Searching for hidden medieval stories from the island of the Sagas

Hidden and forgotten traces of Iceland’s history can be found in ancient, reused parchments.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Norwegian University of Science and Technology

 

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“I follow Latin traces from Icelandic manuscripts, but the Latin written material in Iceland has been forgotten. Previous research has focused mostly on texts in Old Norse in Icelandic manuscripts,” said PhD research fellow Tom Lorenz.

 

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Credit: Tom Lorenz/NTNU

Iceland has a long and rich literary tradition. With its 380,000 inhabitants, Iceland has produced many great writers, and it is said that one in two Icelanders writes books. The literary tradition stretches all the way back to the Middle Ages.

“Previously, the theory was that Iceland was so dark and barren that the Icelanders had to fill their lives with storytelling and poetry to compensate for this. But Icelanders were certainly part of Europe and had a lot of contact with Britain, Germany, Denmark and Norway, among others,” said Tom Lorenz, a PhD research fellow at the Department of Language and Literature at NTNU. He is hunting down hidden and forgotten pieces of the island of the Sagas’ literary history.

“The Icelanders were part of a common European culture, and Iceland has been a great knowledge society for a long time.”

Royal lineage

We can thank the Icelanders for our relatively good overview of the royal lineage in Norway, right from the early Viking Age up to the death of Magnus V Erlingsson in 1184.

Icelandic skalds were skilled and sought after, and Norwegian kings engaged skalds to ensure that their story and their feats would be told and passed on. Skalds were poets who composed one of the two kinds of Old Norse poetry in alliterative verse, the other being Eddic poetry. Skaldic poems were traditionally composed to honour kings.

In the Middle Ages, the Icelanders wrote down these oral traditions both in Latin and in Old Norse. Snorri Sturluson was the last and most important in a long line of saga writers who wrote down the kings’ sagas in the 13th century.

This is how the kings’ sagas were preserved.

“In addition to sagas, eddaic poems, and skaldic verse, scientific literature and political treaties were also written in Iceland during the Middle Ages,” said Lorenz.

Valuable vellum

Books and texts from this period were written on parchment, which is animal skins that have been carefully processed so they can be written on.

In Iceland, only exclusive calfskin was used to make parchment. Calfskin parchment is called vellum, and it took dozens of calves to create enough vellum for one book.

Vellum was a very valuable material. If a book became worn out or obsolete, the parchments were reused. Among other things, some were used to make tools, and one fragment that has been preserved was made into a mitre – a type of headgear worn by the bishop of Skálholt in Iceland.

In addition, many parchments were reused as covers for new books.

Unique to Iceland

A common method for reusing old manuscript pages was to remove the original text by scraping and polishing so that the parchment could be used to create new books and manuscripts.

This is called a palimpsest.

“Palimpsests were common in the Middle Ages across Europe, and were particularly widespread in Iceland. Although literarily rich, Iceland was a poor country. The supply of expensive parchment was limited, while the demand was high because the Icelanders had much they wanted to communicate,” said Lorenz.

In Iceland, parchment was also reused for printing books after Gutenberg invented the printing press in the 15th century.

“The fact that there are printed palimpsest books in Iceland and not just handwritten palimpsest parchments is unique in a European context, and this has not been studied before!” Lorenz emphasized.

Abandoned Latin in favour of the vernacular

In Iceland, as elsewhere in Europe, texts and books were written in Latin during the Middle Ages, especially liturgical texts used in ecclesiastical contexts. Latin was the predominant written language of Catholic Europe.

But then came the rebellious priest Martin Luther, the man who started the great protest movement against the powerful Catholic Church.

In the wake of Martin Luther and the Reformation in 1517, many northern European countries converted to Protestantism, including Iceland between 1537 and 1550.

The Reformation brought an end to ecclesiastical manuscripts and books being written in Latin. The language of the common man was now to be used.

Latin script was scraped off existing parchments so they could be used for new texts written in Icelandic, and these became palimpsests.

The old text shines through

“In documents and books made from palimpsest parchments, fragments of the old, original text can sometimes be seen beneath the new text,” said Lorenz.

The texts and words that have been scraped away can also be retrieved using modern techniques, such as infrared rays, but quite a lot of the old text can often be read with the naked eye.

And it is in the hidden remnants of old Icelandic parchments written in Latin that Lorenz is searching for hidden and forgotten pieces of history.

He examines the preserved fragments from these ancient books and also studies the different forms of parchment recycling and reuse.

“My goal is to create virtual reconstructions of some of the ancient fragments that have survived to shed new light on previous eras’ culture and society,” said Lorenz.

However, this involves finding the remnants of the palimpsests, and they are few and far between.

“Hardly any Latin books from medieval Iceland have survived. Due to their rarity, recycled parchment from disassembled Latin books is one of our most important sources in the history of medieval Icelandic books,” said Lorenz.

Drained Iceland of medieval literature

“I follow Latin traces from Icelandic manuscripts, but the Latin written material has been forgotten. Previous research has focused mostly on texts in Old Norse in Icelandic manuscripts,” he said.

From the 17th century onwards, Old Norse texts became important in the building of identity, national pride and power in the Nordic countries.

In Denmark, the Icelander and archivist Árni Magnússon (1663-1730) was tasked with collecting medieval documents from both Iceland and the rest of the Nordic countries. At this time, Iceland was under Danish rule in the absolute monarchy of Denmark-Norway.

Árni Magnússon was particularly interested in texts about Icelandic history. He scoured the market, almost draining Iceland of medieval literature, and built a large collection of handwritten books, the Arnamagnæan Collection.

The collection is now part of UNESCO’s Memory of the World Programme.

Tracking down unknown text fragments

However, Árni Magnússon was most interested in books written in Old Norse, not in Latin. He used parchments from the Latin books as covers for the Old Norse books.

In the early 20th century, the book covers were removed and stored separately, and few people have shown much interest in them – until now.

These ancient book covers are among the parchments that Lorenz is studying in his search for hidden and forgotten fragments of history.

Between 1971 and 1997, half of Árni Magnússon’s book collection was returned from Denmark to Iceland, and half of the original collection of 3000 manuscripts is now back in its country of origin.

However, some medieval manuscripts are still located in archives and museums in Norway, Denmark, and also Sweden. So, Lorenz’s search has taken him on a journey through the nooks and crannies of many archives.

“I have identified several previously unidentified Latin fragments related to Iceland. These new discoveries contribute to greater knowledge about which theological and liturgical texts were in circulation in medieval Iceland. The texts show that medieval Icelanders followed and participated in European intellectual culture,” said Lorenz.

The text fragments he has found include hymns, prayers, sermons, hagiographies and church music.

It started with the Vikings

Lorenz is from Schleswig-Holstein in Germany, which used to be part of Denmark-Norway. He developed an interest in the Viking Age and saga literature at an early age, which led him to study Nordic languages in Kiel.

He is now a PhD research fellow at the Department of Language and Literature at NTNU’s Centre for Medieval Studies. He has also chosen to learn Norwegian Nynorsk in addition to Norwegian Bokmål.

“I am fascinated by small phenomena and therefore chose to learn Nynorsk when I started my studies in Norway. It is probably also why I became fascinated and intrigued by the fragments of history that might be contained in the small, hidden and forgotten palimpsests that have remained unknown until now,” said Lorenz in fluent Nynorsk.

This parchment was used to make a bishop’s mitre. The image is owned by and published with permission from the Arnamagnæan Collection in Copenhagen, AM 666 b 4to, 3v-4r. 

Credit

Photo: Suzanne Reitz

Book cover (IMAGE)

Norwegian University of Science and Technology

The cover of this book is made from reused parchments with Latin script. It can be found in the National Library of Sweden in Stockholm. 

 

Credit

Photo: Tom Lorenz

Journal

Gripla

DOI

10.33112/gripla.35.1 

Method of Research

Survey

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Recycling and Recontextualisation in Medieval and Early Modern Icelandic Palimpsests

SPACE/COSMOS

A novel disturbance rejection optimal guidance method for enhancing precision landing performance of reusable rockets

Tsinghua University Press

 

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The proposed disturbance rejection optimal guidance method has two key components: real-time nominal trajectory generation and robust neighboring optimal feedback control. Correspondingly, this guidance method unifies two synergistic functionalities, i.e., adaptive optimal steering and disturbance attenuation. The adaptive optimal steering accommodates the modeled disturbance based on an augmented dynamics model, and the disturbance attenuation compensates for the state perturbation effect induced by the remaining unmodeled disturbance.

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Credit: Chinese Journal of Aeronautics

Powered descent guidance (PDG) is a key technology for reusable rockets to accomplish high-precision landing on Earth. Different from the well-established PDG for lunar landing and planetary landing, endoatmospheric powered descent guidance is required to accommodate nonlinear dynamics and more disturbing flight conditions, including engine thrust fluctuation, aerodynamic uncertainty, and winds. For example, the winds can produce a persistent aerodynamic force disturbance on the rocket, resulting in the decrease of landing accuracy, the increase of propellant usage, and even the divergence of guidance commands. Existing works have considered six-degree-of-freedom dynamics and aerodynamic model, but do not systematically deal with disturbances in the guidance design. Therefore, addressing the disturbance rejection issue for endoatmospheric nonlinear optimal guidance is imperative, and the objective is the determination of guidance commands to steer the rocket to fly a trajectory that satisfies the terminal landing conditions and optimizes the performance index of propellant usage in the presence of disturbances.

Recently, a team of researchers led by Huifeng Li and Ran Zhang from Beihang University, China proposed an optimal feedback guidance method with disturbance rejection objective. This work represents an advanced engineering design methodology that is capable of unifying optimal guidance performance and disturbance rejection level.

The team published their work in Chinese Journal of Aeronautics on December 14, 2024.

“In this work, we formulated a novel problem called Endoatmospheric Powered Descent Guidance with Disturbance Rejection (Endo-PDG-DR) by dividing and conquering disturbances. The disturbances are divided into two parts, modeled and unmodeled disturbances; as a result, two different disturbance rejection strategies are accordingly adopted to deal with the two kinds of disturbances: the modeled disturbance is proactively exploited by optimizing the formulated guidance problem where the modeled disturbance is augmented as a new state of the dynamics model; the unmodeled disturbance is reactively attenuated by adjusting the second-order partial derivative of the Hamiltonian of the optimal guidance problem with a parameterized time-varying quadratic performance index.” said Huifeng Li, professor at School of Astronautics at Beihang University (China), a senior expert whose research interests focus on the field of flight vehicle guidance and control.

“A new Pseudospectral Differential Dynamic Programming (PDDP) method is developed to solve the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation of the Endo-PDG-DR problem, and correspondingly a robust neighboring optimal state feedback law is obtained with a simple affine form that is favorable for real-time implementation. More importantly, the obtained optimal feedback guidance law unifies two synergistic functionalities, i.e., adaptive optimal steering and disturbance attenuation. The adaptive optimal steering accommodates the modeled disturbance, and the disturbance attenuation compensates for the state perturbation effect induced by the remaining unmodeled disturbance.” said Huifeng Li.

“Using the derived optimal feedback guidance law, a disturbance rejection level is quantitatively measured by rigorously characterizing an input-output property from the unmodeled disturbance to the predicted guidance error. Based on the quantified disturbance rejection level, a simple and practical quadratic weighting parameter tuning law is proposed to attenuate the adverse effect of unmodeled disturbance.” said Huifeng Li.

However, more delicate research works are still needed to explore guidance robustness. In this regard, Li also put forward three major development directions may be pursued in future works including online model identification, highly constrained optimal trajectory generation, and guidance parameter learning.

Other contributors include Ran Zhang and Xinglun Chen from School of Astronautics at Beihang University (China).

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 62103014).

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About Chinese Journal of Aeronautics 

Chinese Journal of Aeronautics (CJA) is an open access, peer-reviewed international journal covering all aspects of aerospace engineering, monthly published by Elsevier. The Journal reports the scientific and technological achievements and frontiers in aeronautic engineering and astronautic engineering, in both theory and practice. CJA is indexed in SCI (IF = 5.3, top 4/52, Q1), EI, IAA, AJ, CSA, Scopus.

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Journal

Chinese Journal of Aeronautics

DOI

10.1016/j.cja.2024.103336 

Article Title

Optimal feedback guidance with disturbance rejection for endoatmospheric powered descent

Article Publication Date

24-Dec-2024

 

How the freezer factors into lowering food waste

Study: Over half of consumers buy frozen items to avoid tossing food

Ohio State University

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Putting extra holiday cookies and leftovers in the freezer will not only extend their shelf life – it could also put a dent in the U.S. household tendency to throw away edible food, a new study suggests.

The national survey found that discarded frozen items make up about 6% of wasted household food in the United States. Based on frozen food’s relatively small contribution to food waste and other findings in the study, researchers say urging consumers to stock their freezers might be one way to prevent premature disposal of food.

Results showed that though overall food waste remained high, there was a bright spot: Freezing food was associated with less food landing in the trash.

“We found that households with home freezing behaviors are more likely to have less food waste than other households,” said Lei Xu, first author of the paper and a postdoctoral scholar specializing in agricultural and food economics at The Ohio State University.

“Food waste is not just an economic loss – it also causes environmental damage because more than 90% of wasted food goes to the landfill, and this can produce greenhouse gas emissions,” Xu said. “The findings suggest that in the future, if we can encourage households to have home freezing behaviors, this small change in food storage habits can have a large environmental impact.”

Xu completed the study with graduate student Ran Li and senior author Brian Roe, professor in the Department of Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics at Ohio State. The research was published recently in the British Food Journal.

Roe has been studying household food waste for years, but this is the first study to tease out where frozen food fits into the food waste picture. Recent estimates have suggested about 30% of food in the United States is wasted, but other research led by Roe suggests consumer food waste is trending upward.

“The fact that food waste is still increasing may suggest to policymakers that campaigns could be useful to educate households about balancing purchasing behavior and making the most of the food they buy,” Xu said.

The current study data comes from frozen food-related questions added to the summer 2022 wave of the U.S. National Household Food Waste Tracking Survey in which 1,067 households participated. Respondents were asked to estimate the percentage of all discarded food in the previous seven days that had been frozen and whether it was bought frozen or was unfrozen and placed in the freezer later. They also reported the typical frequency of buying frozen foods.

The responses indicated that 85% of U.S. households buy frozen foods and among those, 55% of participants reported they purchased frozen food to reduce waste. Frozen food purchasers were more likely to shop infrequently – two to three times per month – and were more likely to be living in households with annual income of under $50,000. The most common categories of discarded frozen foods were meat (20% of total frozen food waste), vegetables (22%) and potatoes and grains (15% each).

“Based on what we’re seeing among households, we still have space to increase awareness to save food by using freezing behavior,” Xu said.

Data showed a link between frequent home freezing and significantly less total food waste. Respondents most likely to freeze fresh items or extra food were aged 45 years and older and living in households of three or more people – a possible sign, the authors said, that consumers with a home freezing routine may be more experienced at managing meals for a group and motivated to avoid food waste.

What the team considered somewhat surprising – and enlightening – was the finding that about 30% more of wasted frozen food was discarded from the refrigerator than from the freezer.

“Thinking about why that happens, it might mean they don’t understand food storage techniques and don’t understand how long they should keep certain foods and where they should put it,” Xu said. “This suggests more explicit food storage instructions on food labels could educate consumers about how to correctly store foods to reduce waste.”

Trends in the data suggest that consumer education about the freezer’s role in saving food could make a difference economically and environmentally, Xu said, and also help address the societal problem of food insecurity experienced by 10% of U.S. households.

“Half of consumers buy frozen food to reduce waste. What about the other half?” she said. “We want to increase social awareness of how to save food, and explain how people use frozen food and home freezing techniques to save food. And freezing is one of the most accessible techniques because essentially all households have a refrigerator and freezer.”

This work was supported by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, the National Science Foundation and a gift from the Frozen Food Foundation that facilitated collection of a larger survey sample size.

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Contact: Lei Xu, Xu.3448@osu.edu

Written by Emily Caldwell, Caldwell.151@osu.edu

 

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Journal

British Food Journal

DOI

10.1108/bfj-02-2024-0147 

Method of Research

Survey

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Frozen food purchasing and home freezing of fresh foods: associations with household food waste

 

'Glass fences' hinder Japanese female faculty in international research, study finds

Hiroshima University

Glass ceilings comprising gender norms and practices can prevent women from advancing in organizational hierarchies, but glass fences may also be limiting — especially to Japanese female faculty who must navigate strong cultural gender expectations, according to a new study by Megumi Watanabe, associate professor at Hiroshima University.

Watanabe, who teaches family sociology courses at HU’s Department of Integrated Global Studies, found that glass fences — a term coined by sociologist Kathrin Zippel to represent the invisible gendered barriers preventing female researchers from engaging in international research and collaboration — existed within Japan and were strengthened by cultural norms of the country. She published her findings in Gender, Work & Organization on December 11. 

“Japanese female faculty experience similar glass fences as those observed in Western countries,” Watanabe said. “However, cultural factors influence the magnitude of these glass fences. In countries like Japan, where gender norms significantly shape women’s attitudes toward employment, family care-related glass fences can be particularly impactful and difficult to overcome, especially for faculty mothers. Japan in particular is a country with strong norms, where masculine work styles, such as working long hours, and a gendered division of household labor persist.”

Watanabe explained that women are severely underrepresented among faculty and in leadership positions at Japanese universities, and while federal organizations have increased research and support programs to correct the imbalance, the gender differences among Japanese academics participating in international research have received little attention. 

“Globally, international research engagement is now an important and sometimes normative component for enhancing academic career opportunities,” Watanabe said. “Despite this trend, gender gaps have been reported worldwide. By analyzing the subjective experiences of international research among female faculty members at a Japanese university, this study extends knowledge on the mechanism of gender inequality reproduction.”

Watanabe interviewed 16 Japanese women in various faculty positions at a research-oriented national university in Japan selected for this case study because of its noted commitment to gender equality. 

“Examining glass fences at universities such as this one, which has made various efforts for gender equality at the institutional level, offers valuable insights,” Watanabe said, noting the case study university has won several competitive government grants to promote gender equality, and has various policies and programs, such as on-site childcare and research grants targeted at women, in place. 

“These insights may allow researchers and others to recognize the embedded influence of gender on female academics in Japan.”

From the interviews, Watanabe found two behavior mechanisms underpinned whether the faculty participated in international research. In the first, called the constrictive mechanism, women — most frequently mothers — distanced themselves from international research primarily due to family care-related glass fences. With the second, the emancipatory mechanism, women combined international research with child-rearing. She said the narratives of faculty members in the emancipatory group revealed a common thread of higher exposures to more diverse work and lifestyles and they were less likely to be confined to gender norms in their families.

“This paper suggests that unless the dominant gender norms influencing gender inequalities are transformed, it will be difficult to achieve gender equality in Japanese academia,” Watanabe said. “The next step should be to further explore how we can challenge and transform these slow-changing gender norms in Japan. Additionally, it is crucial to critically examine the masculine, work-centered, and increasingly globalized work styles of Japanese faculty, which are incompatible with family care responsibilities that are still primarily carried out by women.”

Next, Watanabe said she plans to expand the scope of her research to encompass a wider range of attributes, including foreign nationalities, and to seek ways to create more inclusive academic research environments.

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About Hiroshima University

Since its foundation in 1949, Hiroshima University has striven to become one of the most prominent and comprehensive universities in Japan for the promotion and development of scholarship and education. Consisting of 12 schools for undergraduate level and 4 graduate schools, ranging from natural sciences to humanities and social sciences, the university has grown into one of the most distinguished comprehensive research universities in Japan. English website: https://www.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/en

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Journal

Gender Work and Organization

DOI

10.1111/gwao.13224 

Article Title

Gender Inequality in International Research Engagement Amid Transformation to Global and Neoliberal Academia: The Case of Japan

 

The ancient copper industry in King Solomon's mines did not pollute the environment

New study refutes scientific hypotheses about environmental pollution from ancient copper industry

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Tel-Aviv University

 

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Dr. Omri Yagel recording the precise sampling location.  

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Credit: Tel Aviv University

A new study from Tel Aviv University overturns prevailing scientific beliefs that King Solomon’s Mines not only harmed the health of workers in the ancient copper industry but also pose risks to the health of modern residents living near the site.

In the new study, researchers conducted geochemical surveys at copper production sites in the Timna Valley, dating back to the 10th century BCE and the era of the Biblical Kings David and Solomon. They found that the environmental pollution resulting from copper production was minimal and spatially restricted, posing no danger to the region's inhabitants either in the past or today. Additionally, TAU's archaeologists reviewed previous studies and found no evidence that the ancient copper industry polluted the planet.

The study was led by Prof. Erez Ben-Yosef, Dr. Omri Yagel, Willy Ondricek, and Dr. Aaron Greener from the Jacob M. Alkow Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures, Chaim Rosenberg School of Jewish Studies and Archaeology, Tel Aviv University. The paper was published in the prestigious journal Scientific Reports by Nature.

“We inspected two major copper production sites in the Timna Valley, one from the Iron Age and King Solomon’s era and another nearby that is about 1,500 years older,” says Prof. Erez Ben-Yosef. “Our study was very extensive.  We took hundreds of soil samples from both sites for chemical analyses, creating high-resolution maps of heavy metal presence in the region. We found that pollution levels at the Timna copper mining sites are extremely low and confined to the locations of the ancient smelting furnaces. For instance, the concentration of lead — the primary pollutant in metal industries — drops to less than 200 parts per million just a few meters from the furnace. By comparison, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency defines industrial areas as safe for workers at 1,200 parts per million and residential areas as safe for children at 200 parts per million.” 

The new study contradicts a series of papers published since the 1990s about pollution caused allegedly by the ancient copper industry. “We demonstrate that this is not true. Pollution in Timna is very restricted spatially, and it’s likely that only those working directly at the furnace suffered from inhaling toxic fumes, while just a short distance away, the soil is entirely safe. Moreover, the match we found between the spatial distribution of copper and lead concentrations in the soil further indicates that the metals are ‘trapped’ in slag and other industrial waste - which keeps them from leaching into the soil and affecting plants or humans. Our findings align with several recent studies from the Wadi Faynan region in Jordan, which also point to very low levels of pollution. Timna and Faynan are ideal sites for this type of research because they have not been disturbed by modern mining, as happened in Cyprus for example, and thanks to their dry climates the metals in the soil are not washed away. In Faynan, a team led by Prof. Yigal Erel of the Hebrew University examined 36 skeletons of people who lived at the mining site during the Iron Age, and only three showed any trace of pollution in their teeth. The rest were completely clean. We now present a similar picture for Timna.”

In addition to the geochemical survey, the TAU archaeologists also conducted a comprehensive review of existing literature, pointing out that hypotheses about global pollution during the pre-Roman period lack solid evidence.

“There was a trend in the 1990s, which presented ancient copper production as the first instance of industrial pollution,” explains Dr. Omri Yagel, a leading researcher in the current study. “Such statements grab headlines and attract research grants, but they unnecessarily project modern pollution problems onto the past. Moreover, the research literature tends to use the term ‘pollution’ to describe any trace of ancient metallurgical activity, and this has led to the mistaken assumption that metal industries were harmful to humans from their earliest beginnings — which is patently untrue. Even when metal production was large-scale, becoming integral to human civilization, it was the toxic lead industry that caused global pollution, not necessarily other metals. A 1990s study argued that traces of copper found in Greenland ice cores had traveled through the atmosphere from sites like Timna. This claim, however, has not been corroborated by any subsequent study. As researchers confronting the severe environmental challenges of our time, such as climate change, we often tend to search for similar problems in the past or assume that environmental harm has been an inevitable consequence of human activity since the agricultural revolution. However, we must be cautious. While we might label a few pieces of slag on the ground as 'pollution,' we should not confuse this localized waste with regional or global environmental pollution.”

Link to the article:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-80939-5

Geochemical surveys at copper production sites in the Timna Valley.

Credit

Tel Aviv University

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Journal

Scientific Reports

DOI

10.1038/s41598-024-80939-5 

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Innovative project receives £2.8 million to develop energy-efficient cooling solutions to combat extreme heat

In response to increasing frequency of extreme heatwaves in Pakistan, an international research initiative has been awarded £2.8 million by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) to develop energy-efficient cooling technologies.

Northumbria University

 

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S2Cool project lead Dr Muhammad Wakil Shahzad

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Credit: Northumbria University

In response to increasing frequency of extreme heatwaves in Pakistan, an international research initiative has been awarded £2.8 million by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) to develop energy-efficient cooling technologies that could save lives and reduce environmental impact.

The S2Cool project, led by Northumbria University, brings together an interdisciplinary consortium of over 30 partners, including academics, industry experts, and policymakers from the UK and Pakistan.

It is one of thirteen UK research projects which have each received a share of £33 million through UKRI’s Ayrton Challenge Programme that will address urgent global energy and climate challenges.

Responding to a climate emergency

In June 2023, Pakistan endured temperatures soaring beyond 52.2°C, resulting in a tragic loss of 120,000 lives and $16 billion in economic losses. With severe heatwaves threatening human health, livelihoods, and the nation’s economy, Dinushika Dissanayake, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director in South Asia, called for urgent action − a call the S2Cool project team has embraced through research-driven innovation.

Traditional Mechanical Vapor Compression (MVC) air conditioning systems present three major challenges: high energy consumption, high maintenance costs and use of hazardous refrigerants.

Indirect Evaporative Coolers (IEC) were developed as an alternative to MVCs, utilizing water's evaporative potential to cool supply air. However, there are known limitations with current IECs, such as poor performance, frequent maintenance requirements and complicated manufacturing.

Dr Muhammad Wakil Shahzad, Associate Professor from Northumbria’s Department of Mechanical and Construction Engineering and lead on the S2Cool project, has been working with a team of researchers to develop pioneering water and cooling technology solutions for the last decade.

“The S2Cool project aims to design and develop a Novel Indirect Evaporative Cooler (NIEC) which will represent a significant breakthrough in cooling technology, addressing the constraints of current IEC systems through simplified design and optimised airflow,” explained Dr Shahzad.

S2Cool technology works by ‘supply air’ – air that has been conditioned - and ‘working humid air’ – air used to cool the supply air – passing through a series of dry and wet channels. These channels are separated by high performance non-corrosive conductive material. During the evaporative cooling process, the water droplets in the wet channel evaporate in the stream of air and pass from a liquid to a gas. This transition requires energy, which is extracted from the supply air in the form of heat. As a result of this process, the supply air is cooled down before it leaves the device.

“This is a basic principle which is scalable by increasing the number of channels so more supply air can pass through a device at one time,” added Dr Shahzad.

The system is also designed to operate on renewable solar photovoltaic power with battery storage, ensuring off-grid capability and resilience against frequent power outages. AI-driven system optimisation will also be a key focus for the project.

The team believes that S2Cool could deliver transformative benefits, including up to 65% energy savings compared to conventional air conditioning systems, a 50% reduction in purchase costs and 65% reduction in operating costs for domestic air conditioners, elimination of chemical refrigerants, and significant reductions in CO2 emissions, contributing to a more sustainable and eco-friendly cooling solution.

Adoption of the technology could lead to an estimated reduction of 23 million tonnes of CO2 emissions over a decade – equivalent to approximately 23 million barrels of imported oil – and could result in significant public health impact, mitigating heat-related illnesses and chronic diseases – potentially saving thousands of lives.

The projected productivity gains are worth £16.25 billion annually, alongside other benefits such as job creation and reduced fossil fuel imports.

Global significance

With global air-conditioning energy demand projected to triple by 2050 putting further strain energy grids, especially in underdeveloped countries, the need for affordable, efficient alternatives has never been more urgent.

Aligning with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy) and 13 (Climate Action), the S2Cool project supports international climate pledges, including the COP26 Glasgow Breakthrough and COP28 Cooling Pledge.

As prototype trials at Northumbria University supported by Northern Accelerator funding have already demonstrated promising results, the project is poised to redefine cooling technology globally. “Our co-designed solution will not only address the immediate needs of country and its vulnerable populations but also sets a precedent for tackling similar challenges globally,” explained Dr Shahzad.

“The quality and importance of this approach extend within and beyond the fields of decarbonization, sustainable development, public health and climate adaptation. Our multi-faceted strategy leverages low-cost, energy-efficient technologies, community-based initiatives, targeted training through a newly created International E-Centre for Sustainable Cooling, and policy support to ensure comprehensive and sustainable impact,” Dr Shahzad added.

UKRI’s Ayrton Challenge Programme is an interdisciplinary, challenge-led research initiative which aims to enable a transformative transition to low-carbon energy systems in developing countries. Supported by the UK Government’s Ayrton Fund – a £1 billion commitment to research and development in clean energy technologies and business models – the projects will foster equitable partnerships with in-country researchers.

Frances Wood, UKRI International Director, said: “The Ayrton Challenge Programme demonstrates the power of research and innovation to address critical global challenges. These projects exemplify how equitable, interdisciplinary collaboration can unlock transformative solutions, ensuring a sustainable and inclusive energy future for all.”

Academic collaborators on the S2Cool project include UK institutions Aston University, University College London, University of Leeds, University of Birmingham and Newcastle University, who will work together with Pakistan-based institutions Bahauddin Zakariya University, Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Government College University, Lahore University of Management Sciences, National University of Sciences and Technology and The University of Agriculture Faisalabad.