Academic Awards

Plasma is all around us, comprising 99% of the visible universe, including the stars at night and the branch of lightning we see cracking open the sky. Researchers are using the power of this superheated matter for everything from making computer chips to healing wounds. And in Belgium, three companies are collaborating on a world-first technology: a plasma reactor that turns captured CO₂ into carbon monoxide (CO) for steel and chemical production. The process holds promise for decarbonizing steelmaking. The role of CO₂ recycling The steel sector creates more CO₂ than any other heavy industry and is considered challenging to electrify. This is because traditional steelmaking in blast furnaces uses coal as both a source of heat and, in the chemical process, as a reductant for converting iron ore to elemental (‘pig’) iron. While the sector looks to future-proof with technologies such as electric arc furnaces and direct reduction of iron ore with hydrogen, it is looking to CO₂ capture, ut...

Scientists in Japan have created hybrid plant-animal cells, essentially making animal cells that can gain energy from sunlight like plants. The breakthrough could have major benefits for growing organs and tissues for transplant, or lab-grown meat. Animal and plant cells have different energy-producing structures inside them. For animals, that’s mitochondria, which convert chemical energy from food into a form that our cells can use. Plants and algae, meanwhile, use chloroplasts, which perform photosynthesis to generate energy from sunlight to power their cells. In a new study led by the University of Tokyo, the team inserted chloroplasts into animal cells, and found that they continued to perform photosynthetic functions for at least two days. The chloroplasts were sourced from red algae, while the animal cells were cultured from hamsters. Previous studies had found success in transplanting chloroplasts into yeast, granting them the new ability of photosynthesis. But that’s a fungus –...