Universal-Sci Weekly - Issue #90
Greetings dear subscribers,
Welcome to this week's Universal-Sci newsletter, your snapshot of the most captivating scientific developments.
This week we kick off with a fascinating discovery of how ants have achieved their global domination, followed by an innovative thermal cloak designed to enhance electric vehicle battery longevity. We then dive into the world of bioengineering, with the creation of infinitely recyclable plastic by microbes, a significant stride towards sustainability followed up by a story about potential life on icy worlds and self healing metals.
Stay curious and enjoy the five most interesting articles from our feed of the past week.
Scientists finally discovered how ants took over nearly the entire planet
The world is teeming with an estimated 14,000 species of ants that, taken together, number in the quadrillions! These ubiquitous insects have spread across all continents except for the frozen expanse of Antarctica, marking an incredible evolutionary success story.
Researchers Developed an All-Season Thermal Cloak That promises to improve EV Battery Longevity
Electric vehicles parked outside are subject to drastic temperature changes from day to night and across different seasons, leading to potential battery degradation. In order to mitigate these temperature swings and enhance battery longevity, a team of researchers has created an all-season thermal cloak.
A Breakthrough in Bioengineering! Infinite Recycling of Plastics Made by Microbes
Scientists from the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory engineer microbes to create an infinitely recyclable plastic, setting the stage for a sustainable future.
Could there be alien life right beneath the surface of icy worlds like Enceladus and Europa?
For decades, scientists have been speculating that life could exist in beneath the icy surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa. Thanks to more recent missions (like the Cassini spacecraft), other moons and bodies have been added to this list as well – including Titan, Enceladus, Dione, Triton, Ceres and Pluto. In all cases, it is believed that this life would exist in interior oceans, most likely around hydrorthermal vents located at the core-mantle boundary.
Revolutionary Discovery: Self-Healing Metals Are No Longer Science Fiction
The prospect of metal that can self-repair without any human intervention may seem like a plot from a science fiction story, but a team of scientists at Texas A&M University and Sandia National Laboratories have observed pieces of metal crack, then fuse back together without any human intervention, challenges and redefines basic scientific principles.
This opens up the exciting future possibility of self-repairing infrastructure, such as bridges, planes, and engines.
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