Artificial photosynthesis for clean and storable energy – IMPRESSO #17

In this edition: artificial photosynthesis for clean and storable energy, squid genes extend your wardrobe’s lifetime and your brain predicts what you hear.

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Artificial photosynthesis for clean and storable energy

Photosynthesis is one of the most fundamental processes for enabling organic life. Mimicking this biological process might be a promising approach to answer humanity’s call for clean and storable energy. And might help our fight against climate change. Research from Germany makes the step towards facilitating “artificial photosynthesis”. For the first time, the researchers were successful in splitting water into hydrogen fuel and oxygen through a novel catalyst based on semiconductor nanoparticles and thus mimicking biological photosynthesis. Read more

 

Squid genes used for self-healing fabrics

Know this sad moment when you have to let go of your most beloved clothing because it just doesn’t look nice anymore? An innovation from Tandem Repeat may save your wardrobe – with the help of squids! The team isolated particular squid genes that turn into fibers with self-healing features after a process of biofermentation. Those fibers can be then turned into a coating used for clothing with the effect of greatly increasing their lifetime and ultimately minimizing the textile industry’s significant environmental impact. Read more

 

Your brain syncs and predicts what you hear

There is a scientific reason for you and your partner being able to finish each other’s sentences: According to the latest research, the way we hear words is influenced by the speed another person is talking to us. Our brain waives sync with that speed rate. By ‘syncing‘, our brain predicts what syllables come next, influencing what we process and what words we ultimately hear. Those insights will significantly help improve the perception of speech in adverse listening conditions as well as for the hearing impaired. Read more