in applications such as secure communications and high-resolution imaging. However, many materials that contain SPEs are impractical for use in mass manufacturing due to their high cost and the difficulty of integrating them into complex devices.

In 2015, scientists discovered SPEs within a material called hexagonal boron nitride (hBN). Since then, hBN has gained widespread attention and application across various quantum fields and technologies, including sensors, imaging, cryptography, and computing, thanks to its layered structure and ease of manipulation.

The emergence of SPEs within hBN stems from imperfections in the material’s crystal structure, but the precise mechanisms governing their development and function have remained elusive. Now, a new study published in Nature Materials reveals significant insights into the properties of hBN, offering a solution to discrepancies in previous research on the proposed origins of SPEs within the material.

The study involves a collaborative effort spanning three major institutions: the Advanced Science Research Center at the CUNY Graduate Center (CUNY ASRC); the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II) user facility at Brookhaven National Laboratory; and the National Institute for Materials Science. Gabriele Grosso, a professor with the CUNY ASRC’s Photonics Initiative and the CUNY Graduate Center’s Physics program, and Jonathan Pelliciari, a beamline scientist at NSLS-II, led the study.

The collaboration was sparked by a conversation at the annual NSLS-II and Center for Functional Nanomaterials Users’ Meeting when researchers from CUNY ASRC and NSLS-II realized how their unique expertise, skills, and resources could uncover some novel insights, sparking the idea for the hBN experiment. The work brought together physicists with diverse areas of expertise and instrumentation skillsets who rarely collaborate in such a close manner.

Using advanced techniques based on X-ray scattering and optical spectroscopy, the research team uncovered a fundamental energy excitation occurring at 285 millielectron volts. This excitation triggers the generation of harmonic electronic states that give rise to single photons — similar to how musical harmonics produce notes across multiple octaves.   

Intriguingly, these harmonics correlate with the energies of SPEs observed across numerous experiments conducted worldwide. The discovery connects previous observations and provides an explanation for the variability observed in earlier findings. Identification of this harmonic energy scale points to a common underlying origin and reconciles the diverse reports on hBN properties over the last decade.

“Everyone was reporting different properties and different energies of the single photons that seemed to contradict each other,” said Grosso. “The beauty of our findings is that with a single energy scale and harmonics, we can organize and connect all of these findings that were thought to be completely disconnected. Using the music analogy, the single photon properties people reported were basically different notes on the same music sheet.”

While the defects in hBN give rise to its distinctive quantum emissions, they also present a significant challenge in research efforts to understand them.

“Defects are one of the most difficult physical phenomena to study, because they are very localized and hard to replicate,” explained Pelliciari. “Think of it this way; if you want to make a perfect circle, you can calculate a way to always replicate it. But if you want to replicate an imperfect circle, that’s much harder.”

The implications of the team’s work extend far beyond hBN. The researchers say the findings are a stepping stone for studying defects in other materials containing SPEs. Understanding quantum emission in hBN holds the potential to drive advancements in quantum information science and technologies, facilitating secure communications and enabling powerful computation that can vastly expand and expedite research efforts.

"These results are exciting because they connect measurements across a wide range of optical excitation energies, from single digits to hundreds of electron volts,” said Enrique Mejia, a Ph.D. student in Grosso lab and lead author of the work conducted at the CUNY ASRC. “We can clearly distinguish between samples with and without SPEs, and we can now explain how the observed harmonics are responsible for a wide range of single photon emitters."

This work was funded by LDRD, FWP DOE on quantum information science, DOE BES, and DOE ECA. The work at CUNY was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the CUNY Graduate Center Physics Program, the CUNY Advanced Science Research Center, and the CUNY Research Foundation.

 

About the Advanced Science Research Center at the CUNY Graduate Center

The Advanced Science Research Center at the CUNY Graduate Center (CUNY ASRC) is a world-leading center of scientific excellence that elevates STEM inquiry and education at CUNY and beyond. The CUNY ASRC’s research initiatives span five distinctive, but broadly interconnected disciplines: nanoscience, photonics, neuroscience, structural biology, and environmental sciences. The center promotes a collaborative, interdisciplinary research culture where renowned and emerging scientists advance their discoveries using state-of-the-art equipment and cutting-edge core facilities.

About Brookhaven National Laboratory

Brookhaven National Laboratory is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit science.energy.gov. Follow @BrookhavenLab on social media. Find us on Instagram, LinkedIn, X, and Facebook.

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JOURNAL

Nature Materials

DOI

10.1038/s41563-024-01866-4 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Elementary excitations of single-photon emitters in hexagonal Boron Nitride

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

23-Apr-2024

PRE-L'OREAL

Fossil frogs share their skincare secrets

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE CORK

 

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DANIEL FALK EXAMINES THE FOSSIL SKIN SAMPLES OF A GEISELTAL FROG WITH AN ELECTRON MICROSCOPE.

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CREDIT: DANIEL FALK

Palaeontologists at University College Cork (UCC), Ireland, have solved a hundred-year-old mystery of how some fossil frogs preserve their fleshy parts – it’s all down to their skin. 

Palaeontologists Daniel Falk and Prof. Maria McNamara, together with scientists from Ireland, Germany and the UK, studied 45-million-year-old fossil frogs from the Geiseltal site in central Germany. Remarkably, the fossils show full body outlines of the soft tissues. The team discovered that the excellent condition of the fossil frogs is due to preservation of ancient skin remnants. 

The team studied the fossils with high-precision techniques including scanning electron microscopy, synchrotron-X-ray analyses, and infrared spectroscopy. These techniques were not available when the fossils were first discovered in the early twentieth century. 

“The quality of preservation of the fossil frog skin is amazing – even subcellular structures, such as collagen fibres, are preserved.” said study lead, PhD researcher Daniel Falk. “The skin of the frogs is replicated in the mineral calcium phosphate, which helped it survive for millions of years.”

“The preservation of the skin is so good that we can even work out the habitat of the fossil frogs,” said Daniel. "The preserved skin shows adaptations to prevent drying out, which suggests that these fossil frogs actually spent most of their time on land.” 

“Fossil soft tissues often reveal hidden information about the biology of animals,” said senior author Prof. Maria McNamara. “We discovered that the fossil frog skin is preserved in the same way as fossil frogs from other sites in Europe.

"This discovery is very exciting because it overturns scientific opinion that has lasted for almost one hundred years. What’s more, the repeated pattern of fossil preservation tells us that frogs evolved special adaptations to life on dry land over 45 million years ago.”

The research highlights the usefulness of historic fossil collections and the need to re-evaluate historic specimens using modern techniques.

The study is part of a research cooperation between UCC, the Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg (Germany), the Natural History Museum Bamberg (Germany) and the University of Oxford (UK) with funding from the Irish Research Council, the European Research Council and the International Association of Sedimentologists. The study is published today in the journal Scientific Reports. 
 

No more dry skin – a dead Geiseltal frog started to decay under water.

CREDIT

Artwork: A. Pieri (University of Pisa).

The replication process of the frog skin at a glance.

CREDIT

D. Falk, see Falk et al. 2024.

JOURNAL

Scientific Reports

DOI

10.1038/s41598-024-55822-y 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Imaging analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animal tissue samples

ARTICLE TITLE

Fossilized anuran soft tissues reveal a new taphonomic model for the Eocene Geiseltal Konservat-Lagerstätte, Germany

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

23-Apr-2024

 

Exploring brain synchronization patterns during social interactions

Researchers investigate how social bonds influence neural synchronization in the brain during joint coordination tasks

WASEDA UNIVERSITY

 

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STUDY FINDS THAT INTERACTION BETWEEN STRANGERS LEADS TO HIGHER LEVELS OF INTER- AND INTRA-BRAIN SYNCHRONIZATION COMPARED TO THAT IN CLOSE ACQUAINTANCES.

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CREDIT: YUTO KURIHARA FROM WASEDA UNIVERSITY

We experience the world and connect with others through social interactions. Engaging in activities, such as conversations, cooperative tasks, and intimate relationships, deeply affect brain activity leading to coordinated neural activity within an individual's brain (intra-brain synchronization) and between the brains of multiple individuals (inter-brain synchronization).

Researchers study brain synchronizations to understand the neural processes behind social behaviors. This knowledge can help diagnose and treat conditions like social anxiety and communication-related disorders. However, investigations on brain synchronization have primarily focused on groups with strong social ties, such as romantic couples and parents and children.

In a study published in Scientific Reports on February 29, 2024, researchers from Waseda University in Japan reveal that cooperative interactive tasks between individuals with weak social ties result in more synchronized brain activity compared to individuals with strong ties.

“Our findings challenge the conventional understanding that stronger social ties predict greater brain synchronization and offer fresh insights into neural networking during social interactions,” says lead researcher Dr. Yuto Kurihara, Research Associate at the Faculty of Human Sciences at Waseda University.

The research team also included Dr. Toru Takahashi from the Advanced Research Center for Human Sciences and Professor Rieko Osu from the Faculty of Human Sciences at Waseda University.

They studied 14 pairs of strangers who met for the first time and 13 acquaintance pairs, in which one participant brought their partner. Due to artifacts, 21 pairs were included in the analysis (stranger pairs: 11, acquaintance pairs: 10). The participants were given a joint tapping task, where they had to tap a mouse button in opposite rhythms. Each participant wore earphones to hear both their taps and their partner's taps, and they had to anticipate their partner's movements.

Brain activity was captured using electroencephalograph (EEG) electrodes placed on their scalp for four tapping conditions: slow tapping with a 0.5-second interval, fast tapping with a 0.25-second interval, tapping freely at their preferred frequency, and tapping coordinated with a metronome at 0.50-second intervals (a pseudo condition). The study investigated how brain signals synchronize across the theta (4–7 Hz), alpha (8–12 Hz), and beta (13–30 Hz) frequency bands.

EEG analysis revealed that pairs of strangers exhibited greater intra-brain synchronization in the theta band, compared to acquainted pairs. Furthermore, binary undirected graphs constructed to represent the connectivity between EEG channels showed that the neural network was more densely connected in strangers than in acquaintances.

“Surprisingly, despite having weaker social ties, stranger pairs demonstrated more robust intra- and inter-brain EEG networks than acquainted pairs,” comments Dr. Kurihara.

Researchers suggest that the lack of familiarity between strangers requires a more involved process for predicting each other's actions or behaviors in a cooperative task. Consequently, this heightened engagement leads to a more efficient transfer of information between closely connected nodes within the neural network.

This finding underscores the importance of weak social ties in shaping social relationships and individual behavior. “By demonstrating that strangers exhibit heightened intra- and inter-brain synchronization, our research highlights the potential of weak ties in fostering new connections and understanding the neural underpinnings of social interactions,” says Dr. Kurihara.

 

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Reference

Authors: Yuto Kurihara1, ToruTakahashi2 & Rieko Osu3

Title of original paper: The topology of interpersonal neural network in weak social ties

Journal: Scientific Reports

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-55495-7

Affiliations      

1. Graduate School of Human Sciences, Waseda University
2. Advanced Research Center for Human Sciences, Waseda University
3. Faculty of Human Sciences, Waseda University

 

 

About Waseda University

Located in the heart of Tokyo, Waseda University is a leading private research university that has long been dedicated to academic excellence, innovative research, and civic engagement at both the local and global levels since 1882. The University has produced many changemakers in its history, including nine prime ministers and many leaders in business, science and technology, literature, sports, and film. Waseda has strong collaborations with overseas research institutions and is committed to advancing cutting-edge research and developing leaders who can contribute to the resolution of complex, global social issues. The University has set a target of achieving a zero-carbon campus by 2032, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations in 2015. 

To learn more about Waseda University, visit https://www.waseda.jp/top/en  

 

 

About Dr. Yuto Kurihara

Yuto Kurihara earned his Ph.D. in Human Sciences from Waseda University and currently serves as a research associate at the Faculty of Human Sciences. With expertise in social and cognitive neuroscience, his research focuses on the neural mechanism during social interaction. Dr. Kurihara is an active member of professional organizations like the Japanese Society for Neuroscience.

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JOURNAL

Scientific Reports

DOI

10.1038/s41598-024-55495-7 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

The topology of interpersonal neural network in weak social ties