Thursday, July 02, 2026

Scourge of satellites could be mitigated with help of ultra-black coating

Royal Astronomical Society

Satellite light pollution — image:
Image of the Australian desert showing the growing light pollution caused by artificial satellites.
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Credit: Joshua Rozells

Astrophysicists working tirelessly to tackle the growing impact of satellite constellations have pioneered a new ultra-black coating as one possible way to mitigate the problem.

The team of researchers at the University of Surrey rigorously tested the material and its effectiveness as part of a wider effort to create a framework for evaluating future coatings and satellite surface designs.

Their goal is to address the broader challenge of protecting astronomical observations and the night sky. With current proposals to launch more than 1.7 million satellites into orbit, scientists worldwide have been urgently searching for ways to reduce their brightness in the night sky.

Reflected sunlight from spacecraft can create bright streaks and flares that interfere with telescope observations and large-scale surveys of the night sky, making it more difficult to detect faint objects such as asteroids, distant galaxies and other important astronomical phenomena.

In a study published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, researchers demonstrated how Vantablack® 310 – an ultra-black coating developed by University of Surrey spinout Surrey NanoSystems, who co-authored the paper – could play a major role in reducing light pollution from satellites in low-Earth orbit.

To tackle the problem, the research team measured how Vantablack® 310 reflects light under a range of illumination and viewing conditions. They then used these laboratory measurements to simulate how a coated satellite surface would appear from the ground.

The simulations showed that the coating could make satellite surfaces significantly fainter, bringing their brightness close to the limit recommended by the International Astronomical Union for protecting astronomical observations. The findings suggest that ultra-black coatings could provide a practical way to reduce the impact of future satellites on astronomy and the night sky.

Astha Chaturvedi, lead author of the study and postgraduate researcher at the University of Surrey, said: "The night sky is one of humanity's oldest windows into the universe, but it is becoming increasingly difficult to see things.

"Our results show that relatively simple material choices could make a meaningful difference to how satellites affect astronomical observations without requiring major changes to mission design."

Vantablack® 310 – made from one of the world's darkest materials – reflects only around two per cent of incoming light, the researchers say, and the small amount of light it does reflect is distributed more diffusely, reducing the bright flashes commonly produced by reflective satellite surfaces.

Study co-author Dr Noelia Noël, a Senior Lecturer in Astrophysics at the University of Surrey, said: "Space is becoming increasingly crowded, creating challenges not only for astronomers but for everyone who values an unspoilt night sky.

"What is encouraging about this research is that it moves us beyond simply identifying the problem and towards developing practical, evidence-based solutions.

"As an astrophysicist at Surrey, I am particularly proud that a potential solution to this astronomical challenge has emerged from pioneering materials research at our own university."

She added: "Vantablack® technology grew from work involving my colleague Professor Ravi Silva and was developed and commercialised by Surrey NanoSystems, demonstrating what can be achieved when astrophysics, engineering and industry work together."

James Whitfield, Applications Scientist at Surrey NanoSystems and co-author of the study, said: "Satellite constellations offer enormous benefits, but their growing brightness presents a challenge for ground-based astronomy.

"Vantablack® 310 combines ultra-black performance across a wide range of viewing angles with the durability needed for low-Earth orbit. We are proud to work with the University of Surrey to help protect the night sky while supporting innovation in satellite technology."

The team is now preparing for an in-orbit demonstration aboard the Jovian-1 CubeSat mission – a student-led satellite programme involving the universities of Surrey, Portsmouth and Southampton.

The demonstration will test both the coating's performance in the space environment and whether the resulting change in brightness can be measured from the ground.

The work has also reached the international stage, with lead author Astha Chaturvedi invited to present the research at the United Nations Workshop on Dark and Quiet Skies in Vienna.

She said: "Our paper is fundamentally about addressing an important challenge for astronomy through an evidence-based approach.

"It shows how the astronomical community is working together with engineers and industry to develop realistic, scientifically grounded mitigation strategies that benefit both space activities and the protection of the night sky."

ENDS

Media contacts

Sam Tonkin

Royal Astronomical Society

Mob: +44 (0)7802 877 700

press@ras.ac.uk

Science contacts

Astha Chaturvedi

University of Surrey

aa07223@surrey.ac.uk

Images & captions

Satellite light pollution

Caption: Image of the Australian desert showing the growing light pollution caused by artificial satellites.

Credit: Joshua Rozells

Vantablack® 310 coating

Caption: From left, Professor Keith Ryden, James Whitfield, Astha Chaturvedi, Dr Keiran Clifford, Dr Noelia Noël and Luca Ferrian with the pioneering black coating Vantablack® 310.

Credit: University of Surrey

Further information

The paper 'Reducing the impact of satellite brightness for astronomy: laboratory characterization and simulations' by Chaturvedi et al. has been published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stag1136

Notes for editors

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Journal

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

DOI

10.1093/mnras/stag1136

Article Title

Reducing the impact of satellite brightness for astronomy: laboratory characterization and simulations

Article Publication Date

30-Jun-2026

How empathetic rats are

Philosophy

Ruhr-University Bochum

Empathy is the glue that holds our society together and makes our everyday lives personal and human. Is it not therefore a good candidate for a trait that separates humans from other animals? Are there any other animal species that show empathy? “Of course,” says the dog owner. “However, it is crucial to note that people ascribe human traits to their pets’ behaviors, and so they see empathy in their animals,” explains Newen. Rats, however, can transfer harmful diseases to humans. Do we thus immediately assume that they are not empathetic? How can we scientifically determine, without any prejudices if possible, whether animals can behave empathetically and which species have the capacity for this?

Testing behaviors

The researchers drew on behavioral observations to answer these questions. In one study published in the magazine Science in 2011, two rats lived in a large cage, belonged to the same group, and knew one another well. One of the two rats was locked in a small, narrow cage where it could barely move and that could only be opened from the outside. The other rat was hungry and was left to move around freely near the caged rat. It saw chocolate on one side and its fellow rat in the cage on the other. What did the free rat do? It first freed the rat from the cage and then shared the chocolate. “What more could one do to show that empathy is at play here?” asks co-author Maja Griem.

While one group of animal researchers celebrated this finding as fully formed empathy, others remained skeptical and denied this, claiming that empathy is a deeply human emotion. Albert Newen’s team wanted to resolve this dilemma.

Creating multidimensional profiles of empathy

To do this, the researchers created multidimensional profiles of empathy. First, they ruled out that this was just an innate instinctual behavior: Rats only help rats that they are friends with, but not those they have never met before. When it comes to empathy, providing aid cannot occur randomly, but rather presupposes that sensing the other takes place in three dimensions, namely by registering the other’s emotion, situation, and (further) mental states. The behavior should also be based on this registering of information and occur flexibly, not instinctively. One should not help another for personal benefit, but because it is geared toward the other. “Overall, we have five dimensions of capabilities that are closely linked with empathy,” explains Newen. “Registering the other party’s emotions, situation, and mental state, as well as the two behavioral characteristics – namely, that the behavior is flexible and directed toward the other agent.”

Comparing different animal species

The research team examined these five dimensions more closely and determined how distinct they are among various animal species. They compared these using past behavioral studies of great apes, rats (and mice), dogs (and wolves), and corvids. “This allows us to compare these empathy profiles amongst each other and with us humans,” explains co-author and chimpanzee researcher Simone Pika from Osnabrück. The results: Rats possess the first two capabilities (registering emotion and situation) to a moderate degree, while there is almost no registration of mental states (other than the central emotion). The dimension of flexibility is strongly apparent in rats, but they are only moderately able to orient their behavior on the basis of others. “Put simply, one can say that rats’ remarkable helping behavior is a case of empathy,” says Newen, “but it is not the same type of empathy as seen in humans, especially because there is a lack of sensitivity to the other’s mental state beyond the registration of emotion.”

“We now no longer have to provide a yes/no response to the question of whether rats feel empathy. We can more precisely determine which type or profile of empathy they have in a gradual understanding,” says Newen.

Journal

Biological Reviews

DOI

10.1002/brv.70196

Method of Research

Literature review

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Animal Empathy Reconsidered: A Multidimensional Profile Account

Predicting how 3D-printed materials will behave

University of Groningen

Experimental setup in the lab — image:
Sidharth Beniwal used a combination of numerical and experimental methods to test various materials for 3D printing
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Credit: Sidharth Beniwal University of Groningen

Additive manufacturing, such as 3D printing, provides an excellent opportunity to design metamaterials: materials with an engineered structure that leads to desired properties such as, for instance, resistance to vibrations. However, a major challenge was that the predicted metamaterial response often failed to match real-world behaviour. Researchers at the University of Groningen have now shown that the unexpected behaviour of 3D-printed metamaterial structures is not due to structural defects, as was commonly believed, but that the material simply needs to be properly characterized to obtain models with high predictive accuracy. The results were published in Materials Horizons on 3 June 2026.

3D printers build up objects layer by layer. This additive process can potentially introduce structural defects, including weak planes and direction-dependent properties. These were thought to be the culprit of unpredicted behaviour in 3D-printed metamaterials. ‘Our study shows that this is not true,’ says PhD student Sidharth Beniwal. ‘In fact, it is perfectly possible to manufacture a 3D-printed object on a low-cost machine and design it in such a way that it exhibits excellent vibration attenuation – and even more exotic properties, such as localizing vibrations in certain parts or allowing their propagation in one direction while prohibiting it in the opposite direction.’

Under the supervision of Ranjita Bose and Anastasiia Krushynska, Beniwal used a combination of numerical and experimental methods, testing various materials commonly used for 3D printing. He compared the vibration-attenuation properties of 3D-printed parts of different shapes in various environmental conditions. Beniwal: ‘We observed almost no differences in vibration control between structures manufactured with low-cost and more expensive 3D-printing techniques, indicating that manufacturing defects can safely be neglected.’

This reveals that the long-standing mismatch between numerical predictions and experimental observations in 3D-printed vibration-controlling structures must have a different origin than the structural defects, as was previously assumed. Instead, the researchers show that if the material that is used for 3D printing is properly characterized in the predictive model, it is perfectly possible to design 3D-printed structures that behave as predicted. This paves the way for various useful applications, such as vibration isolation, noise reduction, structural health monitoring, sensing, signal processing, and energy harvesting, as well as next-generation wave-controlling materials and devices.

Beniwal: ‘The most exciting part of the project was obtaining the first experimental results and seeing how closely they matched our numerical predictions. Initially, this was demonstrated for relatively simple structures, which was already encouraging. However, the real excitement came when we extended the approach to more complex structures and observed the same level of accuracy. We noticed that we were, in fact, able to predict the metamaterial behaviour quite accurately, contrary to what is commonly reported in the literature. So, it became clear that we were addressing a fundamental challenge in the field.’

Testing various 3D printed materials in the lab

Various 3D printed materials and shapes were printed and tested in the lab

Computer models of materials for 3D printing

Credit

Sidharth Beniwal, University of Groningen

DOI

10.1039/D6MH00395H

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Predictive Wave Engineering in Polymer Phononic Materials via Viscoelastic–Geometric Coupling

Plant DNA harbours virus "fossils" that reflect 300 million years of evolution

INRAE - National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment

LinkedIn
Email

image:
Forest of beech trees in North-East of France
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Credit: INRAE - Fabrice Bonne

Is it possible to study the history of viruses that emerged several hundred million years ago? An international team of INRAE and CIRAD researchers answered this intriguing question by exploring plant genomes to find the molecular fossils of viruses.
During infections, genome fragments from certain viruses can become embedded in their hosts' chromosomes. It is possible for these endogenous viral elements to be intergenerationally transmitted for millions of years, which means they serve as precious evolutionary records of virus infections in plants.
The research team focused on the plant virus family Caulimoviridae, whose members are known for becoming embedded in host genomes as evolutionarily persistent endogenous elements. The researchers analysed the genomes of 93 representative species from all the major lineages of terrestrial plants, including mosses, lycophytes[1], ferns, conifers, and flowering plants. They were then able to identify more than 47,000 endogenous viral elements left by members of Caulimoviridae. The findings show that Caulimoviridae viruses have infected an extremely wide range of vascular plant hosts, from lycophytes to flowering plants. The researchers also discovered that virus diversity within this family has been greatly underestimated. Their work revealed the existence of 35 previously undescribed taxonomic clusters in Caulimoviridae, including a newly described clade found only in certain conifers.
When the researchers compared the evolutionary history of Caulimoviridae viruses to that of their plant hosts, they found that several virus taxonomic clusters appeared to have co-evolved with vascular plants for several hundred million years. However, this extremely long relationship was not always linear. Instead, their shared history was complex: sometimes viruses switched hosts, and sometimes they went extinct. Several of these extinction events may have been tied to the mass extinction events that completely transformed life on Earth, notably the mass extinctions during the late Permian (252 million years ago) and the late Cretaceous (66 million years ago). These events completely reshaped terrestrial ecosystems, leading to the disappearance of a large number of species and the creation of new ecological niches, which could be occupied by new viruses.
This work has underscored the great value of plant genomes as natural records of virus evolution. Researchers can utilise the traces left behind by ancient infections to shine light on the enduring interactions between plants and their viruses and on the ways in which viruses mechanistically adapt to ecosystem shifts.

[1]Lycophytes appeared approximately 420 million years ago and are the most ancient vascular plant taxon still in existence. In ancient times, they formed enormous forests and had highly diverse forms. There were even tree-like species that reached over 30 metres in height. These large lycophytes ended up disappearing because of mass extinction events and competition with other plant taxa. Today, only the herbaceous lycophytes remain, which are no more than a few centimetres tall. Current-day lycophytes are used as model systems for studying the evolution of terrestrial plants.

Journal

PLOS Pathogens

DOI

10.1371/journal.ppat.1014340

Article Title

Endogenous viral elements trace the ancient origins and early evolution of the Caulimoviridae

Climate change may prop up urban plant growth in the face of development — provided cities build slowly enough

Researchers find a “critical speed limit” of urban development for maintaining plant communities amid climate change. Most cities blow right past it.

American Geophysical Union

WASHINGTON — Worsened drought stress, changing rainfall patterns, flowers and pollinators thrown out of sync: these only scratch the surface of the ways climate change challenges plant life. But warmer air and higher carbon dioxide levels can also fuel faster plant growth, limit plants’ water loss, and extend growing seasons — enough so, in some cases, to offset the paving-over of green spaces in cities.

From 1982 to now, a new study finds, cities converting more than about 5.83 square kilometers (2.25 square miles) of land to impervious surfaces within their boundaries each year tended to see the total productivity of their plant communities decline. But in slower-developing cities, the ecosystem retained its ability to recover from land conversion, with climate conditions invigorating the remaining greenery enough for overall plant productivity to rise.

The offsetting effect doesn’t apply equally in every climate. But knowing when and where it kicks in could help planners adjust the pace of development to conserve city greenery in the context of climate change, the researchers hope. Urban plants keep city air clean and cool, support city ecosystems, capture carbon dioxide and generally make cities more pleasant to live in.

“The speed of city growth matters. If cities expand too fast, they lose green land faster than plants can benefit from warming and higher carbon dioxide,” said Han Chen, an Earth system scientist at Tianjin University and lead author of the study. “Slower and smarter growth can help cities keep stronger vegetation and better climate benefits.”

The study will appear Thursday, July 2nd in Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, AGU’s journal for research on the biogeosciences of the past, present, and future Earth.

Cities, don’t grow up too fast

Overall plant productivity in most cities drops as humans replace parks, lawns, farmland, wetland and patches of urban forest and grassland within city limits with buildings and pavement, canceling out any benefits the plant community as a whole might derive from warmer, more carbon-rich air due to climate change. Chen’s team wanted to know whether a city’s development rate affects how easily that canceling-out occurs.

“Previous studies mainly looked at one city or a few cities and often focused on the past,” Chen added. “We wanted to study many cities around the world [and] include both past and future changes.”

Accounting for the elevated carbon dioxide levels found in most cities, the researchers used a vegetation model and satellite observations to simulate plant productivity from 1982 to 2100 in 2,126 cities around the world, each with more than 50 square kilometers (19 square miles) of pavement and buildings to ensure they were covering the bulk of the global urban environment. The simulations considered various future scenarios of urban development and low, medium, and high greenhouse gas emissions.

Collectively, the cities in the study overshoot the team’s "speed limit,” developing an average of over 21 square kilometers (8 square miles) within their boundaries each year and climbing. North American and Asian cities build especially fast, averaging 26.6 and 35.8 square kilometers per year, respectively. Of the cities studied, 1,713 showed declining plant productivity, with Shanghai, Chongqing, and New Delhi emerging as notable hotspots.

But some cities fall below the threshold, mostly in Europe: In Giffnock, Scotland, a moderate urban development rate has helped keep the plant community stable or rising and able to take advantage of any potential climate boosts. Across the 413 cities where plant productivity rose from 1982 to the present, climate change accounted for approximately 69% of that trend.

The researchers project the “tipping point” may rise to 7.18 square kilometers (2.8 square miles) per year as climate change progresses through this century, allowing cities to convert land slightly faster before incurring vegetation declines. But those declines may be steeper, with the gap between greening and de-greening cities widening as urban development accumulates, too. Represented in terms of the carbon plants lock into their tissues as they grow, the team estimates, average annual city plant declines from now through 2100 will rise roughly 1.5% to 2% from the 1982-2024 baseline, with plants losing around three grams of carbon per square meter per year.

“The number looks small, but cities cover very large areas, so the total loss can become large,” Chen said. “It is like a slow leak: After many years it means less plant growth, less carbon uptake, and weaker cooling from urban green spaces. In practice, this can make cities hotter and less resilient.”

Urbanites need to touch grass, too

The researchers hope their findings will help inform urban development strategies. To maximize plant productivity, they write, fast-growing cities should make sure to preserve green space as they grow, while slower-growing cities should focus on managing existing plant life to take full advantage of climate conditions. Arid cities like Phoenix may want to take extra care since, as the team’s analysis found, dry climates make plant communities disproportionately sensitive to urban expansion.

Efforts like these can help maintain plants as food and habitat for city ecosystems, Chen said. “Flowers support bees and butterflies, trees support birds, and fallen leaves feed soil microbes. These food webs help keep the urban ecosystem alive and stable, not just green-looking.”

That stability allows plants to keep the city air clean and cool, store carbon, and make outdoor spaces more comfortable over the long term. “Green areas outside the city cannot provide the same direct benefits to urban residents,” Chen said. “It is important to have strong vegetation inside the city because this is where people live and feel heat, air pollution, and stress every day.”

###

Notes for journalists:  

This study will be published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, an AGU journal, and is under embargo until Thursday, July 2, 2026 at 13:00 UTC. Journalists may request an embargoed copy of the study by emailing news@agu.org. The study will be available to view and download at this link after the embargo lifts: https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2025JG009664

Paper title: “The Pace of Urbanization Regulates Global Urban Gross Primary Productivity Trends”

Authors:  

Han Chen, Tianjin Bohai Rim Coastal Earth Critical Zone National Observation and Research Station, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China; Institute of Surface-Earth System Science, School of Earth System Science, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China; Biological & Ecological Engineering, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, USA
Bo Liu, Tianjin Bohai Rim Coastal Earth Critical Zone National Observation and Research Station, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China; Institute of Surface-Earth System Science, School of Earth System Science, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China
Yaping Deng, College of Management and Economics, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China
Siyi Wang, School of Water Conservancy and Transportation, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China
Tiejun Wang, Tianjin Bohai Rim Coastal Earth Critical Zone National Observation and Research Station, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China; Institute of Surface-Earth System Science, School of Earth System Science, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China

DOI

10.1029/2025JG009664

Method of Research

Computational simulation/modeling

Article Title

The Pace of Urbanization Regulates Global Urban Gross Primary Productivity Trends

Article Publication Date

2-Jul-2026

World Cup data reveals initiative alone doesn't improve team performance

Washington State University

PULLMAN, Wash. — Team members’ initiative can help teams succeed, but only when it is paired with strong coordination, according to new research from Washington State University.

The study, published in Group & Organization Management, was co-authored by Jeremy Beus, professor of management at WSU's Carson College of Business, and Erik Taylor of East Carolina University. Using data from the 2014 and 2018 FIFA World Cups, the study found that team initiative alone had no direct relationship with team performance. Instead, teams performed best when members’ initiative was accompanied by strong coordination and communication.

Using GPS-generated heat maps from World Cup matches, Taylor and Beus analyzed where players moved throughout the course of a game. Each player position has an expected range of movement on the field, and the data showed how far individual players strayed from those norms over 90 minutes of play.

Initiative was measured by the extent to which players moved beyond their expected coverage area.

"We wanted to actually see the evidence of initiative, not just ask someone whether their teammates show it," Beus said.

The analysis excluded goalkeepers and adjusted the data within each position, so comparisons were made among players with similar responsibilities. For example, defenders were compared only with other defenders rather than midfielders.

When the researchers compared team-level initiative scores with match outcomes, they found that teams with higher levels of initiative were no more likely to win than other teams.

Coordination emerged as the critical factor and was measured through the frequency and success of passes between players. When team members’ initiative was paired with strong coordination, team performance improved. When it was not, team performance suffered.

"For an individual, showing initiative is almost universally a good thing," Beus said. "But in an interdependent team environment, if everyone decides to go above and beyond without communicating, you can end up with people duplicating efforts, leaving other areas exposed, or working against each other without even realizing it."

The findings also revealed a threshold effect. Teams with a moderate proportion of high-initiative players who coordinated through strong communication outperformed teams where initiative was either absent or excessive. Beyond a certain point, uncoordinated initiative did not just stop helping – it became a liability.

While the specific thresholds identified in World Cup competition may not translate directly to teams in the workplace, Beus said the underlying principle applies broadly to groups working toward a shared goal.

For managers and team leaders, the findings underscore the importance of communication and coordination. For example, rewarding initiative in isolation may unintentionally reinforce behaviors that undermine team effectiveness if employees are not communicating with one another, said Beus.

"It's about creating a culture of communication," he said, "where the leader sets the example and makes clear that going the extra mile is great – as long as everyone knows about it."

Journal

Group & Organization Management

DOI

10.1177/10596011241287845

Method of Research

Data/statistical analysis

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Channeling personal initiative through team coordination: A heat map analysis of soccer players’ aggregate behavioral initiative