The management of liquid manure generated by livestock farming is an environmental problem that affects soil, water and air when there is a high concentration. The Solid State Chemistry Group at the Universitat Jaume I in Castelló, coordinated by Professor Juan Bautista Carda, has created an innovative method for treating and recovering liquid manure using laser technology.

The new system involves separating the solid and liquid parts using laser irradiation according to specific parameters to obtain high value-added products. The liquid part is then treated again with laser irradiation to adapt it for agricultural or industrial use.

A group from Nagoya University in Japan has succeeded in performing a previously difficult-to-perform reaction to build the bases that make the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons used in organic LEDs, transistors, and solar cell technology. Their technique allows the creation of these complex molecules in a new, cleaner, more efficient way by linking multiple aromatic rings together with a carbon-to-carbon bond.

Osaka Metropolitan University researchers found that solvent polarity significantly affects how well drugs can be loaded into metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), a promising drug delivery system. The study highlights the overlooked role of solvents in drug delivery and offers insights that could improve treatment precision and reduce side effects.

A new lab-grown material has revealed that some of the effects of ageing in the heart may be slowed and even reversed. The discovery could open the door to therapies that rejuvenate the heart by changing its cellular environment, rather than focusing on the heart cells themselves. The research, published recently in Nature Materials, was carried out by a team led by Assistant Professor Jennifer Young from the Department of Biomedical Engineering in the College of Design and Engineering at the National University of Singapore (NUS). Asst Prof Young is also a scientist at the NUS Mechanobiology Institute (MBI).