From the article: Have you ever guessed that a leftover coffee could turn into biodiesel? Here's a remarkable development for bioscience.

Seemingly, Aston University scientists produced high-quality biodiesel microalgae fed on leftover coffee. According to Aston University's release, this development is also a breakthrough in the microalgal cultivation system.

Dr. Vesna Najdanovic, senior lecturer in chemical engineering, and Dr. Jiawei Wang were part of a team that produced algae and subsequently turned it into fuel.

The results of the study were published in the November 2022 issue of Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews.

As stated by Aston University, approximately 98 million cups of coffee are drunk every day in the United Kingdom. This situation leads to a massive amount of spent coffee grounds which are processed as general waste, often ending up in landfill or incineration.

However, the scientists discovered that used coffee grounds serve as a structure for the microalgae (Chlorella vulgaris sp.) as well as a source of nutrients.

As a consequence, they were able to obtain enhanced biodiesel that complies with US and European standards, has low emissions, and has good engine performance.

Up until recently, algae has been grown on non-nutrient-containing surfaces like nylon and polyurethane foam. The scientists did discover, though, that microalgal cells may develop on the leftover coffee without the aid of other nutrients.

From the article: Studies have estimated that cooling accounts for about 15% of global energy consumption. That demand could be lowered with a window coating that could block the sun's ultraviolet and near-infrared light—the parts of the solar spectrum that typically pass through glass to heat an enclosed room. Energy use could be reduced even further if the coating radiates heat from the window's surface at a wavelength that passes through the atmosphere into outer space. However, it's difficult to design materials that can meet these criteria simultaneously and can also transmit visible light, meaning they don't interfere with the view. Eungkyu Lee, Tengfei Luo and colleagues set out to design a "transparent radiative cooler" (TRC) that could do just that.

The team constructed computer models of TRCs consisting of alternating thin layers of common materials like silicon dioxide, silicon nitride, aluminum oxide or titanium dioxide on a glass base, topped with a film of polydimethylsiloxane. They optimized the type, order and combination of layers using an iterative approach guided by machine learning and quantum computing, which stores data using subatomic particles. This computing method carries out optimization faster and better than conventional computers because it can efficiently test all possible combinations in a fraction of a second. This produced a coating design that, when fabricated, beat the performance of conventionally designed TRCs in addition to one of the best commercial heat-reduction glasses on the market.

In hot, dry cities, the researchers say, the optimized TRC could potentially reduce cooling energy consumption by 31% compared with conventional windows. They note their findings could be applied to other applications, since TRCs could also be used on car and truck windows. In addition, the group's quantum computing-enabled optimization technique could be used to design other types of composite materials.

From the article: A study published in the journal Biological Psychology suggests that exposure to social media content about motherhood can trigger a sense of threat among mothers, activating the body’s stress response. The study found that more time spent on social networking sites devoted to motherhood was associated with increased cortisol output among mothers.

During social interactions, people frequently fall victim to social comparison — they begin comparing themselves to the people around them and making self-judgments. These self-evaluations can lead to negative feelings, particularly when they stem from upward social comparisons — comparisons to people who seem better off than oneself.

Social self-preservation theory says that when a social situation threatens a person’s self-concept, this activates the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and stimulates the release of cortisol. Accordingly, study author Nataria T. Joseph and her co-authors wanted to test whether engaging in social comparison has a measurable impact on a person’s cortisol levels.

“This project is the third of a series of projects that we executed together, with the aim of examining the complex nature of and multifactorial, biopsychosocial implications of social media use among first time mothers,” explained Joseph (@_NoCrystalStair), an associate professor at Pepperdine University who holds the Blanche E. Seaver Professor of Social Science professorship.

From the article: A team of researchers has detected a trio of near-Earth asteroids in the inner solar system, one of which is the largest found since 2014 that poses a potential risk to the planet. The asteroids remained undetected until now because they occupy a region of the sky hidden by the Sun’s glare.

Near-Earth Asteroids (NEAs) and Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs) are two types of near-Earth objects that space agencies like to keep track of. Despite the scary-sounding names, none of them pose any imminent threat to us. Currently, there are 1,454 NEAs that have a non-zero probability of impacting Earth in the next 100 years. You can find a complete list of NEOs at NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies.

The three near-Earth asteroids were found using the Dark Energy Camera in Chile. The camera took deep-field images close to Earth’s horizon during twilight, to combat the Sun’s glare and atmospheric distortions. The team’s results are published in The Astronomical Journal.

“Our twilight survey is scouring the area within the orbits of Earth and Venus for asteroids,” said Scott Sheppard, an astronomer at the Earth and Planets Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution for Science and the paper’s lead author, in a NOIRLab release. “So far we have found two large near-Earth asteroids that are about 1 kilometer across, a size that we call planet killers.”

Two of the recently observed asteroids have orbits that safely skirt Earth, but one of the rocks—a 0.93-mile-wide (1.5-kilometer) asteroid dubbed 2022 AP7—has an orbit that may eventually put it on a collision course with Earth.

To be perfectly clear: The asteroid is not currently barreling toward Earth. but its path could bring it close enough one day that NASA will want to keep tabs on it.