Tiny fish-shaped robot ‘swims’ around picking up microplastics

Peer-Reviewed Publication

AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY

 

IMAGE: A LIGHT-ACTIVATED FISH-SHAPED ROBOT COLLECTS MICROPLASTICS AS IT SWIMS (SCALE BAR IS 10 MM). view more 

CREDIT: ADAPTED FROM NANO LETTERS 2022, DOI: 10.1021/ACS.NANOLETT.2C01375

Microplastics are found nearly everywhere on Earth and can be harmful to animals if they’re ingested. But it’s hard to remove such tiny particles from the environment, especially once they settle into nooks and crannies at the bottom of waterways. Now, researchers in ACS’ Nano Letters have created a light-activated fish robot that “swims” around quickly, picking up and removing microplastics from the environment.

Because microplastics can fall into cracks and crevices, they’ve been hard to remove from aquatic environments. One solution that’s been proposed is using small, flexible and self-propelled robots to reach these pollutants and clean them up. But the traditional materials used for soft robots are hydrogels and elastomers, and they can be damaged easily in aquatic environments. Another material called mother-of-pearl, also known as nacre, is strong and flexible, and is found on the inside surface of clam shells. Nacre layers have a microscopic gradient, going from one side with lots of calcium carbonate mineral-polymer composites to the other side with mostly a silk protein filler. Inspired by this natural substance, Xinxing Zhang and colleagues wanted to try a similar type of gradient structure to create a durable and bendable material for soft robots.

The researchers linked β-cyclodextrin molecules to sulfonated graphene, creating composite nanosheets. Then solutions of the nanosheets were incorporated with different concentrations into polyurethane latex mixtures. A layer-by-layer assembly method created an ordered concentration gradient of the nanocomposites through the material from which the team formed a tiny fish robot that was 15-mm (about half-an-inch) long. Rapidly turning a near-infrared light laser on and off at a fish’s tail caused it to flap, propelling the robot forward. The robot could move 2.67 body lengths per second — a speed that’s faster than previously reported for other soft swimming robots and that is about the same speed as active phytoplankton moving in water. The researchers showed that the swimming fish robot could repeatedly adsorb nearby polystyrene microplastics and transport them elsewhere. The material could also heal itself after being cut, still maintaining its ability to adsorb microplastics. Because of the durability and speed of the fish robot, the researchers say that it could be used for monitoring microplastics and other pollutants in harsh aquatic environments.

The authors acknowledge funding from a National Key Research and Development Program of China Grant, National Natural Science Foundation of China Grants and the Sichuan Provincial Natural Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars.

The paper’s abstract will be available on June 22 at 8 a.m. Eastern time here: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.nanolett.2c01375.

The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. ACS’ mission is to advance the broader chemistry enterprise and its practitioners for the benefit of Earth and all its people. The Society is a global leader in promoting excellence in science education and providing access to chemistry-related information and research through its multiple research solutions, peer-reviewed journals, scientific conferences, eBooks and weekly news periodical Chemical & Engineering News. ACS journals are among the most cited, most trusted and most read within the scientific literature; however, ACS itself does not conduct chemical research. As a leader in scientific information solutions, its CAS division partners with global innovators to accelerate breakthroughs by curating, connecting and analyzing the world’s scientific knowledge. ACS’ main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.

To automatically receive news releases from the American Chemical Society, contact newsroom@acs.org.

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JOURNAL

Nano Letters

DOI

10.1021/acs.nanolett.2c01375 

ARTICLE TITLE

Robust, Healable, Self-Locomotive Integrated Robots Enabled by Noncovalent Assembled Gradient Nanostructure

Silk offers an alternative to some microplastics

Researchers have developed a biodegradable system based on silk to replace microplastics added to agricultural products, paints, and cosmetics

Peer-Reviewed Publication

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

 

IMAGE: THESE SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPE IMAGES SHOW SILK-COATED MICROCAPSULES CONTAINING VITAMIN C, AT DIFFERENT SCALES OF DETAIL. ON THE LEFT, AND TOP CENTER, SAMPLES MADE BY SPRAY DRYING, A METHOD ALREADY WIDELY USED IN INDUSTRY. ON THE RIGHT AND AT BOTTOM CENTER, SAMPLES MADE BY ULTRASONIC SPRAY FREEZE DRYING, A METHOD USED BY THE RESEARCHERS TO REVEAL GREATER DETAIL OF THE PROCESS INVOLVED. view more 

CREDIT: CREDITS:SEM IMAGES BY MUCHUN LIU, EDITED BY MIT NEWS

Microplastics, tiny particles of plastic that are now found worldwide in the air, water, and soil, are increasingly recognized as a serious pollution threat, and have been found in the bloodstream of animals and people around the world.

Some of these microplastics are intentionally added to a variety of products, including agricultural chemicals, paints, cosmetics, and detergents — amounting to an estimated 50,000 tons a year in the European Union alone, according to the European Chemicals Agency. The EU has already declared that these added, nonbiodegradable microplastics must be eliminated by 2025, so the search is on for suitable replacements, which do not currently exist.

Now, a team of scientists at MIT and elsewhere has developed a system based on silk that could provide an inexpensive and easily manufactured substitute. The new process is described in a paper in the journal Small, written by MIT postdoc Muchun Liu, MIT professor of civil and environmental engineering Benedetto Marelli, and five others at the chemical company BASF in Germany and the U.S.

The microplastics widely used in industrial products generally protect some specific active ingredient (or ingredients) from being degraded by exposure to air or moisture, until the time they are needed. They provide a slow release of the active ingredient for a targeted period of time and minimize adverse effects to its surroundings. For example, vitamins are often delivered in the form of microcapsules packed into a pill or capsule, and pesticides and herbicides are similarly enveloped. But the materials used today for such microencapsulation are plastics that persist in the environment for a long time. Until now, there has been no practical, economical substitute available that would biodegrade naturally.

Much of the burden of environmental microplastics comes from other sources, such as the degradation over time of larger plastic objects such as bottles and packaging, and from the wear of car tires. Each of these sources may require its own kind of solutions for reducing its spread, Marelli says. The European Chemical Agency has estimated that the intentionally added microplastics represent approximately 10-15 percent of the total amount in the environment, but this source may be relatively easy to address using this nature-based biodegradable replacement, he says.

“We cannot solve the whole microplastics problem with one solution that fits them all,” he says. “Ten percent of a big number is still a big number. … We’ll solve climate change and pollution of the world one percent at a time.”

Unlike the high-quality silk threads used for fine fabrics, the silk protein used in the new alternative material is widely available and less expensive, Liu says. While silkworm cocoons must be painstakingly unwound to produce the fine threads needed for fabric, for this use, non-textile-quality cocoons can be used, and the silk fibers can simply be dissolved using a scalable water-based process. The processing is so simple and tunable that the resulting material can be adapted to work on existing manufacturing equipment, potentially providing a simple “drop in” solution using existing factories.

Silk is recognized as safe for food or medical use, as it is nontoxic and degrades naturally in the body. In lab tests, the researchers demonstrated that the silk-based coating material could be used in existing, standard spray-based manufacturing equipment to make a standard water-soluble microencapsulated herbicide product, which was then tested in a greenhouse on a corn crop. The test showed it worked even better than an existing commercial product, inflicting less damage to the plants, Liu says.

While other groups have proposed degradable encapsulation materials that may work at a small laboratory scale, Marelli says, “there is a strong need to achieve encapsulation of high-content actives to open the door to commercial use. The only way to have an impact is where we can not only replace a synthetic polymer with a biodegradable counterpart, but also achieve performance that is the same, if not better.”

The secret to making the material compatible with existing equipment, Liu explains, is in the tunability of the silk material. By precisely adjusting the polymer chain arrangements of silk materials and addition of a surfactant, it is possible to fine-tune the properties of the resulting coatings once they dry out and harden. The material can be hydrophobic (water-repelling) even though it is made and processed in a water solution, or it can be hydrophilic (water-attracting), or anywhere in between, and for a given application it can be made to match the characteristics of the material it is being used to replace.

In order to arrive at a practical solution, Liu had to develop a way of freezing the forming droplets of encapsulated materials as they were forming, to study the formation process in detail. She did this using a special spray-freezing system, and was able to observe exactly how the encapsulation works in order to control it better. Some of the encapsulated “payload” materials, whether they be pesticides or nutrients or enzymes, are water-soluble and some are not, and they interact in different ways with the coating material.

“To encapsulate different materials, we have to study how the polymer chains interact and whether they are compatible with different active materials in suspension,” she says. The payload material and the coating material are mixed together in a solution and then sprayed. As droplets form, the payload tends to be embedded in a shell of the coating material, whether that’s the original synthetic plastic or the new silk material.

The new method can make use of low-grade silk that is unusable for fabrics, and large quantities of which are currently discarded because they have no significant uses, Liu says. It can also use used, discarded silk fabric, diverting that material from being disposed of in landfills.

Currently, 90 percent of the world’s silk production takes place in China, Marelli says, but that’s largely because China has perfected the production of the high-quality silk threads needed for fabrics. But because this process uses bulk silk and has no need for that level of quality, production could easily be ramped up in other parts of the world to meet local demand if this process becomes widely used, he says.

The research team also included Pierre-Eric Millard, Ophelie Zeyons, Henning Urch, Douglas Findley and Rupert Konradi from the BASF corporation, in Germany and in the U.S. The work was supported by BASF through the Northeast Research Alliance (NORA).

###

Written by David L. Chandler, MIT News Office

Additional background

Paper: “Microencapsulation of high-content actives using biodegradable silk materials.”

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/smll.202201487

DOI

10.1002/smll.202201487 

ARTICLE TITLE

“Microencapsulation of high-content actives using biodegradable silk materials.”

Long sought-after particle consisting of four neutrons discovered 

OR CREATED BY THE OBSERVERS

Research team for the first time observed a neutral nucleus: the Tetra Neutron

IT MIGHT ALL BE IN THEIR IMAGINATIONS

Peer-Reviewed Publication

TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAT DARMSTADT

The experiment has been carried out at the Radioactive Ion Beam Factory RIBF at RIKEN (Japan) by a large international research team. Significantly involved were besides TU Darmstadt, scientists from TU Munich, the RIKEN Nishina Center, and the GSI Helmholtz Center for Heavy-ion Research. The experiment yielded an unambiguous signal for the first observation of the Tetra Neutron. The result has been published in the current issue of “Nature”.

The building blocks of atomic nuclei are nucleons, which exist as two kinds, the neutral neutrons and the charged protons, representing the two isospin states of the nucleon. To our present knowledge, nuclei made of neutrons only are not existing as bound nuclei. The only bound systems known made of almost only neutrons are neutron stars, which are very compact high-density objects in the universe bound by the gravitational force with typical diameters of around 10 kilometers. Atomic nuclei are bound by the nuclear strong force with a preference to balance neutrons and protons, as known for the stable nuclei we find on earth.

The study of pure neutron systems is of particular importance since they provide the only means to extract experimental information on the interaction among several neutrons and thereby on the nuclear force. If multi-neutron systems do exist as resonances or even bound states has been a long-standing quest in nuclear physics. The exploration of the so far hypothetical particles might furthermore provide information helping for a better understanding of neutron-star properties. If multi-neutron systems do exist as unbound resonant states or even bound states has been a long-standing quest in nuclear physics. A research team lead by scientists from TU Darmstadt set out to undertake a new attempt by using a different experimental technique as compared to previous attempts. This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) via the SFB 1245.

“This experimental break-through provides a benchmark to test the nuclear force with a pure system made of neutrons only", says Dr. Meytal Duer from Institute for Nuclear Physics at the TU Darmstadt. “The nuclear interaction among more than two neutrons could not be tested so far, and theoretical predictions yield a wide scatter concerning the energy and width of a possible tetra neutron state. We are currently planning to a next-generation experiment at R3B at FAIR, which will detect directly the correlations among the four neutrons with the R3B NeuLAND detector, which will give deeper insight to the nature of this four-neutron system”.

The experimental study of pure neutron systems is challenging because neutron targets do not exist. In order to create multi-neutron systems in a volume where the neutrons can interact via the short-range nuclear force (few femto-meter, 10-15 meter), nuclear reactions have to be used. Here, the interaction of the neutrons with other particles involved in the reaction process poses a major problem, which can mask the properties of the pure neutron interaction. The scientists have overcome this problem by shooting out the compact alpha core from 8He instantaneously induced by a proton of the liquid hydrogen target. The remaining four neutrons are suddenly free and left alone and can interact among each other.

“Key for the successful observation of the Tetra Neutron was the chosen reaction, which isolates the four neutrons in a fast (compared to the nuclear scale) process, and the chosen kinematics of large momentum-transfer, which separates the neutrons from the charged particles in momentum space”, says Professor Dr. Thomas Aumann from the Institute for Nuclear Physics at TU Darmstadt. “The extreme kinematics resulted in an almost background-free measurement. We now plan to employ the same reaction in an experiment at the RIBF to make a precision measurement of the low-energy neutron-neutron interaction. A dedicated neutron detector for this experiment is currently being built at our university”.

 

The Publication

M. Duer, T. Aumann et al.: „Observation of a correlated free four-neutron system“, in „Nature“ (2022), June 22nd 2022, DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-04827-6, https://go.nature.com/3n8mBvu

 

About TU Darmstadt

TU Darmstadt is one of Germany’s leading technical universities and a synonym for excellent, relevant research. We are crucially shaping global transformations – from the energy transition via Industry 4.0 to artificial intelligence – with outstanding insights and forward-looking study opportunities. TU Darmstadt pools its cutting-edge research in three fields: Energy and Environment, Information and Intelligence, Matter and Materials. Our problem-based interdisciplinarity as well as our productive interaction with society, business and politics generate progress towards sustainable development worldwide. Since we were founded in 1877, we have been one of Germany’s most international universities; as a European technical university, we are developing a trans-European campus in the network, Unite! With our partners in the alliance of Rhine-Main universities – Goethe University Frankfurt and Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz – we further the development of the metropolitan region Frankfurt-Rhine-Main as a globally attractive science location.

www.tu-darmstadt.de

MI-Nr. 39/2022, Aumann/mih

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JOURNAL

Nature

DOI

10.1038/s41586-022-04827-6 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

„Observation of a correlated free four-neutron system“

When the world of nanotechnology and microbreweries meet

A Quebec research team has succeeded in synthesizing carbon quantum dots from brewery wastes

Peer-Reviewed Publication

INSTITUT NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE - INRS

 

IMAGE: RESEARCHER FEDERICO ROSEI IS AN EXPERT IN NANOTECHNOLOGIES. view more 

CREDIT: JOSÉE LECOMPTE

For a few years now, spent grain, the cereal residue from breweries, has been reused in animal feed. From now on, this material could also be used in nanotechnology! Professor Federico Rosei’s team at the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) has shown that microbrewery waste can be used as a carbon source to synthesize quantum dots. The work, done in collaboration with Claudiane Ouellet-Plamondon of the École de technologie supérieure (ÉTS), was published in the Royal Society of Chemistry’s journal RSC Advances.

Often considered as “artificial atoms”, quantum dots are used in the transmission of light. With a range of interesting physicochemical properties, this type of nanotechnology has been successfully used as a sensor in biomedicine or as LEDs in next generation displays. But there is a drawback. Current quantum dots are produced with heavy and toxic metals like cadmium. Carbon is an interesting alternative, both for its biocompatibility and its accessibility.

An eco-responsible approach

The choice of brewery waste as a source material came from Daniele Benetti, a postdoctoral fellow at INRS, and Aurel Thibaut Nkeumaleu, the master’s student at ÉTS who conducted the work. Basically, they wanted to carry out various experiments using accessible materials. This is how the scientists came to collaborate with the Brasseurs de Montréal to obtain their cereal residues.

“The use of spent grain highlights both an eco-responsible approach to waste management and an alternative raw material for the synthesis of carbon quantum dots, from a circular economy perspective,” says Professor Rosei.

The advantage of using brewery waste as a source of carbon quantum dots is that it is naturally enriched with nitrogen and phosphorus. This avoids the need for pure chemicals.

“This research was a lot of fun, lighting up what we can do with the beer by-products,” says Claudiane Ouellet-Plamondon, Canada Research Chair in Sustainable Multifunctional Construction Materials at ÉTS. “Moreover, ÉTS is located on the site of the former Dow brewery, one of the main breweries in Quebec until the 1960s. So there is a historical and heritage link to this work.”

An accessible method

In addition to using biobased material, the research team wanted to show that it was possible to produce carbon quantum dots with common means. The scientists used a domestic microwave oven to carbonize the spent grain, resulting in a black powder. It was then mixed with distilled water and put back into the microwave oven. A passage in the centrifuge and advanced filtration allowed to obtain the quantum dots. Their finished product was able to detect and quantify heavy metals, as well as other contaminants that affect water quality, the environment and health. 

The next steps will be to characterize these carbon quantum dots from brewery waste, beyond proof of concept. The research team is convinced that this nanotechnology has the potential to become sophisticated detection sensors for various aqueous solutions, even in living cells.

About the study

The paper “Brewery spent grain derived carbon dots for metal sensing,” by Aurel Thibaut Nkeumaleu, Daniele Benetti, Imane Haddadou, Michael Di Mare, Claudiane Ouellet-Plamondon, and Federico Rosei, was published on April 14, 2022, in the Royal Society of Chemistry journal RSC Advances. The study was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Quebec Centre for Advanced Materials (QCAM) and the Canada Research Chairs.

About INRS
INRS is a university dedicated exclusively to graduate level research and training. Since its creation in 1969, INRS has played an active role in Québec’s economic, social, and cultural development and is ranked first for research intensity in Québec. INRS is made up of four interdisciplinary research and training centres in Québec City, Montréal, Laval, and Varennes, with expertise in strategic sectors: Eau Terre Environnement, Énergie Matériaux Télécommunications, Urbanisation Culture Société, and Armand-Frappier Santé Biotechnologie. The INRS community includes more than 1,500 students, postdoctoral fellows, faculty members, and staff.

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JOURNAL

RSC Advances

DOI

10.1039/D2RA00048B 

ARTICLE TITLE

Brewery spent grain derived carbon dots for metal sensing

Can robotics help us achieve sustainable development?

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS

An international team of scientists, led by the University of Leeds, have assessed how robotics and autonomous systems might facilitate or impede the delivery of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Their findings identify key opportunities and key threats that need to be considered while developing, deploying and governing robotics and autonomous systems’.

The key opportunities robotics and autonomous systems present are through autonomous task completion, supporting human activities, fostering innovation, enhancing remote access and improving monitoring.

Emerging threats relate to reinforcing inequalities, exacerbating environmental change, diverting resources from tried-and-tested solutions, and reducing freedom and privacy through inadequate governance.

Technological advancements have already profoundly altered how economies operate and how people, society and environments inter-relate. Robotics and autonomous systems are reshaping the world, changing healthcare, food production and biodiversity management.

However, the associated potential positive and negative effects caused by their involvement in the SDGs had not been considered systematically. Now, international researchers conducted a horizon scan to evaluate the impact this cutting-edge technology could have on SDGs delivery. It involved more than 102 experts from around the world, including 44 experts from low- and middle-income countries.

The report is published in Nature Communications.

Lead author Dr Solène Guenat began the research while at the Sustainability Research Institute at Leeds. She is now at the Institute for Landscape Planning and Ecology of the University of Stuttgart. The research was conducted as part of Leeds’ Self Repairing Cities project. This project, concluded in 2021, aimed to enable robots and autonomous systems to maintain urban infrastructure without causing disruption to citizens.

Dr Guenat said: “Robotics and autonomous systems are here to stay and will fundamentally transform how we interact with one another, technology and the environment.

“This transformation offers many potential benefits for sustainable development. However, realising those benefits while minimising unintended consequences is a complex challenge. Early identification of possible negative impacts along with early collaboration and continued dialogue across stakeholders will help us seize opportunities while avoiding pitfalls.”

Horizon scanning

Horizon scans have been used to study a wide range of topics, including bioengineering, medicine and biodiversity conservation. They are increasingly used by private and public organisations worldwide to inform decision-making.

For this horizon scan, the researchers recruited 102 experts in either robotics and autonomous systems and/or the SDGs to participate in online surveys, group discussions and workshops to identify positive and negative impacts robotics could have on delivering the SDGs. The team then evaluated and synthesised the expert responses to determine the key opportunities and threats.

Key opportunities

• Replacing human activities: Robotics and autonomous systems will take over manual tasks deemed too dangerous, repetitive, or for which labour cannot be found
• Supporting human activities: Assistive autonomous robotics will work hands-in-hands with humans to facilitate human activities in the work-, private and public-environment
• Fostering innovation: Technological advances in robotics and autonomous systems will speed up research and development while improving collaborations
• Enhancing access: Autonomous transport systems, including drones, will facilitate access to remote and/or dangerous areas, ease distance communication, improve supply chains, and transform current modes of transport
• Monitoring for decision making: Automatic data collection will be used widely with speed and accuracy, and will influence decision-making

Key threats

• Reinforcing inequalities: Autonomous systems will be unaffordable for most countries and governments, shunned by some due to negative perceptions, and decrease the need for low-skilled labour, thus reinforcing gender and global inequalities
• Negative environmental impact: Robotics and autonomous systems will have wide-ranging impact on the environment through the use of resources needed for their production, the pollution created by their use and disposal, the landscape simplification they will require, and the disturbance of ecosystems they will provoke
• Resource diversion from tried-and tested solutions: Robotics and autonomous systems will require large amounts of financial resources to be implemented   widely and competition for resources will put other proof-tested measures at risk, especially where goals address socio-political issues
• Inadequate governance: A robust and regulatory framework around robotics and autonomous systems use and ownership of the data they collect will not be developed in time, leading to ethical issues and increasing the risk of reinforcing inequalities and negative environmental impact

Despite identifying emerging threats, participants indicated that the impact of robotics and autonomous systems on progress towards the SDGs was likely to be overwhelmingly positive. No SDG was determined to be predominately negatively impacted by robotics and autonomous systems. 

However, the future overall impact of robotics and autonomous systems on achieving the SDGs was acknowledged to be hard to predict, especially for goals dealing with inequalities.

Study co-author Professor Martin Dallimer from the School of Earth and Environment at Leeds and the Sustainability Research Institute said: “There are already promising ways to mitigate some of the identified threats robotics and autonomous systems could present.

“For example with issues regarding inequalities, there is a clear need to empower more women and those from diverse backgrounds to engage with robotics development.  

“This, along with greater engagement by engineers with sustainable development professionals would ensure that robotics and autonomous systems are developed and deployed while respecting the needs of multiple different groups.

“Indeed, appropriate mitigation measures to counter the potential negative impacts of robotics and autonomous systems would, by their very nature, contribute to achieving Sustainable Development Goals.”

Planning for the future

The paper highlights warnings that as of early 2020, insufficient progress was being made towards meeting the SDGs by 2030. The coronavirus pandemic has also stalled some previous progress, for example by pushing an extra 124 million people into poverty and exacerbating health inequalities.

Mobilising digital technology could significantly help facilitate the achievement of the SDGs. Yet the opportunities and threats posed by robotics and autonomous systems are so far not integrated into any other global initiatives, strategies or social goal setting. 

The study authors suggest this is likely in part due to the relatively slow pace of regulation and goal setting when compared to robotics development, leaving the door open to poor regulation or non-binding guidelines.

Study co-author Professor Phil Purnell from the School of Civil Engineering at Leeds and Principal Investigator on the Self Repairing Cities projects said: “Regulatory processes developed in parallel with emerging new technologies are needed to ensure appropriate robotics and autonomous systems.

“Although the full impact of robotics and autonomous systems across the Sustainable Development Goals are hard to predict, inclusion of robotics in future iterations of the goals will be essential to avoid detrimental and unintended consequences while realising the opportunities they offer.”

Further information:

The Self Repairing Cities project was funded as part of Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council’s Grand Challenge” programme.

The paper ‘Meeting Sustainable Development Goals via Robotics and Autonomous Systems’ is published in Nature Communications (DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-31150-5) 

Full list of authors: Solène Guenat, Phil Purnell, Zoe G. Davies, Maximilian Nawrath1, Lindsay C. Stringer, G.R. Babu, Muniyandi Balasubramanian, Erica E.F. Ballantyne, Bhuvana Kolar Bylappa, Bei Chen, Peta De Jager, Andrea Del Prete, Alessandro Di Nuovo, Cyril O. Ehi-Eromosele, Mehran Eskandari Torbaghan, Karl L. Evans, Markus Fraundorfer, Wissem Haouas, Josephat Izunobi, Juan Carlos Jauregui-Correa, Bilal Y. Kaddouh, Sonia Lewycka, Ana C. MacIntosh, Christine Mady, Carsten Maple, Worku N. Mhiret, Rozhen Kamal Mohammed-Amin, Olukunle Charles Olawole, Temilola Oluseyi, Caroline Orfila, Alessandro Ossola, Marion Pfeifer, Tony Pridmore, Moti L. Rijal, Christine C. Rega-Brodsky, Ian D. Robertson, Christopher D.F. Rogers, Charles Rougé, Maryam B. Rumaney, Mmabaledi K. Seeletso, Mohammed Z. Shaqura, L. M. Suresh, Martin N. Sweeting, Nick Taylor Buck, M.U. Ukwuru, Thomas Verbeek, Hinrich Voss, Zia Wadud, Xinjun Wang, Neil Winn, Martin Dallimer

For additional information, contact University of Leeds at pressoffice@leeds.ac.uk

University of Leeds 

The University of Leeds is one of the largest higher education institutions in the UK, with more than 39,000 students from more than 137 different countries. We are renowned globally for the quality of our teaching and research. 

We are a values-driven university, and we harness our expertise in research and education to help shape a better future for humanity, working through collaboration to tackle inequalities, achieve societal impact and drive change.  

The University is a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universities, and plays a significant role in the Turing, Rosalind Franklin and Royce Institutes. www.leeds.ac.uk  

Follow University of Leeds or tag us in to coverage: Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Instagram 

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JOURNAL

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s41467-022-31150-5 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Meta-analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

‘Meeting Sustainable Development Goals via Robotics and Autonomous Systems’

How humans evolved to get along (to extent that we do)

Research looks at social structures, behaviors of bonobos compared to more hostile, territorial chimpanzees

Peer-Reviewed Publication

HARVARD UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: SHARED GROOMING AMONG BONOBOS IS INDICATIVE OF THEIR GROUP DYNAMICS, WHICH INCLUDES TOLERANCE AND COOPERATION. view more 

CREDIT: COURTESY OF MARTIN SURBECK

Humans display a capacity for tolerance and cooperation among social groups that is rare in the animal kingdom, our long history of war and political strife notwithstanding. But how did we get that way?

Scientists believe bonobos might serve as an evolutionary model. The endangered primates share 99 percent of their DNA with humans and have a reputation for generally being peace-loving and sexually active — researchers jokingly refer to them “hippie apes.” And interactions between their social groups are thought to be much less hostile than among their more violent cousins, the chimpanzees.

Some, however, have challenged this because of a lack of detailed data on how these groups work and how they separate themselves. A new study led by Harvard primatologists Liran Samuni and Martin Surbeck on the social structure of bonobos may begin to fill in some of the blanks.

The research, published in PNAS, shows that four neighboring groups of bonobos they studied at the Kokolopori Bonobo Reserve in the Democratic Republic of Congo maintained exclusive and stable social and spatial borders between them, showing they are indeed part of distinct social groups that interact regularly and peacefully with each other.

“It was a very necessary first step,” said Samuni, a postdoctoral fellow in Harvard’s Pan Lab and the paper’s lead author. “Now that we know that despite the fact that they spend so much time together, [neighboring] bonobo populations still have these distinct groups, we can really examine the bonobo model as something that is potentially the building block or the state upon which us humans evolved our way of more complex, multilevel societies and cooperation that extends beyond borders.”

The study is a result of three consecutive years of observing the bonobo community in the Kokolopori reserve from 2017 to 2019. Previous research showed evidence of the 59 bonobos forming four separate groups that routinely crossed paths to interact, groom each other, and share meals. What hasn’t been clear is the extent to which the behavior of these bonobo groups resembles that of chimpanzee subgroups that form within one larger community.

Primatologists refer to chimp subgroups, which are highly territorial and hostile to those in different communities, as neighborhoods. Essentially, members of these subgroups don’t spend all their time together as part of one large group but are all still part it, maintaining relationships with each other and (most importantly) not battling each other when they meet.

Bonobos have been far less studied than chimps due to political instability and logistical challenges to setting up research sites in the forests of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the only place where the primates are found. In addition, studying relationships among and between Bonobo groups has been further complicated by the fact that subgroups appear to intermingle with some frequency.

“There aren’t really behavioral indications that allow us to distinguish this is group A, this is group B when they meet,” Samuni said. “They behave the same way they behave with their own group members. People are basically asking us, how do we know these are two different groups? Maybe instead of those being two different groups, these groups are just one very large group made up of individuals that just don’t spend all their time together [as we see with chimpanzee neighborhoods].”

To get at the answer, at least two observers from the reserve followed each bonobo group daily from dawn to dusk, recording behavioral and location data that was then analyzed.

The researchers primarily tracked how much time individual bonobos spent together, with whom, and what activities they engaged in. This helped the researchers perform a statistical method called a cluster analysis. This method groups data points in a cluster so that points from the same group are clustered closely on a plot, while data points not in the same group are clustered in another space.

Essentially, they tracked which bonobos shared significant associations with one another, which ones tended to come together for meals more often, which ones tended to stick together when faced with a choice of whom to go with, and which ones interacted more in the same home range. This helped them draw clear distinctions between what bonobos were part of the same group and when members of one group were peacefully interacting with neighboring groups across each other’s borders.

They compared this to data collected on 104 chimpanzees that lived in the Ngogo community in Uganda’s Kibale National Park between 2011 and 2013.

The researchers found the bonobo clusters were overall more consistent and stable than the subgroups of chimps. This suggests that the bonobos within each cluster had a stronger social preference for one another than was seen within chimpanzee subgroups.

When it comes to the Kokolopori bonobos, this helped the researchers not only confirm the four groups — which they named the Ekalakala, the Kokoalongo, the Fekako, and the Bekako — but also come up with a reliable way to predict which bonobos were most likely to stick together when the different groups of bonobos met and separated.

Samuni and Surbeck, an assistant professor in the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology and the paper’s senior author, say the results show that bonobos, like humans, are capable of complicated relationships outside their immediate core network.

Now that the researchers have firmly established that these bonobos have distinct groups, they want to dig further into what cooperation and trade look between these groups and whether it can potentially represent what it looked like in our common ancestor. This would help explain how humans, to an extent, overcame antagonism between different groups and developed peaceful cooperation.

Surbeck, who founded and directs the Kokolopori Bonobo Research Project, points out the window to gain these powerful insights is closing as bonobos near extinction.

“There are very few left,” he said. “We gather here information that potentially will not be available anymore in 50 years if things continue the way they do.”

---

JOURNAL

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

DOI

10.1073/pnas.220112211 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Characterization of Pan social systems reveals in-group/out-group distinction and out-group tolerance in bonobos

Potential market for liquid hydrogen as marine fuel in the Aleutian Islands

Reports and Proceedings

INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL ON CLEAN TRANSPORTATION

 

IMAGE: POTENTIAL LIQUID HYDROGEN DEMAND IN THE ALEUTIAN ISLANDS BY SHIP TYPE UNDER THE THREE SCENARIOS ANALYZED. view more 

CREDIT: INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL ON CLEAN TRANSPORTATION.

Washington, DC, 22 June 2022 — As interest grows in the potential of using “green” hydrogen generated from renewable electricity to help decarbonize maritime shipping, a new study from the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) estimates there could be substantial demand for liquid hydrogen (LH2) at the Aleutian Islands ports in Alaska, including 10,000 tonnes annually from ships that already call on Dutch Harbor.

The introduction of hydrogen-powered ships is likely to happen in stages, and meeting the 10,000 tonnes of latent demand, about 77% of it from local fishing vessels, might stimulate a market for LH2 that could later be expanded to oceangoing vessels. Indeed, the study finds that in a future scenario where additional oceangoing vessels divert to Alaska to refuel as part of a mature transpacific hydrogen network, the annual demand at the Aleutian Islands could be up to 260,000 tonnes of LH2. That is a market value of more than $1 billion, assuming 2035 LH2 prices. An even larger potential market of up to $1.6 billion could potentially be captured if Alaska is an early mover and makes proactive investments in LH2 bunkering infrastructure to lock in customers.

“Our research highlights that Alaska has both potential supply of and demand for renewable marine fuels,” said Elise Georgeff, associate researcher at ICCT and the study's lead author. “Building a market for hydrogen at Aleutian Islands ports could reduce pollution, spur local economic development, and help local Indigenous communities reduce their dependence on fossil fuels,” she added.

The study also finds that most current models are underestimating energy use from fishing vessels by about one-quarter because they neglect substantial hydraulic and refrigeration loads. Further, fishing fuel use is bimodal: Though propulsion demands most of the energy on transit voyages, energy use for hydraulics and refrigeration is essential during and after active fishing. This improved understanding could be of help to those designing future zero-emission fishing vessels and engines.

“There is a strong case here for U.S. federal funding to help jumpstart hydrogen bunkering at Aleutian ports, as it would leverage their favorable geography, significant latent demand, and untapped renewable energy potential,” said Marine Program Director Dan Rutherford.

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed by the United States in 2021 included $2.25 billion for port infrastructure. “Supporting liquid hydrogen in the Aleutians is a unique opportunity to decarbonize shipping in the United States,” Rutherford said.

###
Contacts
Dan Rutherford (San Francisco), marine program director, dan@theicct.org   

Publication details
“Scaling U.S. zero-emission shipping: Potential hydrogen demand at Aleutian Islands ports”
Authors: Elise Georgeff, Xiaoli Mao, and Dan Rutherford
Download: https://theicct.org/publication/marine-us-aleutians-hydrogen-jun22

The International Council on Clean Transportation is an independent nonprofit organization founded to provide first-rate, unbiased research and technical and scientific analysis to environmental regulators. Our mission is to improve the environmental performance and energy efficiency of road, marine, and air transportation, in order to benefit public health and mitigate climate change.

https://www.theicct.org

@TheICCT

New tool will assess water discharge impacts from Florida’s Everglades

FAU Harbor Branch receives U.S. EPA grant to study connectivity between Everglades and Florida Keys via Florida Bay

Grant and Award Announcement

FLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: RESEARCHERS DEPLOY A MOORING, WHICH WILL HELP THEM MEASURE EXCHANGES OF WATERS. view more 

CREDIT: FLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY/HARBOR BRANCH

The ongoing Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) is working to restore the historical flow of the Florida Everglades to bring back the health of the ecosystem, which has seen declines in water quality and habitat loss and degradation.

The Southwest Florida coast, the Florida Keys Reef Tract and Florida Bay together support abundant underwater vegetation, corals and fishes as well as a prosperous tourist economy. At the epicenter of this region is the Florida Bay ecosystem, which is directly impacted by these watershed inputs and plays a critical role in buffering for downstream ecosystems.

Reallocating freshwater flow to the Florida Bay is expected to reduce hypersaline conditions, which, on the other hand, may deliver more nutrients that elevate phytoplankton blooms. 

Significant evidence shows that these waters and associated nutrients can move further downstream and impact the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary and the Florida Keys Reef Tract. Interactions between nutrient inputs, phytoplankton blooms and sediment processes change water properties before they reach the Florida Keys, and the transport pathways and subsequent biogeochemical responses are complex. At the same time, climate change including sea level rise is modifying both oceanic boundary conditions of the regions, and watershed hydrological conditions and outputs, among other effects.

Currently, the predictive capability of these watershed impacts is limited. Most of the biogeochemical observations are through discrete water samples that are not continuous. New methods are urgently needed to synthesize all of the available sporadic observations and empirical biogeochemical theories into a coherent system for the region.

Researchers from Florida Atlantic University’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute have received a $350,000 grant from the United States Environmental Protection Agency to study the connectivity between the Everglades and the Florida Keys via the Florida Bay. They are developing an ocean model for the region, an innovative tool to holistically examine and diagnose key processes with numerical simulations and experiments, and to predict changes in responses to water management, ecological restoration and climate change. 

“Our model, when fully developed and validated, is expected to be a powerful tool that is currently lacking for this region,” said Mingshun Jiang, Ph.D., principal investigator, physical oceanographer specializing in ocean coupled physical-biogeochemical-ecological modeling, and an associate research professor at FAU Harbor Branch. “It is designed to provide a suite of environmental and ecological information on the state of the greater Florida Bay ecosystem as well as potential future changes. Importantly, our model could potentially predict underwater aquatic vegetation coverage, harmful algal blooms, and fisheries resources under climate change and/or CERP management scenarios.”

To assist in the model development, Jiang and co-PI Laurent Chérubin, Ph.D., a physical oceanographer who specializes in the understanding of ocean dynamics and a research professor at FAU Harbor Branch, will measure currents and water quality parameters at several key locations in the Florida Bay during dry and wet seasons. They will gauge estimates of nutrients and organic export from the Florida Bay to the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary and the Florida Keys Reef Tract.

Jiang and Chérubin will release neutrally-buoyant (artificial) drifters from designated locations and track their trajectories to observe the movements of waters and associated pollutants. Using these drifters, they will investigate the transport and dispersion of freshwater through the Florida Bay, particularly in the northeast region. These drifters have been successfully used for studying transport and dispersion of waters in shallow waters such as Florida’s Indian River Lagoon.  

Fieldwork also will include moorings of three small benthic landers each equipped with one acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) and a water quality sampling and monitoring meter. Deployed at strategic locations, the researchers will measure exchanges of waters between the northeastern basin, which receives high freshwater nutrients and inputs, the southeastern basin, and water exchanges between the Florida Bay and the southwest Florida shelf where fluxes remain highly uncertain.

A new biogeochemical model will be developed to simulate nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus) cycles, phytoplankton blooms including Karenia brevis (red tide) and cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) blooms, zooplankton, and dissolved oxygen. This model will be coupled with an existing hydrodynamic model to synthesize the observations and empirical theories. In particular, using new and historical measurements along with the new model, researchers will quantify the Florida Bay export of nutrients and organic matter and evaluate the impacts of these exports on nutrients, phytoplankton blooms and water clarity.

“New and historical data combined with our modeling will allow us to construct a full picture of connectivity of waters and associated pollutants such as nutrients, organics, and other emerging pollutants such as microplastics in this region under various conditions including wet and dry seasons as well as storms,” said Chérubin. “Results from our project will help water management agencies develop better plans for minimizing the environmental, ecological and human impacts of discharges from the Everglades as well as potentially improving habitat restoration efforts for seagrass and corals.”

Collaborators on the project include the South Florida Water Management District, Florida International University, University of South Florida, Fish and Wildlife Research Institute and NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory.  

- FAU -

About Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute:
Founded in 1971, Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute at Florida Atlantic University is a research community of marine scientists, engineers, educators and other professionals focused on Ocean Science for a Better World. The institute drives innovation in ocean engineering, at-sea operations, drug discovery and biotechnology from the oceans, coastal ecology and conservation, marine mammal research and conservation, aquaculture, ocean observing systems and marine education. For more information, visit www.fau.edu/hboi.

 

About Florida Atlantic University:
Florida Atlantic University, established in 1961, officially opened its doors in 1964 as the fifth public university in Florida. Today, the University serves more than 30,000 undergraduate and graduate students across six campuses located along the southeast Florida coast. In recent years, the University has doubled its research expenditures and outpaced its peers in student achievement rates. Through the coexistence of access and excellence, FAU embodies an innovative model where traditional achievement gaps vanish. FAU is designated a Hispanic-serving institution, ranked as a top public university by U.S. News & World Report and a High Research Activity institution by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. For more information, visit www.fau.edu.