Every year, over 100 billion nitrile rubber gloves are produced. They are made from synthetic polymers—a material chemically related to plastic and derived from crude oil. The vast majority is used in the health care sector, and most are discarded after single use. This creates a massive amount of material waste globally. However, Simon Kildahl, a postdoc at the Department of Chemistry at Aarhus University, has moved a step closer to a way of recycling these gloves. In a new study published in the journal Chem, he and his colleagues demonstrate how they can transform waste rubber into a CO2 adsorbent in the laboratory. The potential, he explains, is significant.

At newly colonized high-elevation sites in the central Italian Apennines, female Daubenton's bats take turns using the same hunting spots instead of feeding side by side. A study published by a research team from the University of Naples Federico II, Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, and several international partner institutions in the journal Global Ecology and Conservation shows that this fine-scale temporal partitioning helps the bats avoid competition and may be crucial for surviving at the cold edge of a climate-driven range expansion.

Our bodies are home to millions of fungi that, for the most part, are completely harmless. However, they can sometimes change from peaceful residents into dangerous invaders. One such is Candida parapsilosis, which normally lives on our skin or in our intestinal tract but can also be found on medical devices and hospital surfaces. If it gets into a wound or onto a catheter, it can cause a serious blood infection.

A study by the UAB and the University of A Coruña has succeeded in demonstrating the existence of Roman-era alluvial gold mines in the Eastern Pyrenees. The discovery was made possible by dating two samples from the infill levels of the hydraulic structures at the Guilleteres d'All mines using new luminescence techniques (OSL), yielding a chronology of around the 3rd–4th centuries CE. This calculation fully confirms the Roman origin of the structure and allows confirming for the first time the exploitation of Pyrenean gold by the Romans in this region. The work is published in the journal Land.

Early mammalian ancestors were nocturnal, sleeping during the day while the dinosaurs dominated the land. However, some mammalian lineages, including human ancestors, independently transitioned to diurnality (active during the day). Scientists have now discovered why humans are not nocturnal. A new study published in Science reveals that the answer is in the genes.

For nearly two decades, two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors have been studied as a complement or possible successor to silicon transistors, promising smaller, faster and more energy-efficient processors. To ease their production and testing process, much of the field has been benchmarking the potential of 2D semiconductors using an architecture that causes a phenomenon called "contact gating."

Recent decades have witnessed rapid advancements in high-intensity laser technology. The combination of laser irradiation and novel materials is opening exciting avenues for the design of functional materials and devices. Semiconductors are ideal platforms for generating laser-driven functionalities because they can exhibit novel features such as ultrafast optical transparency. This effect arises from electronic occupation redistribution driven by ultrafast excitation, which manifests as a phenomenon called transient Pauli blocking.

A study reveals how two proteins cooperate in a key early step of antiviral detection, as reported by researchers at Science Tokyo. Using cryo-electron microscopy and high-speed atomic force microscopy, they found that LGP2 binds to viral RNA and recruits MDA5 molecules, as if threading beads on a string. This creates a scaffold that facilitates the formation of a large signaling complex, which ultimately triggers an innate immune response.

Preserving quantum information is key to developing useful quantum computing systems. But interacting quantum systems are chaotic and follow laws of thermodynamics, eventually leading to information loss. Physicists have long known of a strange exception, called dynamical freezing, when quantum systems shaken at precisely tuned frequencies evade these laws. But how long can this phenomenon postpone thermodynamics?

This week, astronomers reported that one of the biggest observed stars in the universe could soon explode. A study compared long-term COVID-19 brain effects to the flu. And a new eco-friendly battery could theoretically last for centuries (or for several hours if you put it into a Steam Deck, haha).