Latest news with #CEMS
Asahi Shimbun
2 days ago
- Science
- Asahi Shimbun
Scientists in Japan develop plastic that dissolves in seawater within hours
A researcher shows a sample of ocean-degradable plastic at the Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS) of Japanese research institution Riken in Wako, Saitama Prefecture, on May 27. (REUTERS) WAKO, Saitama Prefecture--Researchers in Japan have developed a plastic that dissolves in seawater within hours, offering up a potential solution for a modern-day scourge polluting oceans and harming wildlife. While scientists have long experimented with biodegradable plastics, researchers from the RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science and the University of Tokyo say their new material breaks down much more quickly and leaves no residual trace. At a lab in Wako city near Tokyo, the team demonstrated a small piece of plastic vanishing in a container of salt water after it was stirred up for about an hour. While the team has not yet detailed any plans for commercialization, project lead Takuzo Aida said their research has attracted significant interest, including from those in the packaging sector. Scientists worldwide are racing to develop innovative solutions to the growing plastic waste crisis, an effort championed by awareness campaigns such as World Environment Day taking place on June 5. Plastic pollution is set to triple by 2040, the U.N. Environment Program has predicted, adding 23-37 million metric tons of waste into the world's oceans each year. 'Children cannot choose the planet they will live on. It is our duty as scientists to ensure that we leave them with best possible environment,' Aida said. Aida said the new material is as strong as petroleum-based plastics but breaks down into its original components when exposed to salt. Those components can then be further processed by naturally occurring bacteria, thereby avoiding generating microplastics that can harm aquatic life and enter the food chain. As salt is also present in soil, a piece about five centimeters (two inches) in size disintegrates on land after over 200 hours, he added. The material can be used like regular plastic when coated, and the team are focusing their current research on the best coating methods, Aida said. The plastic is non-toxic, non-flammable, and does not emit carbon dioxide, he added.
The Star
2 days ago
- Health
- The Star
Japan scientists develop plastic that dissolves in seawater within hours
The sample of colored ocean-degradable plastic being stirred and dissolved in saltywater is seen during a demonstration at the Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS) of Japanese research institution Riken in Wako, Saitama Prefecture, Japan May 27, 2025. - Reuters WAKO, Japan: Researchers in Japan have developed a plastic that dissolves in seawater within hours, offering up a potential solution for a modern-day scourge polluting oceans and harming wildlife. While scientists have long experimented with biodegradable plastics, researchers from the Riken Center for Emergent Matter Science and the University of Tokyo say their new material breaks down much more quickly and leaves no residual trace. At a lab in Wako city near Tokyo, the team demonstrated a small piece of plastic vanishing in a container of salt water after it was stirred up for about an hour. While the team has not yet detailed any plans for commercialisation, project lead Takuzo Aida said their research has attracted significant interest, including from those in the packaging sector. Scientists worldwide are racing to develop innovative solutions to the growing plastic waste crisis, an effort championed by awareness campaigns such as World Environment Day taking place on June 5. Plastic pollution is set to triple by 2040, the UN Environment Programme has predicted, adding 23-37 million metric tons of waste into the world's oceans each year. "Children cannot choose the planet they will live on. It is our duty as scientists to ensure that we leave them with best possible environment," Aida said. Aida said the new material is as strong as petroleum-based plastics but breaks down into its original components when exposed to salt. Those components can then be further processed by naturally occurring bacteria, thereby avoiding generating microplastics that can harm aquatic life and enter the food chain. As salt is also present in soil, a piece about five centimetres (two inches) in size disintegrates on land after over 200 hours, he added. The material can be used like regular plastic when coated, and the team are focusing their current research on the best coating methods, Aida said. The plastic is non-toxic, non-flammable, and does not emit carbon dioxide, he added. - Reuters
Malay Mail
4 days ago
- Health
- Malay Mail
More acid, less oxygen: Scientists say Earth's ‘blue ally' buckling hard and fast under climate strain
PARIS, June 2 — Oceans have absorbed the vast majority of the warming caused by burning fossil fuels and shielded societies from the full impact of greenhouse gas emissions. But this crucial ally has developed alarming symptoms of stress – heatwaves, loss of marine life, rising sea levels, falling oxygen levels and acidification caused by the uptake of excess carbon dioxide. These effects risk not just the health of the ocean but the entire planet. Heating up By absorbing more than 90 per cent of the excess heat trapped in the atmosphere by greenhouse gases, 'oceans are warming faster and faster', said Angelique Melet, an oceanographer at the European Mercator Ocean monitor. The UN's IPCC climate expert panel has said the rate of ocean warming – and therefore its heat uptake – has more than doubled since 1993. Average sea surface temperatures reached new records in 2023 and 2024. Despite a respite at the start of 2025, temperatures remain at historic highs, according to data from the Europe Union's Copernicus climate monitor. The Mediterranean has set a new temperature record in each of the past three years and is one of the basins most affected, along with the North Atlantic and Arctic oceans, said Thibault Guinaldo, of France's CEMS research centre. Marine heatwaves have doubled in frequency, become longer lasting and more intense, and affect a wider area, the IPCC said in its special oceans report. Warmer seas can make storms more violent, feeding them with heat and evaporated water. The heating water can also be devastating for species, especially corals and seagrass beds, which are unable to migrate. For corals, between 70 per cent and 90 per cent are expected to be lost this century if the world reaches 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming compared to pre-industrial levels. Scientists expect that threshold -- the more ambitious goal of the Paris climate deal -- to be breached in the early 2030s or even before. Relentless rise When a liquid or gas warms up, it expands and takes up more space. In the case of the oceans, this thermal expansion combines with the slow but irreversible melting of the world's ice caps and mountain glaciers to lift the world's seas. The pace at which global oceans are rising has doubled in three decades and if current trends continue it will double again by 2100 to about one centimetre per year, according to recent research. Around 230 million people worldwide live less than a metre above sea level, vulnerable to increasing threats from floods and storms. 'Ocean warming, like sea-level rise, has become an inescapable process on the scale of our lives, but also over several centuries,' said Melet. 'But if we reduce greenhouse gas emissions, we will reduce the rate and magnitude of the damage, and gain time for adaptation'. This picture shows the head of a probe analysing the acidity of water at the French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea as carbon dioxide emitted by human activities changes the chemical composition of the oceans, making the water more corrosive and complicating the life and growth of calcareous organisms like oysters, crabs, sea urchins, lobsters, and corals. — AFP pic More acidity, less oxygen The ocean not only stores heat, it has also taken up 20 to 30 per cent of all humans' carbon dioxide emissions since the 1980s, according to the IPCC, causing the waters to become more acidic. Acidification weakens corals and makes it harder for shellfish and the skeletons of crustaceans and certain plankton to calcify. 'Another key indicator is oxygen concentration, which is obviously important for marine life,' said Melet. Oxygen loss is due to a complex set of causes including those linked to warming waters. Reduced sea ice Combined Arctic and Antarctic sea ice cover – frozen ocean water that floats on the surface – plunged to a record low in mid-February, more than a million square miles below the pre-2010 average. This becomes a vicious circle, with less sea ice allowing more solar energy to reach and warm the water, leading to more ice melting. This feeds the phenomenon of 'polar amplification' that makes global warming faster and more intense at the poles, said Guinaldo. — AFP
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Oceans feel the heat from human climate pollution
Oceans have absorbed the vast majority of the warming caused by burning fossil fuels and shielded societies from the full impact of greenhouse gas emissions. But this crucial ally has developed alarming symptoms of stress -- heatwaves, loss of marine life, rising sea levels, falling oxygen levels and acidification caused by the uptake of excess carbon dioxide. These effects risk not just the health of the ocean but the entire planet. - Heating up - By absorbing more than 90 percent of the excess heat trapped in the atmosphere by greenhouse gases, "oceans are warming faster and faster", said Angelique Melet, an oceanographer at the European Mercator Ocean monitor. The UN's IPCC climate expert panel has said the rate of ocean warming -- and therefore its heat uptake -- has more than doubled since 1993. Average sea surface temperatures reached new records in 2023 and 2024. Despite a respite at the start of 2025, temperatures remain at historic highs, according to data from the Europe Union's Copernicus climate monitor. The Mediterranean has set a new temperature record in each of the past three years and is one of the basins most affected, along with the North Atlantic and Arctic oceans, said Thibault Guinaldo, of France's CEMS research centre. Marine heatwaves have doubled in frequency, become longer lasting and more intense, and affect a wider area, the IPCC said in its special oceans report. Warmer seas can make storms more violent, feeding them with heat and evaporated water. The heating water can also be devastating for species, especially corals and seagrass beds, which are unable to migrate. For corals, between 70 percent and 90 percent are expected to be lost this century if the world reaches 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming compared to pre-industrial levels. Scientists expect that threshold -- the more ambitious goal of the Paris climate deal -- to be breached in the early 2030s or even before. - Relentless rise - When a liquid or gas warms up, it expands and takes up more space. In the case of the oceans, this thermal expansion combines with the slow but irreversible melting of the world's ice caps and mountain glaciers to lift the world's seas. The pace at which global oceans are rising has doubled in three decades and if current trends continue it will double again by 2100 to about one centimetre per year, according to recent research. Around 230 million people worldwide live less than a metre above sea level, vulnerable to increasing threats from floods and storms. "Ocean warming, like sea-level rise, has become an inescapable process on the scale of our lives, but also over several centuries," said Melet. "But if we reduce greenhouse gas emissions, we will reduce the rate and magnitude of the damage, and gain time for adaptation". - More acidity, less oxygen - The ocean not only stores heat, it has also taken up 20 to 30 percent of all humans' carbon dioxide emissions since the 1980s, according to the IPCC, causing the waters to become more acidic. Acidification weakens corals and makes it harder for shellfish and the skeletons of crustaceans and certain plankton to calcify. "Another key indicator is oxygen concentration, which is obviously important for marine life," said Melet. Oxygen loss is due to a complex set of causes including those linked to warming waters. - Reduced sea ice - Combined Arctic and Antarctic sea ice cover -- frozen ocean water that floats on the surface -- plunged to a record low in mid-February, more than a million square miles below the pre-2010 average. This becomes a vicious circle, with less sea ice allowing more solar energy to reach and warm the water, leading to more ice melting. This feeds the phenomenon of "polar amplification" that makes global warming faster and more intense at the poles, said Guinaldo. bl/klm/mh/phz
Yahoo
5 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Uber driver shot outside Columbia, Ill. police station; Four arrested
COLUMBIA, Ill. – An Uber passenger shot his driver overnight after the driver diverted to the Columbia, Illinois, police station while being held at gunpoint, police say. The driver, a 52-year-old man, suffered critical injuries, but he is expected to survive, according to the Columbia Police Department. Four suspects have since been arrested in connection with the case. The events under investigation occurred around 2:30 a.m. Saturday during a ride from north St. Louis and Columbia, Illinois. Sheriff's Dept. turns over findings in daycare death to Prosecuting Attorney's Office Authorities say the Uber driver went to pick up two passengers, a 20-year-old man and 17-year-old boy, at an undisclosed location in north St. Louis. Shortly after getting into the vehicle, one passenger pulled a gun and ordered the driver to drive to his home in Columbia, Illinois. The driver initially complied with the order, but upon entering Columbia, he diverted to the local police station parking lot to seek assistance. Moments later, one suspect fired a shot and struck the driver in the face. Both passengers then ran out of the vehicle toward Bolm-Schuhkraft City Park. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now A short time later, a Columbia dispatcher, CEMS crews and several officers provided on-scene medical aid for the driver, then rushed him to a hospital. Shortly after that, Columbia police launched a search operation for the suspects using drones and K-9 units. Eventually, police tracked two suspects running through the woods and getting into a silver SUV. Police then conducted a traffic stop, leading to the arrests of four people, including the two suspects believed to be passengers in the Uber driver's car. Police also seized a gun from the SUV that was believed to be used in the shooting. The Columbia Police Department says charges are pending and it working closely with the Monroe County State's Attorney. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
