PFAS filter from a ball mill

A team of researchers is developing an environmentally friendly material that could help remove these ‘forever chemicals’

Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY

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Depiction of the process forming the structure of the new filter for PFAS chemicals

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Credit: Science Communication Lab for DESY

PFAS are fluorinated compounds found in many everyday products, such as outdoor clothing and cookware like Teflon pans. This is because PFAS are durable, heat-resistant and dirt-repellent. Their stability is precisely what leads to problems: although potentially harmful to our health, these substances are scarcely broken down at all in the environment and are regarded as ‘forever chemicals’. PFAS are also found in wastewater. Although they can be removed by filtration, this is a laborious process. A team led by the German Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM) has now developed a new filter material based on an unusual production technique. Crucial experiments were carried out at DESY’s X-ray source PETRA III to optimise the process. The working group is presenting its results in the journal small.

The candidates for this new filter material are known as ‘covalent organic frameworks’. The pores of these COFs are just a few nanometres across, so that PFAS molecules literally get stuck inside them. The nanoscale scaffolds can be manufactured using an original technique – by grinding them in a special type of mill. ‘In the laboratory, we use a small plastic cylinder about the size of a film canister,’ explains BAM researcher Franziska Emmerling. ‘Into this, we place some powder, a droplet of solvent and two steel balls, each about the size of a peppercorn.’

A special device then shakes this ball mill to and fro more than 30 times per second, as a result of which its contents are ground up. Initially, the powder granules become smaller, which increases their surface area. After a few minutes, the frictional heat, increased pressure and kinetic energy initiate a chemical reaction. The finely ground particles combine to form larger structures, scaffolds that can act as a filter. This little-known branch of chemical manufacturing is known as mechanochemistry. 

‘It is actually quite an old story. Mechanochemistry probably already played a role in ancient times,’ says DESY physicist Martin Etter. ‘The first pharmaceutical substances for medicines were presumably released or even formed in chemical reactions when plant matter was ground up in a mortar.’ Today, mechanochemical processes are used in industry to synthesise drugs, catalysts and functional materials. Since they do not normally need large amounts of toxic solvents and require comparatively little energy, such methods are considered sustainable and environmentally friendly. 

But what is the most effective way to produce the filter frameworks using a ball mill? To find out, the research group in Hamburg studied the process using the high-intensity, focused X-ray beam produced by PETRA III. While the mill was in action, the beam scanned its contents every ten seconds and was able to determine the structure of the crystals. ‘The pattern produced by the two starting materials at our detector is different from that of the chemical formed by the chemical reaction,’ explains Etter. ‘We were able to watch, in real time, as the patterns of the two starting chemicals became weaker and weaker, while at the same time the pattern of the new chemical began to appear – that of the framework structures.’

To identify the optimal parameters for the process, the team varied a number of factors, including the frequency with which the ball mill was agitated and the amount of solvent added. The results showed that the best scaffolds were obtained at a frequency of 36 hertz, using 266 milligrams of powder and adding 250 microlitres of solvent – just a few drops. Unlike other framework structures already used as filters, the new material does not contain any heavy metals and would therefore be more environmentally friendly.

While it is not yet clear how the potential PFAS filters could be manufactured on an industrial scale, Martin Etter already has some ideas as to where they might eventually be used. ‘In the wastewater treatment plants of companies that produce PFAS chemicals, for example,’ says the physicist. ‘And maybe one day they could even be integrated into ordinary taps to filter our drinking water.’

Research into mechanochemistry will continue at DESY. The experts have high hopes for PETRA IV, the planned successor to the current X-ray source. PETRA IV will deliver a significantly finer, more narrowly collimated X-ray beam, which should speed up the measurements considerably. ‘That means we won’t just be able to take one picture every ten seconds, but perhaps ten pictures per second,’ says Etter enthusiastically. ‘And that would allow us, for example, to observe chemical processes that take place very quickly and in which short-lived intermediate structures are formed.’

 

 

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Journal

Small

DOI

10.1002/smll.202509275 

Article Title

Mechanochemically Synthesized Covalent Organic Framework Effectively Captures PFAS Contaminants

Article Publication Date

18-Sep-2025

 The ghostwriter and the test-tube baby: a medical breakthrough story

Famous IVF memoir had hidden ghostwriter who spun breakthrough into emotional quest, archives reveal

University of Cambridge

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A draft by Dannie Abse of the definitive first chapter, “The Quest”, which begins with a scene of Patrick Steptoe as a medical student encountering a woman suffering from infertility. Dannie Abse Papers, folder 282/1, 1. The National Library of Wales Collection.

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Credit: National Library of Wales

Previously unseen documents show how a poet performed a major ghostwriting job on the autobiography of the two British pioneers behind the world’s first “test-tube baby”, so that the book used emotional storytelling to aid public acceptance of a controversial medical technology.

A Matter of Life, coauthored in 1980 by geneticist Robert Edwards – who spent much of his career at Cambridge and went on to win the Nobel Prize – and gynaecologist Patrick Steptoe, tells how their research led to in vitro fertilisation (IVF). The book is the basis for last year’s Netflix film Joy.

A study of Dannie Abse’s archive in the National Library of Wales by Prof Nick Hopwood from the University of Cambridge reveals how Abse overhauled reams of rough and underwhelming text submitted by the duo to a publisher that had bought the doctors’ story of the “baby of the century” in the hope of a quick bestseller.

A renowned poet and autobiographer as well as a full-time physician, Abse transformed the narrative, adding scenes and emotive dialogue with those unable to conceive to highlight the human stakes of IVF and fleshing out the characters of other women such as Edwards’s assistant Jean Purdy.

Abse also stretched reality to create the impression that tackling infertility was a careers-long quest for the two men, according to Hopwood’s study published in the journal Medical History.   

“Abse improved and enriched the story in many ways. Some changes are problematic as history but without his work very few people would have read the book, which might not even have been published,” said Hopwood, who is based in Cambridge’s Department of History and Philosophy of Science and a co-chair of Cambridge Reproduction. “Abse helped them promote IVF at a time when the technique was controversial.”

“It’s rare to have such rich records of a collaboration on an autobiography and they give extraordinary access to the shaping of a breakthrough story by commercial pressures. The process illustrates how, through autobiography, ghostwriters craft what we know about not just politics, sport and the royal family but science and medicine, too.”

Records show that the publisher Hutchinson confirmed an advance of £60,000 (equivalent to around £400,000 today) for Edwards and Steptoe just eight days after the birth of the first IVF baby Louise Brown in July 1978, to capitalise on global media coverage. The book was released twenty months later, prior to the main scientific publications.  

Today researchers increasingly ask journalists to help them tell their stories. But Harold Harris, a senior editor at Hutchinson, had to work hard to persuade Edwards to let Abse rewrite their lacklustre drafts.

Harris lured the authors by writing that, although they would have to give up a tenth of their royalties, “your actual earnings in cash will be considerably greater with Dannie Abse’s assistance than without it”. The publisher requested an additional 30,000 words by explaining more and making the style more “relaxed”.

While the final book barely mentions Abse (the dedication expresses “gratitude for his invaluable help”), Hopwood’s study demonstrates how thoroughly he reshaped what remains the main historical source for the science and medicine behind IVF.

As well as adding various literary references, from Aldous Huxley to the Bible, Abse restructured the book, doubling the number of chapters and converting long descriptive passages into vivid scenes with characters and dialogue.      

“Medical autobiographies cast heroic doctors in struggles against feared scourges,” said Hopwood. “Here the drama, and support for IVF, depended on creating awareness of the distress caused by infertility. After a few failed attempts to come up with a strong opening, Abse tabled this right at the start and set out the quest for a baby as the arc of the book.”

Abse retitled the first chapter The Quest and rewrote it completely, as he did most of the rest. He began by having a woman suffering from infertility encounter Steptoe during his student days. This established the distress caused by the condition (“What have I done wrong,” she cried, “not to have a family of my own?”). Abse also had her conveniently question Steptoe about blocked Fallopian tubes to allow this form of infertility to be explained.

This deliberate creation of a “quest narrative” can be traced through Abse’s archive, says Hopwood, who found repeated embellishments designed to suggest that Edwards had long been dedicated to overcoming infertility, when he had in fact established himself in a line of research more likely to be used for contraception than conception.

For example, Edwards’s initial draft declared little interest in science until boredom overtook him during a degree in agriculture. Abse rewrote this so that Edwards became fascinated with reproduction years earlier, as a wartime evacuee on a farm. He had Edwards recall “the natural laboratory behind hedges… and barn doors” where he “watched with wonder the birth of calves, sheep, pigs, foals”.

The poet consistently inserted foreshadowings of IVF, from talk of “genetic engineering” on the farm to a riff on the biblical tale of the old-age child of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.

He homed in on a mention of friends of Robert Edwards and his wife Ruth Fowler who could not conceive, adding a lyrical description: “[t]he trees bore fruit, the clouds carried rain, and our friends, forever childless, played with our [daughters]”, to reinforce the claim that this inspired the scientist to replant embryos in the womb.

Comments on Abse’s final draft show clashes with Edwards, including over this segment and those that referenced religion, but the publisher mostly overruled his objections in the margin such as “Not true” or “This isn’t me!” After her husband won the Nobel Prize in 2010, Ruth Edwards co-edited a revised edition that finally took the offending passages out.

Abse’s rewrite also fleshed out the roles of women, including Fowler and Edwards’s assistant Jean Purdy – more to add relatable characters than from any feminist agenda, Hopwood believes.

Purdy, a former nurse, became “one of the cast” through extended descriptions and dialogue. Abse inserted praise for Purdy’s determination, loyalty and support for the patients. He added details of her long car rides with Edwards from Cambridge to Oldham, such as stops at a transport café where Bob Dylan played on the jukebox. (Purdy’s own corrections replaced “listen” with “be subjected” to, indicating that she was no Dylan fan.)

“Abse’s rewriting paved the way for recent celebrations of her contribution,” said Hopwood. The film “Joy” goes further, featuring Purdy, who died of cancer aged 39, as the main character with the car trips as a narrative device. 

Fowler was a geneticist, and Abse added some of her scientific input, but kept her as a supportive wife. In one extra scene she pretends to Edwards, away in the United States, that all is well over the phone despite the whole family having flu – even after Fowler objected “NOT TRUE!”

Above all, Abse ensured that “test-tube mother” Lesley Brown was given a memorable entrance as a patient, with poignant dialogue (“I would be a good mother”), rather than appearing first as one of “our other two patients” to have an embryo from a natural cycle replaced in her uterus.

“Restructuring the transition from embryos to patients introduced the star patient as a whole person rather than fragmenting her between procedures,” said Hopwood. “It prepared readers to identify with Lesley’s joy when, at the end, Steptoe handed over the baby she had been told she would never have.”

The finished book was generally well received. Some critics complained that its commercial appeal pandered to a media that had treated Louise Brown’s birth as a circus. Others praised the role that the marketing let Edwards and Steptoe play in promoting public discussion of reproductive technologies.

Hopwood points out that the autobiography was later criticised by feminist scholars as the tale of two male heroes producing a pregnancy, while recent research has cast doubt on the length of Edwards’s interest in infertility. But it is still the go-to account.

“Dannie Abse haunts the history of IVF, for better and worse – and it is both,” said Hopwood, whose research was funded by the Leverhulme Trust.

“Powerful narratives can help people understand medical innovations. The great challenge is to produce stories that also ring true, including in the ways they represent various contributions. Historians can help.”

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Journal

Medical History

DOI

10.1017/mdh.2025.10025 

Article Title

The ghostwriter and the test-tube baby: a medical breakthrough story

Corrections on Dannie Abse’s manuscript. Robert Edwards’s annotations are in red pen, Ruth Edwards’s in pencil towards the top and Purdy’s in pencil below. Dannie Abse Papers, folder 280, 96. The National Library of Wales Collection.

Robert Edwards’s “very tentative draft indeed” of the opening of Chapter One, which focused on the publicity. Dannie Abse Papers, folder 277, “Chapter One”, 1. The National Library of Wales Collection.

Credit

National Library of Wales

 

Ultra-strong coating inspired by Korean mussels! Next-gen anti-bacterial and anti-viral surface modification technology

DGIST (Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology)

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Professor Bonghoon Kim of the Department of Robotics and Mechatronics Engineering at the Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science & Technology (DGIST; President Kunwoo Lee) has successfully developed a next-generation surface modification technology with anti-bacterial and anti-viral contamination properties.

 

□ The study was conducted in collaboration with Professor Junkyun Oh of the Department of Polymer System Engineering at Dankook University, Senior Researcher Hojun Kim of the Center for Advanced Biomolecular Recognition at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), and Professor Janghwan Kim of the Department of Advanced New Materials Engineering at Ajou University. It was featured as a cover article in the international journal Advanced Healthcare Materials.

 

□ A notable characteristic of this novel surface modification technology developed in this study is its ability to uniformly form nanometer-thick polydopamine (PDA) layers on a wide range of organic surfaces. This technology enables uniform coating for complex surfaces with curved or microscopic pores, thereby minimizing electrical signal fluctuations caused by bodily secretions and enhancing the stability of bio-signal measurements.

 

□ While maximizing the bactericidal effect, the PDA layer, combined with the antibiotic tobramycin, inhibits the adsorption of coronavirus on the skin surface, demonstrating its potential for application as medical patches and wearable sensors.

 

□ The surface modification method effectively eliminates the need to use toxic solvents and a vacuum environment, key limitations of conventional chemical vapor deposition and self-assembled single molecular membrane processes.

 

□ PDA-based coatings formed rapidly and safely in aqueous solution, and performed equally well on substrates with varying degrees of surface energy and roughness, including skin, fruit peels, and animal tissue. This technology’s broad applicability indicates strong potential for future scalability across diverse sectors, including anti-infection materials, vital sign measurement devices, and the cosmetics and beauty industries.

 

□ “This study holds significance as it was featured as the cover article in a prestigious international journal,” said Professor Bonghoon Kim. “We will continue to examine how anti-bacterial and anti-contamination functions can be applied in the healthcare and wearable electronic device sectors in the future.”

 

□ This study was funded by the National Research Foundation of Korea Global Bio-integrated Interfacing Leading Research Center (ERC) and the DGIST Physical AI Center.

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Journal

Advanced Healthcare Materials

DOI

10.1002/adhm.202500597 

Article Title

Direct Surface Modification of the Epidermis Using Mussel-Inspired Polydopamine with Multiple Anti-Biofouling Functions

 

Purifying radioactive soil with sunlight alone... DGIST successfully developed “artificial plant” technology

DGIST (Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology)

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A research team led by Professor Seongkyun Kim of the Department of Physics and Chemistry, the Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science & Technology (DGIST; President Kunwoo Lee), successfully developed a solar-powered artificial plant device and rapidly purified soil contaminated with radioactive cesium. This device, which mimics plant transpiration, can collect cesium in leaves and purify it using sunlight alone without electric power or additional water. It is highly applicable on site as it is not necessary to scoop up and clean the soil, unlike traditional devices.

 

□ As radioactive cesium (Cs⁺) has a long half-life, it remains in the environment for a long time. It is also highly soluble in water and spreads easily in the environment. Once it enters the body, it can build up in muscles and bones and cause cancer or organ damage. In fact, in the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan in 2011, imports of Japanese vegetables and seafood were “above the cesium threshold” and were accordingly stopped or destroyed. While contaminated water can be purified with an adsorbent, it is a global challenge to purify soil as there is no alternative to scooping up and purifying the soil.

 

□ Technology to purify contaminated soil based on the use of natural plants has been studied for a long time. It is based on the principle that plants suck in pollutants with their roots and collect the pollutants in their leaves or stems. This method, however, takes a lot of time, does not have a high elimination rate, and is highly influenced by weather and climate conditions. Most of all, radioactive material must be eliminated quickly for safety, and it is difficult for plants to do so as they grow slowly. Another downside is that the contaminated plants themselves become radioactive waste and require additional treatment.

 

□ To overcome these limitations, the research team led by Professor Seongkyun Kim developed an artificial plant device that simulates plant transpiration. The device uses solar energy to quickly absorb contaminated water from the soil. It picks up only radioactive cesium and accumulates it in its leaves. Pure water evaporates, and the evaporated water returns to the soil through the recovery system. Therefore, it is not necessary to replenish the water.

 

□ As the absorbed cesium remains in the leaves, the device can be reused repeatedly as long as the leaves are replaced after purification. Furthermore, an acidic substance can be used to wash the used leaves to take the cesium out, and the adsorbent can be recycled multiple times, which reduces costs and the environmental burden.

 

□ The research team experimented with soil contaminated at various concentrations of cesium and found that this technology reduced the concentration of cesium in the soil by more than 95% within 20 days. It greatly accelerated the purification process, which usually takes months. The technology can be used to restore soil in agricultural land or accident sites severely contaminated by radioactive cesium. It is powered by solar energy alone, and it does not require electricity or additional water. Hence, it is highly applicable on site.

 

□ “While radioactive cesium contamination causes a much more serious problem in soil than in water, there has been no proper method to purify it so far,” said Professor Seongkyun Kim. “This study holds significance as it demonstrates the possibility of purifying contaminated soil based on solar energy by mimicking natural plants and simply installing the device without any other equipment.”

 

□ Soobin Kim, a PhD student in the Department of Physics and Chemistry, DGIST, participated in this study as the first author, and it was published online on Aug 25, 2025, in Environmental Science & Technology, an international environmental sciences journal.

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Journal

Environmental Science & Technology

DOI

10.1021/acs.est.5c03657 

Article Title

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.5c03657

 

Airports will get noisier as Earth gets warmer

University of Reading

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Warmer air from climate change will tend to make departing aircraft create more noise pollution around European airports by 2050. 

Scientists from the University of Reading studied how rising air temperatures change the way aircraft take off. Warmer air is less dense, reducing lift generation and keeping aircraft closer to the ground for longer periods after departure. The research, published in the journal Aerospace, studied three possible futures based on how much greenhouse gas pollution humans produce. On average, departing aircraft climb angles will decrease by 1-3%, but individual hot days could reduce climb angles by up to 7.5%. 

Noise levels at 30 European airports were projected using ten climate models. The team focused on the 50-decibel level, which marks a boundary where aircraft noise becomes more noticeable to residents. They studied how climb angles of the Airbus A320 - commonly used for short European flights - affect this boundary as the climate changes. Homes within this boundary currently experience regular aircraft noise. 

By the middle of this century, residents living near airports may be affected by more aircraft noise pollution. In central London, around 60,000 people currently live within the 50dB noise footprint of a typical A320 aircraft. Changes in local climate and population density could mean roughly 2,500 additional people being brought into this boundary. 

Dr Jonny Williams, lead author at the University of Reading, said: "Over the next three decades, thousands of extra people in London could be blighted by noise pollution caused by climate change. The problem gets worse with different types of sound too. Low-frequency noise, which travels further, will increase the most. These deeper sounds are particularly annoying to human ears and can cause stress and sleep problems. 

"Without action on greenhouse gas emissions, rising temperatures will make managing the problem of airport noise more difficult, even as engine technology advances." 

The University of Reading’s Professor Paul Williams, who also worked on the study, said: “Together with increased turbulence and more airport flooding, we can now add noisier flights to the growing list of ways climate change is affecting aviation, with unwelcome consequences for those who live near airports and are impacted by noise.” 

Read more from the University of Reading’s Turbulence Research Group:   

• Turbulent flights to continue as warming world shakes skies 

• Aviation turbulence strengthened as the world warmed — study  

• Climate change will bring more turbulence to flights in the Northern Hemisphere  

• Holiday flights could carry fewer passengers as world warms  

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Journal

Aerospace

DOI

10.3390/aerospace12090815 

Article Title

The Impacts of Climate Change on Aircraft Noise near European Airports